In a career that has spanned over two decades Ben Jacob has honed his skills from his time as an apprentice at Balthazar in Perth to working in London under Gordon Ramsay at both Boxwood Cafe and Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. He’s made a name for himself in the South West, first as head chef at Wise Winery and then with his own beachside casual yet refined diner Lagoon in Yallingup.
Recently announced as the head chef of Masseria, which will replace Frui Momento at Cherubino’s Wilyabrup estate, Jacob takes on a new challenge. He talked to WAGFG editor Max Brearley about his next step and what it means for local favourite Lagoon.
With Masseria opening in Spring there must be a huge amount of work ahead for you?
Yeah, definitely, but it’s also really exciting. From my point of view it’s pretty amazing to be able to align myself and essentially the Lagoon brand with the Cherubino brand. I’ve known that brand pretty much since I moved down, and Larry Cherubino has been a great supporter of Lagoon since we’ve been open. So, it’s nice to have that relationship prior to coming into this, and then also to be aligned with the vision that we see for the space.
So, it sounds like Lagoon will live on?
I’ll step out of the day-to-day operations of Lagoon, but I’ll still manage most aspect of that business. It’s going to take a little bit of a change for myself and maybe the staff, because I’m not going to be as accessible as I was before. Lagoon is heading into its fifth year after October and as a venue we know what its capabilities are and where it can go. Summer is always summer; it’s always going to be busy through those months. But outside of that it’s not a beast of a business to manage. It will give space for a little bit more autonomy for some of the staff that have been there for a long time. They can still call upon me if need be. I’ll still write the menus, negotiate the prices with supp
liers, do the hiring. I just won’t be cooking your lunch every day.
Back to Masseria, how has the concept developed over time and what can we expect there?
Before I even started any conversations about seriously taking on Masseria we’ve had Larry through Lagoon. I just floated in those chats what I thought would be amazing in that space and it turns out that it was exactly what we were all thinking. Italian and Mediterranean in the style of cuisine, while being accessible to families, large groups, and being simple enough for people to understand the menu. It has to be good value as well. We’ve had very minimal conversations around the menu style as they said “look, we know that you can deal with it.” It was not really a negotiation on the style of the venue. We landed quickly on that it needs to be pretty simple, accessible, with handmade pasta a real focus.
Do you see that pasta element as one of the points of difference with restaurants in the dining space down south?
Well, who’s doing that down here, in this kind of environment and doing it really well? It all goes hand in hand, aligning with the Cherubino brand and just makes sense in terms of what people want. There’ll be the season’s best antipasti, a range of salumi and cured meats, and a range of house made ingredients. As I’ve said, simplicity is key with beautiful heirloom tomatoes, locally farmed, the freshest Augusta nannygai that’s come out of the water within days presented whole with a great dressing or sauce. Bistecca at 650 or 700 grams. The region is bustling with some of the best dining in Australia but you don’t need another venue doing that very high end fine dining. It’s such a small market for the region. I’ve got kids, right. I’d never take them to one of those fine dining focused restaurants. It would be the hardest thing in the whole world.
Are there friends and peers that you look to for inspiration with Masseria?
I think of Chow’s Table. Mal is the first one to simply say that he’s cooking Chinese food, but it’s far from just that, in a sense that there’s so much technique, flavour, and it sets itself apart from anything else in the region. That’s what we want for Masseria, to be able to do that but in an Italianesque format.
What can we expect from the wine direction at Masseria?
We’re lucky to have Simone Ratti the Sommelier at Cherubino City Cellar and the Group Venue Manager, Jonathan Diaz overseeing the wine list. That’s going to feature more of Larry’s Italian and French import portfolio, many exclusive, so wines that you won’t see around anywhere else. There’ll be some rare and exclusive back vintages of the Cherubino and Ovale brand wines, which we might have under Coravin enabling us to serve by the glass. We’re also going to have a tasting facility in the restaurant as well. We want people to come and have a taste of the wine and then go sit down and enjoy a meal with us.
While taking this on sounds like it wasn’t in your game plan, it does sound like you’re primed for the challenge?
I feel like over my career I’ve gained all the experience and knowledge required to operate a venue like this – from doing large scale catering events for 40,000 people to travelling around Australia for the Groovin’ the Moo tour and catering for all the artists, to high-end private chef work. We’ll be across events and the Cherubino Guest Houses as well as the restaurant and I feel like everything has just sort of compounded, and that Masseria is going to reap all of those benefits. It’s going to be frigging amazing.
