Food for Health - Troy Crisante Head Chef Quay Restaurant Saturday 7 September

Saturday 24 February

Troy Crisante is Co-Head Chef of Quay Restaurant, leading the kitchen team with fellow chef Tim Mifsud.

Troy joined the Fink family in 2012 as a fourth-year apprentice, where he graduated through various roles in the Quay kitchen. Troy left Australia in 2014 to work abroad in London, where his career highlights included a stint alongside fellow Aussie Brett Graham at The Ledbury.

On his return to Sydney, Troy worked as Senior Sous Chef at Bennelong where he was awarded Time Out’s Hot Young Talent Award in 2016, and was runner up in the 2016 Appetite for Excellence Young Chef of the Year Award. Troy also took on the role as Culinary Director at the Park Hyatt for a year.  

He continued to progress throughout Fink’s restaurant portfolio, working as Senior Sous Chef at Firedoor before re-joining the Quay kitchen as Senior Sous Chef in 2018. In 2019, Troy became Co-Head Chef at Quay where he continues to work and grow under Executive Chef Peter Gilmore.

Great food to me is all about love. This starts with the producer, be it the farmer who spends months or years preparing the soil and land to create incredible biodiversity and a nutrient rich environment to grow vegetables or fruits. Or the fisherman who loves the ecosystem that he harvests, that line catches each and every fish and humanely dispatches and
stores meticulously. It's the farmers who care for their herd and rotate their fields and allow their animals to forage or scratch and socialize. These are the first steps to creating some amazing food. 

All of this love and care is done weeks, months or even years before someone like me receives the ingredient so it's our duty to continue to respect and love the ingredients all the way to the final product on the plate. One of my biggest responsibilities at Quay is to teach this ethos to all our chefs. I think as chefs we sometimes can get caught up in the technique or the skill of the chef and lose touch of the magic of a perfectly ripe, lovingly grown ingredient. 

At Quay we always try to champion our producers, there is even a page on the menu that has a list of some of our closest producers. In a world where mass production of food is becoming more and more prevalent its more important than ever to celebrate the good guys who are looking after the land and our bodies. 

Troy will join us for an evening of conversation and food, cooking some of his favourite recipes using Moonacres produce for a dinner around our table.

Conversation begins at 3pm with dinner at 6pm. Troy and the team at Moonacres look forward to seeing you soon.