At Esmay, Alanna Sapwell has found a home for her collaborative, sentimental style of cooking. We spoke to the renowned chef to find out more about how Esmay’s food reflects the heart of our state, and the people behind it
Nostalgia is baked into Esmay. Founded by celebrated chef Alanna Sapwell, the restaurant originally started as a pop-up in Noosa before touring the country. Though Adelaide didn’t make the original itinerary, Esmay officially set down permanent roots here last year, thanks to a proffering from Blanco Horner. A home was found in the heritage-listed Hackney Hotel, with a considered revamp that has retained a lot of the building’s original features. That, along with the restaurant’s namesake in Alanna’s 1972 Volkswagen, have made it the perfect place for her “nanna” style of cuisine.
“Good cooking doesn’t always have to be complicated,” says the chef. Her nostalgic style got its start when she was working in Arnhem Land, a remote reserve about 500km east of Darwin. “I was cooking solo for 30 men: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and dessert.” To simplify, Alanna started digging up recipes from her great-grandmother, Women’s Weekly and the Country Women’s Association. “There was something incredibly clever about them. They were economical with both time and money, and they made my life manageable. […] I suppose that’s where my idea of ‘feel-good food’ comes from. It’s quite multi-layered.”
Fine dining has often been synonymous with rich food—the kind that leaves you walking out of a venue feeling overfull and sluggish. But not so at Esmay. Diners will find food that is comforting, generous and bolstered with nutrient-rich ingredients. Helpfully, the South Australian landscape is all too ready to provide a bounty of such produce; Alanna particularly loves white figs and quince from Singing Magpie Produce in the Riverland, and flowering cauliflower from Common Acre on the Fleurieu Peninsula. “The seasons here feel very pronounced, which definitely keeps me on my toes and is a great change of pace,” she says. “I’m already excited, heading into our second year, to see certain ingredients return, as sometimes their window is so short.”
The restaurant is informed by an in-season, local-first ethos, which means that the menu is always changing. “Some changes happen day to day, depending on what we can get our hands on,” says Alanna. “We work closely with small-scale producers, and the weather often has the final say, particularly when it comes to seafood. […] I find that unpredictability part of the fun.” Most dishes begin with an ingredient at its peak; from there, the team play the game of problem-solving, exploring how best to represent it. “And, of course, it has to be bloody delicious,” says Alanna.
A lot of the staff at Esmay—and the venue itself—are raking in big awards at the moment, which is a testament to Alanna’s leadership style. Though ‘personality hire’ is often slung around as a negative term, the attitude-first philosophy she cooked up at Arc Dining has formed the backbone of Esmay’s success.
“I’m proud as punch of the team, of what they achieve individually and what we’re able to create together every day,” Alanna says. “I want to contribute to a better example of what hospitality can look and feel like. For me, that means creating a kitchen where people feel safe, supported and encouraged to develop their skills, regardless of their experience or where they’re starting from.
“We’ve seen that translate into a much more balanced kitchen in terms of gender, as well as creating opportunities for younger people, even those still at school, to get their foot in the door. To see the results of that approach in less than a year has been incredibly rewarding.”
Esmay
95 Hackney Road, Hackney
08 7077 0070