The Summertown Aristologist has a thing for Tasmanian chefs. After the departure of head chefs Brianna Smith and Oliver Edwards in August 2019, the Adelaide Hills restaurant lined up Luke Burgess and David Moyles for their chefs-in-residence series. (Both chefs spearheaded pioneering Hobart restaurants Garagistes and Franklin respectively.)
The mainland immigration continues with The Summertown Aristologist co-owners Aaron Fenwick, Aaron von Klopper and Jasper Button poaching Ali Currey-Voumard from across the Bass Strait. The chef made her mark at New Norfolk’s Agrarian Kitchen Eatery, where, as a teenager she cut a deal with owner Rodney Dunn to swap her volunteer hours for a cooking class, scoring the kitchen’s top posting and nabbing a Gourmet Traveller Best New Talent award along the way. Now, she’s set to rattle the pans in the Adelaide Hills wine-focused eatery.
The communal table at The Summertown Aristologist.
(Photo: Mark Roper)Currey-Voumard, currently sous chef at Franklin, will take the Summertown reins from 21 February to 12 April. She last visited the restaurant in early 2019 when Edwards, a former colleague from their time at Melbourne’s Cumulus Inc, was still in the kitchen. “It was the dreamiest day ever – we drove through the hills, had a long lunch and drank shit-hot wine,” she says.
A recent jaunt to France working under Harry Lester at Le Saint Eutrope has further cemented her desire to keep her food simple, classic and fun. “The garden will be going off there so I’ll let that dictate what we cook. It’ll be the end of summer, so there will be tomatoes. And it’ll be good to make use of the seafood from that area, too,” she says. “We’re going to have a whale of a time.”
And as for the number of Tasmanians uprooting to sleepy Summertown (population 676, according to 2006 census data), Currey-Voumard has a simple explanation. “We’re a bit intimidated by the big cities,” she says. “But we can do the Hills.”
After her residency the kitchen will be led by Tom Campbell (Africola, Igni) and sous chef Ethan Eadie. Currey-Voumard plans to return to her triangle island home to open her own project in Hobart. That is, if she can find a cashed-up investor. “Keep me posted if you hear about someone who’s willing to give me $150, 000,” she says.
The Summertown Aristologist, 1097 Greenhill Rd, Summertown, SA, 0477 410 105, thesummertownaristologist.com.
Open Fri-Sat noon-3pm,6pm-8pm; Sunday noon-4.30pm.
