Staff profile: Alan Andrews
Chef Alan Andrews is intense. Originally studying industrial design and architecture, he thought cooking was his side-hustle. Then Melbourne’s infamous series of lockdowns started and Alan decided there was more grunt in the kitchen than the workshop.
Alan started his apprenticeship at Warrandyte’s Olivigna and Golden Hills Brewery in Diamond Creek, before completing his third year at Little Black Pig & Sons.
It was at Little Black Pig that Alan discovered his professional persona. In all his previous chef roles, the focus was solely on cooking – he could afford to be introverted. But at Little Black Pig & Sons, the focus is on customer interaction. Alan describes struggling to speak with guests at first, “It was intimidating, I wasn’t sure of myself when I started. What we do at Little Black Pig is unorthodox – chefs don’t normally have to perform front of house.”
“Interacting with customers means recognising them, remembering their meals, asking about their families,” Alan explains. “After the renovations last year, people started recognising me in the open kitchen.”
On working with David, Alan said “I see how he talks to people. He’s always so confident, so I ask him questions and watch him work. His mind is going all the time – he’s always tracking what’s happening on the floor and the plates. David’s philosophy is to get 1% better every day. 1% better in service, 1% better in the kitchen. That’s now my philosophy.”
“Little Black Pig unlocked that potential in me.”
“I knew I had more in me,” Alan reflects. “David unlocked a secret code within myself. And just like our menu, I’m always evolving.”
Alan mused that the work at Little Black Pig is unconventional. In a restaurant where no salt is added to the pasta water because chef always seasons the ragù, steaks aren’t rested because chef always cooks to just under, and garlic and onion are always cooked to almost caramelised (for flavour, chef!), it can be a difficult path for any young chef to follow. With dockets flying, searing pans, hot ovens, sharp knives slicing blistering meats and confit vegetables, best results come from remembering that there is always a “right way” to do things in the Little Black Pig kitchen.
“David doesn’t stop cooking – he’s constantly moving. At Little Black Pig the kitchen doesn’t stop. In this style of service, when the dockets are flying you have to move seamlessly between sections. In other restaurants, sections are allocated to specific chefs, but at Little Black Pig you do everything and you move everywhere.”
“In this kitchen, if one of us goes down, we all go down.”
“I’m always checking on the younger members of the kitchen,” Alan said. “If the apprentice suffers, the whole restaurant’s going to suffer. Everyone has a role in David’s kitchen. Every person is a key piece of the puzzle. That’s how we’re able to communicate to front of house how many portions of red emperor we have left, or how many pieces of agnolotti del plin are left from this morning’s prep. In other kitchens, often people don’t communicate. Here the whole team plays a part – from the kitchenhand to the Maître D’.”
“At Little Black Pig, I have to know exactly what’s happening,” Alan continues. “I see a docket and it gets imprinted in my head. First course, second course, and I know third course needs to hit the pass. I can see the customer – they’re a big lad, they’re going to smash that food, so third course needs to come soon. I can tell if they’re hungry by watching their face, watching their eyes. If something doesn’t look right on the docket but front of house is busy, I can tell straight away. I can read the signs.”
“We’re catering to the customer, not just the docket.”
On life since the restaurant renovations: “We go through more numbers now. We’ve gone from 120 people per week to two times that post-renovations.”
On his favourite dish at Little Black Pig: “Tartlets, all of them. David will give me the creative brief (one week it was rockmelon and kohlrabi, this week it’s yellow fin tuna and fennel), and David says, make it happen. We’re always trying to pair new flavours, new textures and different types of cooking methods, like filling tartlets with salt-baked celeriac purée for texture and depth. We try to maximise each ingredient in different ways across multiple dishes, to magnify the ingredient across the menu.”
Reflecting on other professional opportunities, “Competing in ‘Proud to be a Chef’ gave me more confidence to talk to people and to film myself for social media content.”
And on eating out? “When I eat out, I write down what’s on my plate. I’m trying to remember menu ideas. How can I make what I do better?”
Visit Little Black Pig & Sons for dinner Wednesday to Saturday, or for lunch Thursday, Friday and Sunday.