Mietta O'Donnell - a sort of 'A word from'
"We are aiming for an elegant classical room where people come to see and be seen." It goes without saying that the food must be outstanding."
MIetta O'Donnell and Sandra Symons in Gourmet Traveller
I'm a very ordinary person so I cannot share in all the memories of Mietta from the upper echelons of Melbourne society. The picture above is how I remember Mietta. I could be the lady, somewhat nervously clutching her bag as she is met at the door of this very posh restaurant by the very gracious and charming Mietta - anniversary dinner most likely. Lots of the articles I read about her described her as aloof and introverted but I have to say that the thing that impressed me most about her was, not the restaurant itself, impressive though it was, but the fact that Mietta went around to every single table and chatted briefly with you. Not like Paul Bocuse sweeping through his eponymous restaurant in Lyon, with entourage in tow but looking neither to left or right. She was warm and she cared that you were having a good time. And we did
So why am I writing about her today? Not because I am lacking in inspiration and have resorted to one of my writer's block tricks. Three reasons really. Some time ago now, when I was going through all those old foodie magazines I came across an article about her and her restaurant in the Naval and Military Club in Melbourne. It revived memories of a couple of meals we had had there, and also one or two in her previous restaurant in Brunswick Street. Then when I was in Readings one day I saw a copy of her book, Mietta's Italian Family Recipes on their bargain table. I didn't buy it but I did look at it and I am still thinking about it. I haven't bought it so far because a quick flick through made me think that I already had most of the recipes in one form or another and I wasn't so interested in reading about her. And then the thing that tripped me over into writing about her was coming across her in another of my old cookery books - Wog Food - in which John Newton profiles various important immigrant foodies. I think I was looking for spinach gnocchi recipes. When he wrote the book Mietta was still alive, although her restaurant was closed. Too many coincidences to just set aside I thought.
Mietta is one of those people to whom one can refer by using her first name only - like Nigella or Jamie or Delia in the food scene. She was that much of an institution. And although everything she did was in partnership with her life and business partner Tony Knox (son of Alastair), he was not the one that people talked about, even though, in fact, he was much more extrovert than she and essential in every way. She was a restaurateur rather than a chef, although she did cook at first in her first restaurant in Brunswick Street. However she quickly turned the kitchen over to others - and they included Stephanie Alexander, Greg Malouf, Romain Bapst and Jacques Raymond as well as a string of other, slightly less well-known chefs. All of those above named owe their stellar careers in Australia, in no small part, to her. Her grand restaurant in Collins St. also included a sort of salon - a bar downstairs where the intellectual and artistic elite would meet and listen to concerts and poetry readings. And in many ways perhaps this was what people admired her most for. There is still a twice yearly song competition in her name.
For she is dead. She was killed in a car crash in Tasmania - Tony Knox was driving - in 2001. They had yet to decide on the next big venture I think, though had been working as food critics. Her sudden and unexpected death has no doubt contributed to her fame. However, the two had already closed their restaurant and salon at the turn of 1995/96, speaking of "the importance of traditional European dining. More recently, however there was not much place for such a style." And she could well have been right. Our grand restaurants these days are not generally of this type with perhaps the exception of Grossi Florentino and Jacques Raymond. With the closure of Mietta's and her death not too long afterwards an era ended. There is still fine dining, but it is more aligned to the chef's personal style I think. Though she may well have been one of the first to stress the importance of the chef.
Her first restaurant in Brunswick Street also changed the face of dining in Melbourne - she and Stephanie Alexander that is. For Stephanie left her and opened her own restaurant nearby. We visited them both - as did a large number of those who liked to dine out. I did not actually remember that they were in Brunswick Street, but they must have contributed to the blossoming of that street into one of the restaurant epicentres of Melbourne. Her restaurant was nominally French, but different:
"We were determined not to do what the other French restaurants were doing. We would not serve garlic prawns, duck à l'orange, pepper steak, or chocolate mousse. We had a menu of four entrées. four main dishes and four desserts, and it changed each week. We drew on traditional English, Middle Eastern and Oriental foods. The menu was sometimes pretty bizarre, occasionally even disastrous, but it was interesting. It attracted people." Mietta O'Donnell
Her surname comes from her Scottish/Irish father. Her interest in food from her mother's Italian forbears - her grandfather was Mario of Mario's - another Melbourne institution. But her father wanted her to do something more 'normal' and indeed she began her working life as a journalist. In fact in many ways she was an enlightened enabler rather than an exponent herself. But maybe it's these people who change things, not the actual 'creatives'.
Her eulogy at her funeral was given by her friend Wendy Harmer. I loved her closing lines.
"I know that forever in my mind I will be walking through a door and see her there, her hands gently clasped, a perfect size eight in her little silk suit from Milan, her hair “just so” and her little golden Cretan bee earrings and pendant shining in the soft light of the lamps … and that enigmatic smile.
A bit like the Mona Lisa now I think about it.
And I’m also thinking that at last they have in heaven someone who truly understands seating arrangements. What an asset she will be." Wendy Harmer
