JULIAN Chew is talking excitedly about his latest creation – a mouth-watering slow-cooked chilli-marinated pulled pork taco – as he sits out the front of his Ivanhoe cafe, Lip.
After a visit to Mamasita – Melbourne’s wildly popular Mexican restaurant of the moment – Chew perfected his own version of their food, right down to making his own tortillas.
Tucked away in a quiet Waterdale Road shopping strip, Lip is a bustling little cafe that Chew and his wife, Tammy, opened two years ago. While it took a year for the business to take off, Lip is now doing a brisk trade, bringing great coffee and great food to a suburb not known for its eateries.
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO OF JULIAN CHEW'S VIETNAMESE GRILLED CHICKEN.
Chew, 30, went on a roundabout journey to becoming a chef and cafe owner. Born to Malaysian Chinese parents, he grew up in the UK and Malaysia until he moved to Sydney at age 11. ‘‘My family was always obsessed with food,’’ he says.
When he lived in Malaysia, Chew had a nanny who cooked for him. In Sydney, he explored restaurants on dining trips with his parents. At 16, he began cooking for himself, swore off university and started an apprenticeship in fine dining with celebrated chef Matt Moran. After a hectic two years, Chew decided to take a break from hospitality and moved to Melbourne to study interior design. When the global financial crisis hit, he found himself out of work and decided to return to his roots.
Chew took jobs as a kitchen hand in a string of cafes, including North Fitzroy bakery cafe Loafer Bread, and gradually began thinking about opening his own.
Originally, he looked at opening a cafe in the inner north but when he moved to Ivanhoe, he found himself having to drive to go out for breakfast or lunch.
‘‘I began to wonder why there weren’t any cafes around here. So I decided if I couldn’t do it in Fitzroy, I could bring Fitzroy to Ivanhoe. I tried to recreate everything I would want in a local cafe.’’
Chew’s wife, Tammy – an artist and interior designer – came to work in the business as well. It is her eye for detail that gives Lip its character – colourful prints, recycled and rediscovered furniture and hand-drawn illustrations on recipe cards.
Chew’s interior design background helped him to think of the cafe as a concept, rather than focusing on the food. But inevitably, the food is the main ingredient in the cafe.
While he serves all the usual brunch favourites – including the popular ‘‘mini-Lip’’ of poached eggs, bacon and avocado piled on a slice of dukkah-sprinkled sourdough – Chew was not content to stick with standard cafe fare. His specials menu is full of exotic and experimental cooking inspired by his background and culinary adventures, such as a Vietnamese grilled chicken marinated with lemongrass and chilli, a rich fragrant Thai beef and eggplant Penang curry and Mexican corn fritters with avocado salsa.
Adding to the list of global influences is the name of the cafe, an abbreviation of “life in Provence”. Chew says he is inspired by the Provencal ethos of home-cooking and making things from scratch. Although there is no French fare on the menu, with dishes this diverse it may only be a matter of time.
Lip Café, 226 Waterdale Road, Ivanhoe, call 9499 1162 or visit lipcafe.com.au
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