HOTA Gallery’s Executive Chef Dayan Hartill-Law is, in many ways, a Renaissance man. Chef, culinary artist, mentor and advocate, his artistic flair and food philosophy are a huge influence on the developing culinary identity of the Gold Coast.
When the HOTA Gallery opened in May 2021, Hartill-Law was appointed as Executive Chef of the precinct, heading the team at Palette, HOTA’s fine dining restaurant. Palette features Australian cuisine; fresh, high-quality seasonal produce from within the ‘100-mile table’.
For each new gallery exhibition, Palette launches a new menu with dishes chosen to reference both the exhibition theme and individual artworks within the exhibition. In doing so, it extends HOTA’s art from the walls to the plate, spotlighting the art of food.
HOTA’s present Italian Renaissance exhibition is particularly apt. Just as the Renaissance brought new life to art by moving away from the beliefs and ideas of the time, so Hartill-Law’s learnings and practice of foraging for native food and his commitment to sourcing sustainably cultivated and caught food challenges our dependence on industrialised food.
As Palette launches its latest menu based on the Italian Renaissance, Hartill-Law tells us about his role in shaping the Gold Coast’s culinary identity at HOTA as well as his advocacy and mentoring roles in the hospitality industry.
The Italian Renaissance marked a turning point in European history. Italian food, for the first time, was seen as a culinary art, with food featuring in many artworks. The emphasis was on ‘fresh, seasonal products…food can be seen both as a social activity and a social status indicator…farmers mostly consumed porridge-like soups, different types of breads and grains, and a lot of vegetables…The upper classes instead feasted on meats…” Food Culture in the Italian Renaissance, contexttravel.com
“Bartolomeo Scappi, the chef for several popes, wrote the world’s first illustrated cookbook,” Hartill-Law tells us. “He was a ‘celebrity chef’, serving up delicious feasts of fried chicken brined in vinegar, seasoned with spices. Our version of Scappi’s opulent feasts is serving food as a generous Tuscan long table – the elite dry aged beef from Stanbroke’s Chinchilla Station served with tasty sides, three different pastas, several seafood dishes and bread.”
“Achieving what has been honoured among the ancients, but almost forgotten since, the age has joined wisdom and eloquence…” Marsilio Ficino
Just as the Renaissance sought inspiration from ancient cultures, foraged native foods are featured through Palette’s menu. Pasta includes warrigal greens (one of the first Australian foods eaten by Captain Cook’s crew) and corzetti made from kangaroo grass flour pressed with the Palette logo.
Renaissance food was local by necessity, mirrored in Palette’s menu of local, seasonal food.
“Relationships are of prime importance to sourcing seafood,” Hartill-Law tells us. “We source our produce (including seafood) from a 200km radius which is the food bowl of much of our nation’s produce. We work so closely with the best small producers in the region (from Pixel Bakehouse to Rice Culture and Australian Bay Lobster) that we can tell you stories of provenance or show photos of our fish on the line in Moreton Bay,” he adds.
Championing local producers and growers is at the heart of Palette’s ethos, no collaboration more show-stopping than the ‘Tuscan Marble’ chocolate creation hand made by Alicia Chapman of Little Cocoa. Presented with a billow of dry ice, we experience the ethereal beauty and timelessness of art, so much so that breaking and eating the dessert seems almost impossible.
“Michelangelo certainly performed a miracle in restoring to life a block of marble left for dead.” Giorgio Vasari
Creating his ninth menu at Palette, each one containing more than twenty items, is a mammoth task. As each dish is purpose-driven with its own story, we marvel at the creativity needed, and the fining of inspiration into product.
Whether walking in the Botanic Gardens with his children or picking native produce he has cultivated in his own backyard, when flashes of inspiration come, Hartill-Law says, you need to be in the right frame of mind to acknowledge it.
“You have to take the creativity and run with it; catch it where it is.
Time is a commodity and you need time away from work to maintain mental health. Both mental health and inspiration are about balance,” he adds, describing his openness to ideas that is fostered by taking time out.
It’s a principle that is often overlooked in the hospitality industry, and one that Hartill-Law feels strongly about. Not only does he act as mentor for local hospitality students (through Beenleigh SHS), but he is Chief Ambassador (Qld) for The Burnt Chef Project, an organisation set up to tackle mental health stigma in the hospitality industry.
The allure of hospitality with its camaraderie and peaks of adrenalin has traditionally come hand in hand with overwork and low pay rates.
As Hartill-Law looks back on how the ethos of the industry has changed during his working life, he relates: “At 14 years old I said goodbye to friends and family to join a team in the kitchen. I lost my social network because my work hours were antisocial, there was no time for normal celebrations with family and friends.
When I started work, the core beliefs were to work hard and not stop for anything, not even sickness or a cut hand. I used to be proud of the 115-hour working weeks. 20-hour days were once a badge of honour. Now I look back and think how idiotic it was.
Chefs are under the microscope all the time. There’s a lack of privacy, a fishbowl element, that makes us the target of keyboard warriors and reviewers and general public who approach us in public to give their opinions. Added to that, there are growing pressures of finance, with 50% of restaurants closing in their first year.
It’s a mix of these factors (and more) that has led to the horrific mental health statistics present in the industry. 80% of hospitality workers have experienced mental health issues, leading to 20% of the suicides in Australia being hospitality workers. There has been no support for mental health in hospitality and we are trying to change that,” he adds.
Hartill-Law’s approach to mental health in the industry is two-fold: striving to create a high performing chef culture with praise, education, and passion as the driving points, both in his local team and the greater ‘hospitality family’. He wants to make sure that others working in the industry he loves so much are okay, reminding them about purpose and asking for help when they need it. It’s this renaissance of thinking about mental health that could ensure the longevity of the industry, extending our invitation to dine on a palette of stories about our land and people.