When opportunity in Bali knocked,  he moved to Bali to become head chef at the famous Ku De Ta in trendy Seminyak. He has spanned most of the globe in his search for perfection.

Davenport was in town for the Miele Guide awards gala dinner a couple of weeks ago.

He made a stunning tuna and lobster tartare with nori, sesame seeds, crème fraîche and wasabi flying fish roe inspired by Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Joy is an understatement: What sublime subtelty the dish had, each flavor beautifully offset by the next in magnificent harmony.

Davenport, dressed in a leather jacket with a trendy new T-shirt underneath and with tattoos of playing cards peeping underneath the sleeves as he removes the jacket, looks more like a rock star than a chef.  Davenport is from New Zealand and over a beer we chat about all things food and living in some of the world’s most fashionable places. This is an interview, sure, but it’s more like chatting to an old friend.

We talk about the ups and downs of working in a place like Bali. Surely, I note, there must be difficulties inherent in sourcing western ingredients (his menu features foie gras, for example)?

“Sometimes,” he says, “with customs. But often it’s actually easier. We’re so so close to the rest of Asia, that it strikes the right balance between having access to great Asian produce and being able to fly in supplies from Europe.”    

Although, he notes the limits on importing cheese cramp his style somewhat.

“It used to be that you could bring in however much you wanted. Not anymore.”

Still, these are fairly negligible problems and shouldn’t keep a good chef down. Until recently, in Australia, it was illegal to import unpasteurised dairy products, making it impossible to taste most of
the world’s great cheeses from France and Italy. It hasn’t stopped it becoming a world food hub. “…the upside is,” he observes, “…that we can import whole slabs of foie gras at a time without restriction”. If you can’t eat cheese, foie gras is a reasonable alternative.

Chefs are known for their rather wild after-work social activities. Davenport gives a wistful laugh and then observes “well, I guess we [chefs] are famous for that. But you can’t keep it up all the time, you just burn out. After you’ve been in the business for a while, you tend to lead a more calm existence. Besides, Bali is a small island. Everyone knows everything you do, so you need to be a little careful.”

Does this get to him? “No. I love it. But every few months, I need to get away for a couple of days, just
to remind myself that there is a world out there.”

Who would think you could possibly get cabin fever in paradise?

In the time Davenport has been cooking, chefs have gone from the invisible people that produce your meals in a timely fashion to uber-celebrities, sex symbols and global brands. Their books fly off the shelves at Christmas, their TV shows enjoy massive viewerships.

What does Davenport make of the celebrity chef frenzy?

“The good thing about it is that ordinary people have started taking a real interest in food. They’ve started to understand why things taste the way they do, why it’s important to eat certain things at certain times.”

He’s right. Until very recently, people thought of Italian food as just Italian food. But more and more, people are demanding that their Italian be of a particular region, rather than a pan-Italian hotchpotch.

This is happening around the world with various cuisines.

A recent report on Japanese channel NHK World, noted that visitors to Japan are a great deal more educated on the intricacies of local cuisine than they have been in the past.

“It’s strange, though,” he remarks of the celebrity chef phenomenon “in the past, it was just another working-class trade. Now they’re all superstars.”

I ask Phillip what his favorite dish is… but he can’t decide. How about the greatest meal he’s eaten?

“That’s easier” he says. “I went to Spain a couple of years ago and ate at Santi Santamaria’s place [Can Fabès]. It was as close to the best meal I’ve ever had I could come. That’s what I like. Good, honest food. If I can come close to replicating that, then I’m really happy. It’s all I could ask for.”

Judging by his meal at the Miele awards gala dinner, I’d say he had come fairly close to achieving that goal.

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