Canberra-born Chef Georgia Lahiff is bringing her experiences cooking in Rome to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration at Lunetta Trattoria. Photo: Supplied.
Canberra Chef Georgia Lahiff will collaborate with Will Moyle of Lunetta Trattoria for a one-day experience of communal tables, gregarious Italian hospitality and plenty of Roman-style dishes made with local ingredients. The pair met when Georgia did a collab with Paranormal Wines 18 months ago, and the two have been waiting for the chance to cook together ever since.
Georgia Lahiff grew up in Ainslie, in a “food-centric household” and started her chef’s apprenticeship at Pulp Kitchen while still studying year 11 and 12 at Dickson College.
“I was a little bit hesitant because of the reputation of kitchens at the time … but I loved it! And it gave me such a foundation in European and French techniques,” Georgia told Region.
“I worked with a fantastic chef who was from London, and he told me that I should use this tool to travel the world.”
Which is exactly what she did!
Packing her bags for a three-month gap year in Europe, 18-year-old Georgia ended up staying on a two-year working visa in London. She found a job with the recently deceased Michelin-starred Australian chef Skye Gyngell at Spring, a restaurant focused on using local, seasonal produce, which cemented her love for the hospitality industry.
Chef Will Moyle leads the kitchen at Lunetta Trattoria. Photo: Lunetta Trattoria/Lillie Thompson.
Georgia then found herself working for the Rome Sustainable Food Project, cooking for art residents as part of a program founded by iconic farm-to-table pioneer Alice Waters. This experience gave her an insight into a different way of thinking about food.
“At that point, I’d had about eight years of restaurant experience, and it was a real shift in how I looked at cooking. Because we were cooking for the same community twice a day, five days a week, over six months, we were really thinking about nourishment,” she said.
“It’s about coming around the table, having a conversation, and food was the vehicle that got everyone there. I really connected with that idea.”
This experience was the inspiration for what Georgia calls a ‘freelance approach’ to cooking, which involves pop-ups and collaborations with different restaurants around the world.
This led her to something of a homecoming, returning to Canberra to cook at Lunetta Trattoria with Chef Will Moyle.
Golden hour is the perfect time to enjoy the view of Canberra from the top of Red Hill. Photo: Lunetta Trattoria.
La Tavolata – which translates to ‘tableful’ – will be a one-day-only celebration of communal dining, fire-driven cooking and local produce. Living Earth Farm near Young will be supplying baby globe artichokes, and Spring lamb will be served with Lazio-style cacciatora, made with what Georgia describes as Rome’s ‘holy trinity’ of ingredients – anchovies, garlic and rosemary.
“Lunetta has brought a really refreshing style of Italian cooking to Canberra, and they were very open to my ideas of making this event a communal feast,” Georgia said.
“The whole team has been fantastic and really welcoming. This will be something fun and different to what they usually do.”
La Tavolata will be held on Sunday, 7 December, at Lunetta Trattoria, multiple sittings, bookings essential. Lunetta Trattoria is located on the ground floor of the Red Hill Lookout, 60 Red Hill Drive. Follow Lunetta Trattoria on Instagram.
