Canteen and Peonee will team up for a collaboration dinner. Photo: Peonee.
Collaboration is the flavour of the season in Canberra, with chefs from all over the city popping up in each other’s kitchens. The latest announcement comes from Campbell fine dining venue Peonee, which will welcome the team from ramen bar Canteen into the kitchen for one night only.
Peonee owner and head chef Alberto Ranalli approached Canteen after enjoying an event they held recently in collaboration with Melbourne chef and food writer Ella Mittas. Alberto says he and his team are big fans of Canteen.
“We both enjoy each other’s food: we’ve been to Canteen and they’ve come to Peonee a few times,” he told Region.
Alberto explained that his sous chef, Leo, shares Taiwanese heritage with Canteen chef Eddy Tsai, and his wife also works at Canteen, so there are plenty of connections between the two businesses.
Chef and owner Alberto Ranalli says he wants to collaborate with more Canberra restaurants. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
The collaboration event on 24 July will be a shared multi-course menu, a change from Peonee’s set menu style.
“We usually do five individual courses … Canteen has a more casual style, but the plan is that we will meet each other halfway.”
Each restaurant will contribute a few dishes to the meal, finishing with a dessert that the chefs have developed together. Eddy and Alberto have been trading ideas and testing out dishes, and they’ll release the menu closer to the date so people can get a sense of what the evening will look like.
Alberto hopes this will be just the first of many collaborations between Peonee and other Canberra restaurants. He’s been chatting with Chef Clement from Les Bistronomes as well as The Chairman Group, which owns several fine dining restaurants in Canberra. He says the style will change depending on who he’s collaborating with: there may be more share-style meals like the Canteen dinner or multi-course degustation menus.
Alberto Ranalli approached Canteen after attending their sold-out Ella Mittas collaboration in May. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Collaborations allow chefs to work with different people, explore different cooking styles and flex their creative muscles. As most chefs work at the same time, it can be difficult for them to make time to visit each other’s venues, so collaboration events give them the opportunity to learn from each other and have fun working together.
These events also allow customers to experience new venues or prompt them to return to those they love. Winter can be a challenging time in Canberra’s hospitality scene as people go out less, so running limited events can be a good way to convince diners to take the opportunity for a special meal. The Canberra market has proved enthusiastic about pop-ups and collaborations, and they’ve becoming more common around town.
If this collaboration goes well, Alberto says he’s open to swapping the situation around and heading to Canteen to do an evening on their home turf. But they’ll see how this first one goes before locking anything in.
Places are strictly limited for the Canteen at Peonee dinner on Wednesday, 24 July. Visit Peonee’s website to book your place. Follow Peonee on Facebook or Instagram.
Peonee is located at G34, 12 Pentland Street, Campbell. Visit Canteen’s website and follow them on Instagram.
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