Food

Andreas Papadakis Of Tipo 00

A talk with Australia's pasta master on how one man's love of pasta led to the founding of one of Melbourne's most beloved culinary destinations.

Andreas Papadakis, of Melbourne's Tipo 00, wastes no time in addressing "the million dollar question" - how a Greek-born chef has become synonymous with pasta in Australia. "To me I feel it's a silly question," he says from a table inside the intimate dimensions of the Little Bourke Street institution he co-founded a decade ago.

"When I eat it, it feels good - it's nourishing and it's just satisfying... everywhere in the world you go, people love pasta. You go to Japan, you go to China, you go to Croatia, New York, you know, everyone loves it and regardless of background and culture they will be cooking pasta twice a week."

Of course, Papadakis here speaks to a simple truth: more so when one considers his childhood in Athens, his hospitality career in Europe, and the culinary melting pot of the Mediterranean generally. The appeal of pasta is universal.

"Every restaurant I worked throughout my career, pasta was a part of it," he says. "Even when I worked in Paris, we had one risotto and one handmade pasta on a more fine-dining level all the time." As early as 16 and still in school, Papadakis was working in the kitchens of Athens, continuing through to university where he studied architecture.

The romance and energy of hospitality however won out - Papadakis left his studies to enrol in cooking school. A gruelling stint of seasonal work on Santorini (seven months straight, no days off, and a double shift every day) infused him with a lasting love for the kitchen.

The Michelin-starred restaurants of Paris must have seemed a relief in some ways. And, crucially, it was in this French period that Papadakis' love affair with pasta truly took root - on days off, he would ride his motorbike across the border into Italy, exposing himself to the regional variations and rustic roots of this most versatile ingredient, hungrily absorbing everything he could, at every turn.

A few short years later, Papadakis found himself in a different world altogether: the small town of Nelson, New Zealand, where he'd been tapped to run a fine-dining restaurant on the South Island. The radical change of scenery also brought a crash course in restaurant management, with Papadakis responsible for writing the menus, and structuring the dishes around the seasons and produce of a different hemisphere.

It was an education that continued when he and his wife Anne landed in Melbourne in the mid-2000s, and Papadakis donned the revered apron of Vue de monde, then in its pre-Rialto Towers incarnation in Normanby Chambers on Collins Street. "I was new to Melbourne, and it was great to network with suppliers and chefs, winemakers and producers - chef Shannon Bennett was very business-minded, so, costs of goods and day-to-day running operations and wage costs.

A bigger scale of a successful, profitable business and how to make it and keep it profitable. It was a great tool." It was also where he met Luke Skidmore, and the seeds of Tipo 00's success were first planted.

In recurring conversations about what they wanted to work on together, both were keen to move away from fine-dining, and the idea of a dedicated pasta bar kept coming up again, and again. "People were like, 'Oh, an Italian pasta bar ' like, Melbourne has thousands of Italian restaurants. And I said, 'Well, I go out a bit, I haven't tasted a pasta that is wow, this is amazing."'

Tipo 00's success was never a sure thing, however. When it opened, this part of Little Bourke didn't exactly enjoy a reputation as somewhere to grab a decent bite to eat. Papadakis listened to his gut, trusted his feelings. And people found out, "very quickly" what he, Skidmore, and head chef Alberto Fava were cooking.

"It was vibrant because it was unpretentious - it was not shiny, but it serves pasta," says Papadakis. "For us, pasta is something you can eat every day" if I was working in the city, I'd go three times a week." As it turns out, many felt the same " and the decision to do lunch service from 11.30am through till 4pm with a quick turnaround before dinner paid dividends. Word-of-mouth started to build.

"There's an amazing sense of community," says Papadakis. "Some people are once a year for their anniversary, and then maybe others come once a year because they live half an hour, 45 minutes away. For me as a business owner and chef, I still take it as a massive compliment that someone will make the trip. It's amazing. If you look back from where we started to where we are and the reputation, it's amazing." 

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