Three minutes with Hayley O’Brien
As a child, Hayley O’Brien would sit on the kitchen bench and watch her mum cook. Now an award-winning chef, Hayley is making her mark at AGSA_eat at the Art Gallery of SA, focused on creating a dynamic art and dining experience.
Genevieve Tell me about your role at AGSA_eat.
Hayley I started here about three years ago. I wanted to create a welcoming space focusing on accessible, honest, local, seasonal menus with a lean towards modern Mediterranean flavours and style. I’m also focused on making the Art Gallery of SA more of a cohesive art and dining destination. My thinking is if I want to eat it, then other people will, too.
Genevieve What ingredients and flavours do you love to create with?
Hayley I’ve always loved preserved lemon, it’s such a great way to ramp up the flavour of a dish. Good quality capers are great too, they add a little burst of salty flavour that just lift so many dishes to the next level. On the spring menu, I have a classic beef carpaccio served in a similar way to the original from Harry’s Bar in 1950. The dish is famously named after painter Vittore Carpaccio for his use of red and white colour palettes. It just made sense to have it on the menu at the art gallery.
Genevieve What are your earliest memories of cooking?
Hayley Cooking with my mum. From the time I was very little, Mum would prop me up on the kitchen bench next to her while she cooked and teach me about ingredients and let me stir the batter. We made a lot of banana and chocolate cake from an old Women’s Weekly cookbook that was falling apart. Mum still uses that book today. As I got older, Mum would ask what I wanted to do on the weekend and I’d answer every time, “make a cake”. We always had jars full of homemade Anzac biscuits or peanut butter cookies. When my cousins came to visit, they would race straight to the cookie jar. As I grew up, I kept cooking and collecting recipes. I always felt at home in the kitchen, maybe it is just in my DNA.
Genevieve When did you know you wanted to be a chef?
Hayley I think when I was in high school. I was collecting a lot of recipes and cooking a lot, so it was a no-brainer that I wanted to cook professionally. I applied at Regency TAFE for the commercial cookery course and got an interview. I was determined to get in because I had no fall-back option, cooking was all I wanted to do. I turned up to the interview with a folder of photos of food I had made (none of it fancy by any means) but it worked. I was accepted and placed in the diploma of hospitality course which includes certificates three, four and five.
Genevieve Tell me about some of the restaurants where you’ve worked.
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Hayley I started working at Chloe’s Restaurant when I was still at trade school. After my studies, I worked at Urban Bistro. I was so shy when I started, I barely spoke. I would just watch and learn from the other chefs. Working at Urban I learnt discipline, consistency, finesse and accountability. Everything was very structured and organised. I remember my first shift there; I was on breakfast with (owner) Bethany Finn. Urban won awards for their breakfasts. She showed me how she wanted the eggs cooked and then said, “you’ll be fine, just do what I say”. We smashed out 180 breakfasts, just the two of us, over the following three hours, with her toasting bread and calling dockets and me cooking eggs and bacon.
Genevieve What do you love to cook at home?
Hayley At the moment, I am loving cumquats, I have four trees in my front yard so I’m looking at ways to use the fruit. I’ve just made a big batch of cumquat preserve for our cheese plates at AGSA_eat, as well. I’m also loving Aleppo pepper – I use it on everything at home from spaghetti to scrambled eggs. Most of what I cook at home is basic. I tend to meal prep on my days off so I have food for the week when I get home from work. To relax, I love to spend time with my golden retrievers Hudson, Ivy and Sophie. Taking them to the golden retriever club fun days or just chilling out at home.
This story was first published in the November 2024 edition of SALIFE Magazine.
