We always try to recreate recipes passed down from our grandmothers to our mothers, recipes that will never provide us with the same authentic flavour because the ingredients aren’t produced the same way or grown in the same climate.
We often have to settle for results that may not seem entirely satisfactory to us but are considered culinary gems by the taste buds of Australians.
Dane Hewson is a chef born in Australia and raised in New Zealand, but he has always been madly in love with Italian cuisine.
This love was born during his childhood in New Zealand when he spent entire days playing with the children of his Italian neighbours.
“I was exposed to homemade Italian cooking every day of the week,” Hewson shared.
“Just like the language, which I can’t say I speak well, but I have the basics; I can probably understand it much better than I can speak it.”
The chef eventually moved to Sydney with his family when his father was hired by the Italian restaurant Natalino’s in Kings Cross.
“My father was literally adopted by the owners’ family, who taught him all the secrets of traditional Italian dishes,” he revealed. These secrets were then passed on to Hewson himself.
Hewson’s parents opened their own Italian restaurant and continued to cook exclusively Italian food at home.
Inevitably inspired by those Mediterranean flavours, Hewson decided to move to Melbourne to expand his knowledge of Italian culinary culture by working for the famous Italo-Australian chef Guy Grossi.
During those four years spent cooking at Grossi Florentino, Hewson learned the art of making pasta by hand, along with traditional regional Italian recipes.
It was in Melbourne where he met his partner, Lydia Greenwood, a New Zealander from the music industry.
Initially, the couple started seriously considering combining their passion for Italian cuisine with their love of music. After a wonderful trip to Italy, the idea of starting a culinary business together began to seriously take shape.
At first, the two experimented with Italian cooking as private chefs for friends and acquaintances on special occasions such as weddings and birthdays.
Following the great success of these events, Dane and Lydia were convinced and launched a pop-up called Nostra Kitchen in 2023.
“For Valentine’s Day, we’ll be cooking at Leonardo’s Pizza Palace in Carlton, and our menu will be paired with Italian wines imported by Michael Zaccaria from Quel Vino,” Hewson announced.
Their menu, which follows the seasonality of ingredients, is dominated by handmade pasta -both stuffed and served with sauces. The Age Good Food Guide has described their pasta as “perfect”.
Nostra Kitchen aims to represent the generous and convivial cooking of a nonna’s kitchen, complete with the essential red-and-white chequered tablecloths. The marketing, done by Lydia, is strongly reminiscent of a rock concert poster.
Among the pair’s future projects is the opening of a permanent restaurant in Abbotsford.
“At the moment, we’re a bit like nomads; we move around a lot with Nostra Kitchen,” said Hewson.
“We have regular appointments at the Red Hill Hotel in Chewton and Shirley in Kyneton, but the idea of having our own place really appeals to us.”
There’s also a good chance the pair will travel to Italy again before starting an Italian language course in Melbourne.
“We’ll talk soon,” Hewson tells me - in Italian - at the end of our conversation.
In his voice is the admiration I’ve often noticed in those who, even if not Italian themselves, have a deep love for our culture.
