Restaurant: Mecca
David Spanner began his culinary career training at the Adelaide Park Royal. From this humble beginning a wealth of international opportunities arose, including a position as second chef at Woolloomooloo, the first Australian restaurant in Paris. It was there he learnt the importance of great produce and how to work with ingredients uncommon in Australia, such as morels. David also spent three years as executive chef of Plouf in San Francisco, “the best city in the world for produce and clientele”, he says, before finally finding himself at Melbourne’s Mecca.
David’s first food memory is of his grandmother’s veal tongue with brussel sprouts and days off are spent surfing and spending time with his wife and daughter, Lou Lou. A favourite Restaurant is L’Amour Dans Le Four, a small French restaurant and wine bar in San Francisco (the name translates to ‘love in the oven’), for the great food and ambience. Chefs he looks to for inspiration are American Thomas Weibull, current executive chef at Plouf, and the team he works with. David’s pearls of wisdom for us cooks at home: “read and try new recipes, do not be intimidated by them, eat your mistakes and enjoy them.”
Veda Wickens, August 2006