There’s a surprising thread linking some of the most exciting restaurant dishes in Victoria right now – and it’s nothing to do with chefs, ingredients or cuisine.
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it → ’ → chefs
The impeccable sardines at city newcomer Cote Basque, the juicy toum-smothered chicken kebab at Zareh in Collingwood, the buttermilk-blanched cauliflower at destination diner Barragunda Dining, and the sambar deer at three-hatted Yiaga – all can be traced back to Samuel Fraraccio, a local artisan who designs and builds bespoke wood ovens and grills for commercial kitchens.
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who → smother → kitchens
Widely known by his Instagram handle, The Brick Chef, Fraraccio was named on Monday as winner of The Age Good Food Guide’s Trailblazer Award presented by SevenRooms.
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Fraraccio → know → SevenRooms
“Sam has given everyone an ability to reimagine fire,” says Simone Watts, executive chef at Barragunda, which has just been named Regional Restaurant of the Year by the Guide.
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which → give → Guide
“Because he’s so creative, and he knows so much, you can say to him ‘I have this space, this is the cooking I like to do’ and he can create something that suits.
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that → ’ → something
He’s a fire nerd in the best possible way.”
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He → ’ → way
Two-thirds of the menu at Barragunda is touched by fire.
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thirds → touch → fire
“It’s the workhorse of our kitchen,” says Watts.
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Watts → ’ → kitchen
Fraraccio fabricates ovens and grills at his studio in Melbourne’s outer-east, then installs them in restaurant kitchens, lining them with fire-rated bricks and venting them meticulously to ensure seamless extraction.
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Fraraccio → fabricate → extraction
He focuses on safety, durability, utility and an efficient use of wood or charcoal.
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He → focus → wood
In Collingwood, Zareh’s Armenian-Lebanese kitchen is driven by a Brick Chef oven and grill.
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kitchen → drive → oven
“Sam is integral to the Melbourne, if not Australian, dining scene,” says Tom Sarafian, co-owner of the hatted restaurant, named New Restaurant of the Year in last year’s Guide.
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Sarafian → say → Guide
“His design gives us endless possibilities to create a signature style.
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design → give → style
After a year, I feel we’re just scraping the surface of how we’ll be able to cook with fire.”
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we → feel → fire
Fraraccio trained as a stonemason but grew up building mud-brick wood-fired ovens with his dad.
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Fraraccio → train → dad
“It would collapse every five years, and then we’d rebuild it slightly better each time,” he says.
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he → collapse → it
He always enjoyed hospitality, too, and found himself doing front-of-house shifts at O.My restaurant in Beaconsfield while working for a construction company.
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himself → enjoy → company
“I was a terrible waiter, but I saw the care in everything from the farm to the food to the end customer – it really triggered something in my head.
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it → see → head
I was like, ‘I love this’.”
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I → love → this
In 2017, he built his first restaurant oven at Lesa, the dining room above city wine bar Embla that closed in 2020.
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that → build → 2020
It was the first of about 130 restaurant jobs over the past decade, including many interstate.
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It → include → interstate
Anyone can buy a standard-issue grill, but that simple transaction doesn’t come with a 360-degree appreciation of a restaurant’s specific needs.
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transaction → buy → needs
Fraraccio considers the dimensions of the kitchen, the style of cuisine and the realities of cooking enough food to make the restaurant’s financials stack up.
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financials → consider → food
When Sarafian first imagined his kitchen, he pictured a simple long grill.
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he → imagine → grill
Fraraccio steered him towards a shorter rig with shelving above the fire, so that food could be cooked by indirect heat as well as fierce flame.
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food → steer → heat
“I’d watched Tom cook and I knew that hot and fast isn’t how he drives his menu,” says Fraraccio.
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Fraraccio → watch → menu
“Each chicken skewer takes 22 minutes to cook, for example.
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skewer → take → example
He is more about controlling caramelisation.
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He → control → caramelisation
”
Having multiple heights on the grill means more food can be cooked in a smaller footprint over less fuel by fewer chefs, radically improving the economics of the restaurant.
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food → have → restaurant
The Guide’s Restaurant of the Year, Yiaga, worked closely with Fraraccio on its integrated wood grill, which sits in the open kitchen concealed behind specially made brass trim and terracotta tiles.
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which → work → trim
“We could never have had this outcome using off-the-shelf products,” says executive chef Hugh Allen.
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Allen → have → products
“It was a very complex build involving Sam, the architects and numerous consultants over many months.
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It → involve → months
From a guest perspective, it looks like a fireplace in a wall.
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it → look → wall
For us, it’s what we cook everything on, and we can build racks, use different fuels.
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we → ’ → fuels
“It’s more than a piece of equipment – it comes with the maker.
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it → ’ → maker
It’s an ongoing relationship, not a transaction,” Allen adds.
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Allen → ’ → ?
Reducing fuel consumption is key to Fraraccio’s ethos.
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Reducing → reduce → ethos
His deep understanding of the “fire triangle” – the nexus of fuel, oxygen and heat – is baked into his streamlined designs.
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understanding → bake → designs
“Zareh did a full service recently and they only added one log to the fire,” he says.
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he → do → fire
The Brick Chef’s ovens have doors, which means greater control of the heating up and cooling down of the fire.
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which → have → fire
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
