Wickham restaurant Flotilla has set sail with a new winter menu and a new captain on board.
Darren Price has this week joined the crew as the new co-head chef alongside Jake Deluca, and the pair will no doubt run a tight ship as they navigate the unpredictable waters of the hospitality industry.
"Flotilla has always been about evolution and progress, and with the addition of Darren, our kitchen is now in the hands of two of the most promising and established chefs in the Hunter Region," Flotilla co-owner Eduardo Molina said.
"We have always worked as a team, without egos and with only the true desire to continue growing and pushing Flotilla forward.
"We are so lucky to be adding someone as experienced and dedicated as Darren to this team, and we can't wait to see what he does alongside Jake and the rest of our fantastic kitchen team."
Price and Deluca share a food philosophy that strives for excellence, always. Price is a familiar face in the Hunter Valley, and was most recently head chef at the hatted Yellow Billy Restaurant at Pokolbin.
Yellow Billy sommelier Patrick Hester told Food & Wine in January that Price had been "an integral part of the Yellow Billy fabric".
"When Darren came on board we had a vision to achieve a Hat for the restaurant. Well, we have done that plus a lot more. Everything that he poured into Yellow Billy has been of the highest level and we are so very grateful to have had him and his time with us," he said.
Molina said Price's appointment would help provide a better work-life balance for the busy Flotilla team. While some restaurants are expecting staff to take on more hours to reduce operating costs, Flotilla has taken a different approach, based on the belief that staff burn-out can actually exacerbate the many challenges that restaurants are facing.
"We are conscious that a healthy work-life balance is key to the success and longevity of our restaurant," Molina said.
"We aim to have a positive work culture that is both fun and professional at the same time.
"If we have this many guns in the kitchen then their workload will become more achievable, allowing them to spend more time doing what they love outside of the kitchen.
"A happy team makes running a restaurant a lot easier."
Flotilla has just launched its new early winter menu, which Price and Deluca have been working on together for weeks. The kitchen team changes the super-seasonal menu every six weeks, allowing chefs to source the freshest and most in-season ingredients from local suppliers for optimal seasonality, quality and ripeness.
The early winter menu includes duck liver parfait with cannoli and blueberry; beef tartare with potato rosti and pickled walnut; Sydney Rock Oyster with hot sauce, Bluefin tuna carpaccio, avocado, coconut and chilli; smoked quail with kalamansi, turnip, spigarello, Baked Uprising Sourdough and smoked butter; and Kinross lamb rack with sheep's yoghurt, sumac onions and rainbow chard. A vegetarian/vegan menu is also available.
Next door at Vecina, the snack menu has had a revamp and the Wednesday steak nights continues to prove popular. It's open Wednesday to Saturday for snacks and drinks from 4pm.
Flotilla is open Thursday to Saturday for dinner and Saturday and Sunday for lunch.
