In conversation with… Matt Wilkinson

For a man who hails from South Yorkshire, England, chef Matt Wilkinson has an unparalleled love for Australia. Then again, you could drop this green-thumbed chef into any corner of the world and he would, no doubt, create dishes that sing of their surrounding land.

The Pope Joan founder and creative director of Four Pillars Gin now boasts another role, that of the self-titled Culinary Captain at the Mornington Peninsula’s Montalto. Working amid the estate’s lush three-acre kitchen garden, Wilkinson may well have found his home away from home. Here, EatWell talks to the chef about his accidental journey into the food world, the power of growing and the joy in sharing a meal with loved ones.

Matt, tell us about your journey into the food world. Where did it begin and how?

It’s a funny story really as I hated cooking to begin with. My parents split when I was little and my father moved above a pub where I started working from a young age. When I left school, I wanted to run a pub but at the age of 16 I couldn’t drink, let alone manage a pub, so I did a hospitality management course. Part of the course was spending one day in the kitchen, which I hated, but my tutor John Stevenson (a former chef) saw something in me and arranged for me to go to work at a boutique hotel on the outskirts of London where his son was the sous chef. It was a two-week placement during which I was supposed to do one week front of house and one week in the kitchen. The crafty old bugger organised two weeks in the kitchen, and after day one I was hooked. The next morning after my first night’s service, I got called into the office with the head chef and general manager of the hotel. Now no good had ever come of me being called into an office before, so it was to my great surprise that they sat me down and offered me a job. I started one month later and have never looked back.