Cooking up success – Eat Drink West

Creative chef behind taste sensations Moon Moon & Mountain and Winner Winner takes on new challenge with Ragazzone.

 

GROWING up in a regional pub, Liam Downes recalls spending his days and nights helping his parents in the kitchen pub.

“MY parents moved up to Greendale, near Ballan, when I was young and I grew up living in the Greendale Hotel, helping mum and dad in the kitchen,” Downes said.

“From a young age I had dreams of being a chef.”

Fast forward to today, and Downes is marking his 19th year in the hospitality industry. “But I helped mum for years before that!” he said.

Downes is the executive chef at local favourites Moon & Mountain and Winner Winner.

The eateries are highly coveted in Ballarat, with Moon & Mountain acclaimed for its contemporary twist on Asian cuisine, and Winner Winner known for its take on American diner dishes forged around succulent, deep-fried chicken.

Downes said he came across the opportunity to work at Moon & Mountain through good friend and fellow Ballarat chef Shannon Easton.

“I was working at Craig’s Royal Hotel at the time and he had been talking to [Moon & Mountain owner] Teddy Powlett about a restaurant he was looking to open,” he said.

“So we caught up for coffee and it felt great straight away. Our views of the industry and how we want to provide strong hospitality careers for people in Ballarat is what drives us.

“Teddy has an amazing knowledge of bar and hospitality and a great eye for designing and creating fantastic restaurants.”

This month, Teddy Powlett and his partner in business Drew Harry will open their next Ballarat venture, Ragazzone, with Downes again set to be executive chef.

With a focus on Italian cuisine and fine wine, Downes said he was eagerly anticipating the opening of this latest enterprise.

“I have cooked European or Italian food most of my career, so getting a chance to do that sort of food for these boys is exciting,” he said.

“We are aiming for it to be the place to get handmade pasta and drink quality wines in Ballarat. The venue will draw on all our experience and aim to provide good service, quality food and amazing wine and cocktails.”

Between Downes and head chef Paul Sing, the Ragazzone kitchen will be led by a combined 40 years of experience.

Downes said Ragazzone would serve food that couldn’t be experienced elsewhere in Ballarat.

“We will be hand making all our pasta, using local cured meats and making some ourselves, we will have a big focus on seafood and will use as much local produce as possible,” he said.

While the COVID-19 restrictions definitely presented some challenges, it clearly hasn’t stopped the culinary hattrick from proceeding for Downes and his team.

He said he was blown away by everyone’s ability to continue providing high quality food amidst such uncertainty.

“With some tweaks and hard work we were able to transition to a take-away model that worked really well,” Downes said.

“We were able to keep nearly all our staff employed, which was our main goal in moving to a take away venue.

“The support we had from the Ballarat community was amazing and we had to turn away about 50 orders in the third night, which was hard but we were overwhelmed with the amount of support we received!”

Visit Eat Drink West here.