Clayton Wells
Chef Clayton Wells always planned to be a designer or architect, however he found himself sculpting a more temporal material than concrete or clay.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson
“I get inspiration from everything - from the colours of a building, or different shapes,” shares Clayton Wells. Photo - Nikki To.
It was the work experience at 17 years old that first led Clayton to become one of Australia’s most-loved chefs. “I just started, and never stopped,” he laughs. Beginning in hotels, Clayton soon found the itch to travel and see what the world had to offer. It started a love-affair with experimentation, observing, watching, and listening to the countries and cultures he visited — like Scandinavia, Japan, the U.K. “We travel to broaden out our minds,” the chef explains, “and, if you don’t do that, you’re painting with the same colours.”
After jumping from hotels into, the quintessential Sydney-fine dining experience, Quay, Clayton acknowledges the first pivot of his career. “It was a pretty big learning curve,” he adds. Then the chef was invited to open Momofuku Seiobo with David Chang and Ben Greeno, an imperative steppingstone‚ revealing what fine dining could be, or what it didn’t have to be. It could be fun, loud, edgy— and more relaxed.
Fermented plums, onions and fried capers. Photo - Nikki To.
Grilled Tasmanian Octopus, XO chilli, red vinegar, fennel and ink. Photo - Nikki To.
It was out of this ideology that Automata was born. Voted one of the Best 50 Restaurants in the World by Dinner’s Club, and a winner of two hats, this fine dining experience offers five or seven-course meals on a two- or three-week rotation. It highlights what’s fresh, available, and showcases off Clayton’s return to simplicity. “I try to leave it to three ingredients per plate,” he shares.
“I love Japanese food; it’s one of those places where you’ll never even scratch the surface, always learning different things about different flavours. ”
Thanks to the ever-changing menu, Clayton won’t confess to having a signature dish. However, his signature ingredient is obvious— the multifaceted seaweed. It even gets used in desert, like the dark chocolate ganache with raspberries, candied wakame and house-made roasted kelp oil currently on his menu and featured in the Carriageworks’ masterclass.
“I get inspiration from everything - from the colours of a building, or different shapes.”
“I use a lot of seaweed in my cooking, or sea vegetables as we like to call them because I think there are levels of flavour that many people haven’t had before,” says Clayton Wells. Clayton Wells. Photo - Nikki To.
“There are complications in the process. But that doesn’t have to be evident on the plate — I think the simplicity of it is an important thing.”
“I’m lucky to get a day off a week, and then I go with my friends at other people’s restaurants, and I don’t want to overcomplicate it, like a beautiful bowl of pasta,” says Clayton Wells. Photo - Nikki To.
Around the corner, A1 Canteen is Clayton latest venture to simplicity, returning to the class café menu with fresh, local ingredients, and impelling combinations like curried scrambled eggs, harissa and lime on sourdough, and XO omelette.
When Clayton is lucky to receive his one day off, he wants his food to go back to basics. An uncomplicated, locally-sourced roast chuck, or a beautiful bowl of pasta, “I don’t want to overcomplicate it,” he adds. His favourites spots for pasta include 10 William Street, by his friend Trisha Greentree; his new local Bondi’s CicciaBella, by Mitch Orr; or Federico Zanellato from LuMi, who “is one of my top three favourite pasta chefs in Sydney, he’s always fantastic.”