With a new head chef, new co-owner and a new wine bar in the works, one-hatted Wickham restaurant Flotilla has set sail on an exciting new chapter.
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"The biggest news in Flotilla's history is that we're adding a new venue to our stable," Flotilla's resident wine and front-of-house guru Eduardo Molina says. The wine bar is expected to open in early spring and is currently being fitted out by Jason Elsley, of Derive Architecture & Design.
"We have been wanting to expand our current offering for a while and finally got our chance when the site directly next door became vacant. We're super excited to be working on a new wine bar with a banging list and snacks offering which will be coming very soon."
Adds new head chef Jake Deluca: "It's going to have strong Spanish roots, almost bodega in style, with lovely croquettes out of the fryer, cured meats and things like that".
Quietly spoken, hard working and humble, Deluca is a chef who prefers to let his food do the talking. He describes his cooking style as "Mediterranean - a lot of French, Spanish and Italian influences going on. It's what I'm interested in and reflects the places that I've worked at previously".
He has worked in kitchens including Bistro Molines, Reserve Wine Bar, London's Lorne and the Michelin-starred La Trompette. When Shayne Mansfield vacated the head chef position at Flotilla last year, Deluca applied.
"I had already been looking at what my next step was going to be. I wanted to throw myself in the deep end somewhere," he tells Weekender.
And a deep end he found.
He admits that joining Flotilla mere months after it had been awarded its first Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide "chef's hat" was a little daunting.
"There's definitely some pressure. You'd hate to be the person that lost it [the hat] for them," he says, with a hint of humour in his voice.
"It's not the worst thing in the world if we don't have a hat but keeping it is something to strive for."
Then there's Flotilla's (very) open kitchen. Another "deep end" moment. There is nowhere to hide.
"I had to re-evaluate what I was doing in the kitchen and how I did it," Deluca says.
"But even though I've been shy since I was a kid, working behind the pass is, for me, almost like being in a safe place. I feel so comfortable there. I'm almost in a trance. I feel a lot more uncomfortable once I step out of that space and go to the tables and speak to customers."
Deluca's recently launched winter menu is a triumph of seasonality where flavour is king.
"There's the classic saying that you eat with your eyes first, and we want to make that immediate impression on the customer, but at the end of the day flavour is the most important thing to us," he says.
"We're always asking for feedback, positive or negative. As a chef you can get locked in to what you think is good, and not what the customer might think is good, so it's good to get other perspectives.
"Right now we're using truffles, we're using bitter leaves, we have beetroot, and we're starting to get into a really good mushroom season so we've been using pine mushrooms and slippery jacks."
In other Flotilla news, Molina (who was named employee of the year at the inaugural Newcastle Hospitality and Tourism Awards last month) has jumped on board as a co-owner. He says it's been "an incredible time of evolution and growth" at the restaurant.
"We are in this great place where we believe we have the best team, food and beverage offering that Flotilla has had since we opened about four years ago. Everything has fallen into place," he tells Weekender.
"I was given the opportunity by Chris [Joannou] and Zach [Scholtz] to take an equal part of the business at the end of last year and it was a no-brainer for me. I truly love Flotilla for its culture, people and unbreakable drive to be better every day.
"Flotilla is my home, a place where I've gotten to meet so many beautiful people and made enough memories to last me for the next 100 years."
He says Deluca is "everything Flotilla embodies ... He is warm, passionate, smart and extremely talented. He represents the next guard of Hunter Region chefs and we're beyond lucky to have him navigating our ship.
"Jake brings with him big flavours, polished techniques and food that is both generous and nostalgic at the same time. It's delicious and elevated without being complicated, and that's what good food should be all about."
As for the new winter menu, he says it's part of a new emphasis on being "hyper seasonal".
"Some of the highlights for me are the truffle linguine with aged parmesan, the Bangalow Sweet Pork with cipollini onions and burnt apple, and the Murray cod with gnocchi and pine mushroom.
"The menu will change every four to six weeks, entirely driven by the season.
"This same ethos applies to our beverage program with cocktails that complement the season and wines that enhance our food offering. Right now, it's all about texture, weight and acidity on the wine front. A glass of textural rosé with our beetroot, goat's cheese and pickled walnuts."
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