ON THE PASS

You originally moved from Wellington to Sydney to pursue a career as a chef...

I got a job at Rockpool and went on to Tetsuya’s, and each job just led to the next. By the time I was 27 I was starting to get really tired, so I took a bit of a break and went to the Blue Mountains and started to reassess what I really wanted to do with my career. I got really clear about what my values were and what I wanted to commit to. I was so inspired by the nature I was surrounded by that I just wanted to cook with fire and hone the craft as a baker.

What led to you to wood-fired baking?

For eight years I was focused on my cheffing career, and then Mike McEnearney, who was my head chef at Rockpool, opened Kitchen by Mike and I worked in the pastry section and it was really rustic using wood-fire. I didn’t know what my purpose was or where my career was going, but the day I made bread – that living fermentation in my hands, and tying it in with fire – the penny dropped and that was it. I just wanted to get as much experience as possible – I kept looking into wood-fired ovens and wanted to bake in as many as I could.

What kind of oven do you have at Cherry Moon?

The oven we have at Cherry Moon is an Alan Scott design. I was really keen to build my own oven or bring back an old oven. After four years of research I tracked down a 75-year-old who’d built Alan Scott ovens and convinced him to build one for us.

Easter is coming up, do you have anything special in the oven?

We’re doing sourdough-based wood-fired hot cross buns, including one with cherry, wattle and chocolate.

Cherry Moon General Store opens Monday to Saturday (8am-3pm) and Sunday (11am-3pm). 77 Nelson St, Annandale, NSW.