Shane Delia has gone from a self-confessed scallywag to one of the prime movers and shakers in Melbourne’s bustling restaurant scene. Robert Fedele finds out how he did it.
Shane Delia is a walking billboard for the western suburbs boy come good.
‘‘I pretty much got asked to leave school. And this year I got asked by my high school to come back and speak at the year 12 formal and I’m thinking … I didn’t even do my formal. I got asked to leave and now I’m being asked to come back.’’
The irony isn’t lost on the chef-cum-celebrity who makes a note of pointing out the trappings of fame.
‘‘When I went to high school no one really wanted to know me. I was never one of the in-crowd. But now suddenly everybody’s my friend.’’
Lucky for them, Delia holds no grudges and is happy to sweep the past under the carpet.
Life’s too hectic to bother. His string of commitments includes managing uber-successful restaurants Maha, in the CBD, and St Katherine’s in Kew, writing popular cookbooks, and perhaps what he is best known for, regular TV spots on Ready Steady Cook, The Circle, and Mornings on Channel 9.
‘‘My wife says to me, ‘You’ve got problems. You never appreciate what you’ve got’. And it’s true.
‘‘I’m trying to learn to slow down, to take a step back and go, wow, we’ve been really fortunate.’’
But after speaking to Delia for barely a few minutes you get the impression that’s easier said than done.
We meet at Maha, the first of his restaurants which he named after his wife, the gesture winning him brownie points for no more than a week.
Delia is smartly dressed in a grey suit and open-neck white shirt. His personality matches his build, big and hearty, with a distinctive boyish grin.
This morning he’s already met with a publisher to discuss his second book, the follow-up to Maha: Middle Eastern Home Cooking.
Around lunchtime he’ll head to St Katherine’s to meet with car giant Renault to discuss a partnership at next year’s Grand Prix, and later he’s pencilled in a skype conference call to Lebanon to talk about a new TV series, a travel and lifestyle show starring himself and celebrating his Maltese heritage.
Delia concedes it’s strange how things have panned out.
He winds the clock back to starting his apprenticeship at the Hotel Sofitel with an equally brash young chef named George Calombaris, now known simply as George from MasterChef.
They have been close friends ever since. They went their separate ways professionally but five years ago Shane mooted the idea of starting something on his own.
George had been running the Press Club for a year.
Over a coffee and a quick bite to eat, the pair became business partners and today boast five of Melbourne’s most sought-after restaurants – Hellenic Republic, the Press Club, Mama Baba, Maha and St Katherine’s.
‘‘Back then [when we were apprentices] it was solely about doing everything you could do. We were relentless. You’d work every hour of the day. We’d work every second of the day. Not to get paid. Just to gain experience. To gain momentum,’’ Delia recalls.
The business group has a head office in Collins Street and Delia says he and George often walk past the Sofitel food court where they used to take their breaks and just shake their heads.
‘‘We never envisaged it. I never wanted to have a restaurant. I always just wanted to be a cook.’’
Delia’s passion for cooking is almost as fierce as his loyalty to family, which he reveals as the inspiration for his career.
Growing up in a Maltese household in Sydenham he was exposed to everything that food and culture had to offer.
‘‘Food was always a big part of our life,’’ he says. ‘‘I’d go to my grandparents’ place on a Saturday and Sunday and they’d always be cooking. Mum was always a great cook. Dad was always a good cook.’’
There was a fleeting moment where Delia considered becoming a mechanic but he couldn’t handle the grease under his fingernails.
‘‘When I was about 15 I started working as a kitchen hand, washing pots, peeling vegetables, and I just loved it. It was great to be in that camaraderie of a kitchen and not be strapped to a desk.’’
Delia credits his entire family with giving him the confidence to become a chef.
‘‘They were very supportive of that as a whole. And they were also pretty proud of the decision because I was never a poster boy. I was always in trouble. I think the whole family was a bit concerned that I was gonna stray off path.’’
Delia speaks at gunfire speed, and admits to taking on more work than he can handle.
He says he’s a better manager now than he was, proudly talking up his staff.
‘‘Earlier I was a bull out of a pen. Perfection was the minimum. And I didn’t give a shit about your personal life or what issues you had. When you came here it was game on and that was it.
‘‘I’m a lot better now. The proof’s in the pudding. Our staff retention at Maha is great. I’ve still got staff here from the day we opened, who’ve progressed. But to do that you have to provide them with an opportunity to progress. You can’t employ someone as a waiter and in five years time expect them to be that same waiter.’’
These days Delia spends more time out of the kitchen than in, preferring for the most part to let the professionals he employs do their job.
His main role, one could argue, is as promoter. He views the rise of the celebrity chef as both good and bad.
‘‘It’s been great for the industry in that it actually draws more people back into restaurants and gives them an insight into what happens inside. But it’s also a bit fabricated.
“The only reason I do TV is because it gives me an avenue to express what we’re
doing in the restaurant. Not to be a celebrity.’’
Despite his misgivings, Delia seems comfortable as an A-lister and has learnt to play the game.
‘‘People say, ‘Yeah but you were at this event and that event and that’s time off’. Nah, it’s not time off. That’s working harder that being here [Maha]. When you’re out at an event, yeah it’s fun and it’s great, but your game-face is on, you’re representing the company and aggressively networking.’’
With such a busy schedule comes sacrifices and Delia acknowledges his family life has suffered.
He and Maha have a three-year-old daughter, Jayda, her name inked on his forearm, and a baby boy on the way.
Does it worry him that he’s willingly taken on the pressure, stress and instability of running not one restaurant, but now two, and in process fallen into the very things he wanted to avoid?
‘‘Of course it worries me,’’ Delia says flatly.
‘‘I just want to make sure I’m being fair to her [Maha] and to Jayda as well and I’m giving them the life they deserve and need. And at the moment I’m not.
‘‘But everybody has to sacrifice something to achieve something. The way I look at it, whether it’s me being selfish or egotistical, I’ve sacrificed so much to get to this point and it would be a waste of all that to stop now. Not when we’re just starting to get somewhere.
‘‘I’m really fortunate that I’ve got Maha. It must be really hard for her being alone every night. Not being able to plan a social life. It’s almost living a single life.’’
Delia says he has no set goal, just an idea in his head of being comfortable and having the luxury of taking a week off every month of the year.
He’s contemplated opening up a restaurant in Sydenham several times, an area he says is ‘‘crying for it’’.
Each time he shies away for fear of it not being supported.
‘‘I just think it’s a big gamble. We don’t do things small. We’re gonna go in there and drop a lot of money to set up this place and I’m gonna be left holding the bag.
‘‘And I really wish I didn’t feel that because I’m such an advocate of the western suburbs and everything it embodies and then not to have the confidence to go and do something kind of makes me a hypocrite. But it’s the reality.’’
Even so, you kind of get the feeling that he’ll do it one day. And he’ll more than likely make it work.
‘‘That’s what’s always spurred me on, a fear of failure,’’ he says.
‘‘I’m always very conscious of that. I never want to fail. Not to lose pride, or money, just because I’d be disappointing so many people. I’ve always disappointed people. Up until I started my cooking career I had always been a disappointment. I was always in trouble and letting people down and I know what that feels like. And I never want to be back there again.’’
