BEAU GESTE
Over a career that’s taken him to some of the world’s most renowned kitchens, seasoned with a surfside upbringing in New South Wales, Noma chef Beau Clugston has won acclaim for his deceptively simple dishes of pure, intense flavours.
Noma chef Beau Clugston serves up simple recipes full of flavour and seasoned with echoes of his coastal NSW upbringing.
As a kid growing up in Sawtell on the north coast of New South Wales, Beau Clugston spent many a weekend fishing and gathering oysters in Boambee Creek with his best mate. That’s when he wasn’t surfing. When the tide was low in the estuary they’d scrape the oysters off the concrete pylons of the railway bridge that ran above the creek and eat them raw on the spot. The fish would be grilled on a public barbecue nearby or taken home to his mum for dinner. In those early teenage years Clugston was always the one who manned the barbecue or made the toasties when mates came over.
“Without me knowing it, I had a passion for cooking,” says the 32-year-old, reflecting on a culinary career that’s taken him from Sawtell to Sydney, London, Copenhagen and now Paris. He’s mastered the techniques required of world-class fine-dining restaurants and the wild creativity that’s a central tenet at Noma in Copenhagen. Yet one of his most lasting impressions came from Aboriginal elders in Acacia who showed him how to dig for mud clams with his feet and then cook them on the campfire until they sang. “This is the recipe: light a fire, rinse off the mud, throw on the fire, when it starts to whistle, take it off, eat – that’s it,” he says, recalling a trip to the outback with Noma’s René Redzepi last year.
Clugston worked at Noma for six years, leaving after heading the kitchen in its Sydney pop-up in 2016. He then moved to Paris where he took over Le 6 Paul Bert, a bistro in the 11th arrondissement, in November. He called time after four months, citing “creative differences” with owner Bertrand Auboyneau. But his passion for Paris and determination to shake up its food scene are undiminished. “I feel like I want to conquer Paris, that I’ve done good and bad and I want to continue that. The story’s not over.” The best part of the experience is that he found the beginnings of a culinary voice that’s a distillation of his 14-year career and his surfside upbringing and won acclaim for deceptively simple dishes with pure, intense flavours.
“The food I cook is very raw. It can be just three ingredients – say kiwi, avocado and caviar. It brings to bear everything I’ve learnt, especially from Noma – it’s taste- and product-driven.” While he revels in the produce available in Paris, compiling these recipes to feed the family and those mates who come over made him “really homesick”. “It’s easy to get good stuff here but it’s hard to get incredible stuff like you do back home. I still don’t think I’ve ever tasted better produce anywhere else in the world.”
Potato salad and horseradish cream
“Restaurant Schønnemann is the go-to place in Copenhagen for old-school smørrebrød and fish
(and schnapps, but that’s another story),” says Beau Clugston. “We’ve had a few Noma Christmas parties there. You always get whipped cream and horseradish on top and this salad is an adaptation to suit our Australian lifestyle.” Start this recipe a day ahead to infuse the horseradish cream.
Prep time 35 mins, cook 20 mins (plus infusing)
Serves 6-8 (pictured p98)
1 kg small new potatoes
200 gm (about 20) mixed cherry tomatoes, halved
150 gm (1 small) telegraph cucumber, half-peeled, cut into 1cm-2cm pieces
½ cup (loosely packed) dill, coarsely chopped ½ cup (loosely packed) 2cm chive batons 2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Horseradish cream
200 ml pouring cream
20 gm (¼ cup) finely grated horseradish
1 For horseradish cream, combine cream and horseradish in a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight to infuse. Before serving, whisk to soft peaks and season to taste. (If you don’t have time to let the cream infuse, use lots more horseradish.)
2 Place potatoes in a large saucepan of cold salted water, bring to the boil, then simmer until just tender (15-18 minutes). Drain and set aside in the pan to steam dry and cool, then halve.
3 Combine tomatoes, cucumber and herbs in a bowl, add potatoes and mix well. Season to taste. Whisk olive oil and vinegar together to combine and toss through salad. Serve with horseradish cream as a dipping sauce.
“The food I cook is very raw – it can be just three ingredients. It brings to bear everything I’ve learnt, especially from Noma.”