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Tassie Tales: Vince Trim

The New Zealand-born chef moved to Lutruwita/Tasmania in 2009 and now heads up the kitchens at Mona, a gig that now includes five venues, plus festival events like Dark Mofo’s Winter Feast. A keen mountain bike rider, Vince has since built a life grounded equally in the state’s bush tracks and its kitchens.

Words

As told to Nola James

It’s a real privilege to live in Tassie, I reckon. It’s such a beautiful place and we’re so close to our environment. Living in West Hobart, I’m literally 100 metres away from the bush and mountain bike tracks. It’s the climate, too. Being a Kiwi, I love a proper cold winter!

Moving here 16 years ago and working at Mona was the beginning of the most amazing journey a cook could have the luck to fall into, and one I am sure has significantly influenced the way I feel about Tassie.

We work with a ‘low-waste’ philosophy. We cook for around 380,000 guests a year [between Faro, Heavy Metal Kitchen, The Source and Moorilla Wine Bar] – that’s a huge amount of food. For us, it’s figuring out how to minimise waste, re-use and recycle. A big part of it is the financial side, too. Putting something in the bin that you could use for something else is crazy, with the cost of goods now.

Not using farmed animals is also a considerable part of what we do here, though it’s very much a journey – one we’re still learning about. Tasmania’s venison is exceptional, particularly when paired with native mountain pepper, if you’re lucky enough to find it. [Wild venison, which is sourced from Lenah Game Meats, is one of the few animal proteins on the menu at Mona.]

Everyone loves abalone and crayfish, which really are special, but I think that striped trumpeter is underrated. It’s a bigger fish, about the size of a small to medium blue-eye cod. They have a stripe on one side, hence the name, and are found in deep water off the coast. With firm, white flesh, you can cook just about anything with it! It’s beautiful in curries or simply grilled over charcoal. It’s even delicious as sashimi – it has a beautiful opalesque translucency, when it’s super fresh.

If I have a couple of days off, we go up to Derby for mountain biking. There’s a campsite, and we’ve got a few mates who have shacks up there. You get a shuttle to the top, hold on tight, and hope you make it to the bottom! Everything else disappears when you’re on the bike – your focus has to be right there in front of you. It’s a great way to be present.

A while ago, we stayed at Currawong Lakes [a wilderness retreat at Lake Leake]. There’s a guy called Chris Lucas, a private chef on the East Coast, who cooked us an amazing meal there. He cooks hyper-locally, working with farmers for seafood and meat, and he has his own garden.

Currawong Lakes wilderness escape near Lake Leake
Credit: Ness Vanderburgh

Derby's mountain bike tracks
Credit: Revolution MTB

Next on the list for an amazing meal out, I’d like to see what [ex-Franklin chef] David Moyle is doing up at the Waterloo Inn. To get David back in the state [after almost 10 years back on the mainland]? I have to know how that happened!

When friends visit, it’s really about showing off what’s right on our doorstep. We’ll go to Mona, obviously, and it’s beautiful to walk around the waterfront. If you have a few hours, do the North-South Track on kunanyi/Mount Wellington, which starts at The Springs and ends up in Tolosa.

We did the Overland Track about 12 months ago. That was the most extraordinary thing that we’ve done in Tassie – it was mind blowing. I’ve also done the Three Capes, which is beautiful, but I am petrified of heights. The Overland, it’s a serious walk, but there are fewer cliffs!