Tassie Tales: Lilly Trewartha
A private chef who travels the state cooking fine Japanese-influenced cuisine, Lilly Trewartha – best known for her pop-up series Izakaya Temporary – is most at home underwater.
My favourite thing about living in Tasmania is nature. The accessibility to the beautiful ocean... I love the ocean and all things to do with water, even if it is very cold!
What inspires me most are the produce and the food. As a chef, the local community of producers here is second to none. I don’t think there are many places in the world where chefs would know all the growers they work with by name. Aiden [Jackson] catches the fish, Mike and Lauren [from Felds Farm] grow the vegetables. There’s just this connection to everything you’re serving; it’s an understanding that’s truly special.
My sister lived in Japan when I was a teenager, and every year I would go over and visit her in the school holidays. That really inspired a lot of what Izakaya Temporary is today. I think of it as like a love letter to 15-year-old me. It’s nostalgia, paired with training in restaurants such as Peg [in London] and Garagistes [in Hobart], and the local produce we have here in Tasmania. I try and go to Japan once a year now, because it’s such an amazing part of the world and there is always something new to learn.
I dive a lot for my personal cooking; we eat a lot of abalone, scallops and crayfish. Quite often I go with Stephen Peak [the head chef at Agrarian Kitchen in New Norfolk]. You have to go with someone – I trained as a dive master, and I used to teach on Lord Howe Island a long time ago – for safety, and it’s more fun to go with friends.
Not having a boat, I am always looking for an easily accessible spot. It’s often a day trip to the Tessellated Pavement [in Eaglehawk Neck], or down to Southport. The best thing after a long dive is an abalone roll. We get fluffy white rolls from a local bakery and take a little gas burner to cook the abalone with garlic and butter.
With a recreational licence, you can take up to 10 abalone per person, but I don’t ever take that much. Just one or two! It’s just more sustainable. With a recreational crayfish licence, you can take two crays [from the water; crayfish pots are licensed separately], but you’ve got to be pretty fast for that.
Two of the most amazing places I have ever cooked are Satellite Island and Flinders Island. I grew up in Gordon, down the channel, and as a kid I could see Satellite Island, but I never went there. It’s very nostalgic to cook there; I always feel like I am going home.
Cooking out on Flinders Island recently with Jo Youl, the owner of [restaurant and providore] The Flinders Wharf was such an incredible experience. We met with local vegetable farmers and wrote the menu based on what they had. We did karaage wallaby instead of karaage chicken (a popular Japanese dish), because they have the wallaby processing facility there. I caught whiting for the first time on Flinders Island; we don’t really have that in southern Tassie. And the crayfish are massive!
When friends visit, I try and take them out to Bruny Island – it’s a really great day trip, and the ferry is so quick from Kettering. We sometimes take the dive gear, but you have to get some oysters from Get Shucked, plus The Izzy Bar does great woodfired pizza. It’s just a really well-rounded Tassie day.
Lilly’s quick Tassie top 10
1. Favourite coffee spot
Sunbear Coffee, Collins Street, Hobart
2. Favourite bakery
Summer Kitchen
3. Favourite restaurant
Agrarian Kitchen
4. Favourite cinema
The State cinema in North Hobart
5. Favourite place to shop
Fullers Bookshop, Collins Street, Hobart
6. Favourite exercise spot
Hustle Street Gym, Liverpool Street, Hobart
7. Favourite market
Farm Gate Market, Bathurst Street, Hobart
8. Favourite tourist spot
The Tasman Peninsula
9. Favourite view
Kunanyi/Mount Wellington
10. Favourite gallery/museum
Mona