La Cocina Pura serves a wide variety of Latin foods like paella and empanadas, but with a focus on seafood attributed to Mario’s Chilean heritage. Photo: Zachary Griffith.
Who are you?
My name is Mario Gonzalez and I am the head chef at La Cocina Pura.
Before I moved to Australia, I was in the Chilean army while my Mum was working at their embassy here in Canberra. When she arrived in 2000, she kept asking if I wanted to come to Australia, but I couldn’t speak English.
After finishing up my service, I took a year doing cooking courses and then moved here in 2008, which was very difficult due to the language barrier. However, after working at the embassy for a year as I studied cooking and English in the evening, I was able to take on a full-time role at a catering company in Fyshwick.
In 2018, I quit that job and started my own catering business, which was in operation until last year.
What is your business?
Last year, my old mate Andrew – one of the managers here at Verity Lane – asked me to help him set up a Latin restaurant.
Since then, it’s been good fun to have it running which, despite the long hours, is pretty exciting and seems to have become a popular spot for the politicians coming in from the Assembly nearby.
What’s a dish you make that best sums up what La Cocina Pura does?
While my mother remains the central culinary influence in my life, our main focus was the paella, so I got my stepfather, originally from Barcelona, to help bring some of that Catalonian wisdom into the menu.
He said the key is your base, the ‘sofrito’. We make it by mixing capsicum, onion, rice, tomato and spices, reducing it down and then building on top of it with seafood like mussels or octopus.
It seems to have worked. Last year, we had 1200 people come through for an event and I was cooking three big pans of paella at the same time to feed them all.
Is there an ingredient you can’t live without?
Prawns – anything with them is amazing. But as a chef, I have to say salt. It’s the main ingredient for anything, alongside its brother, pepper.
What do you wish people understood about your job?
I wish people were more adventurous with their tasting and would stop asking me what paella is while I’m cooking. There seriously needs to be more Hispanic food in Canberra.
Where do you go out to eat in Canberra?
I’ve got two kids, a five-year-old and an eight-year-old, so my wife and I usually take them to Tiger Lane. But they also like coming here to eat, especially the older one who keeps asking to help me out with the cooking.
Where are you travelling next?
At the end of the year, I’m going to Thailand to see my wife’s family in Chiang Mai, so we’ll take the kids there, as well as Bangkok, and I might try to get some inspiration from their cuisine, which I love.
What are your top three recipe tips?
Balance between the flavours. Patience: if you lose your cool, you lose your dish. And being honest with the customers. Sometimes, they ask too many questions, but you have to be transparent and indulge their curiosity.
La Cocina Pura is located within Verity Lane Market at 50 Northbourne Avenue. La Cocina Pura is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 2 pm for lunch and from 5 pm for dinner. You can find more information at Verity Lane Market.
Loading ...
