New Hire: Dinner by Heston and Etta Alum Jett Alexander Is Osteria Ilaria’s New Head Chef

Jett Alexander has been in the industry for 15 years, having started a pre-apprenticeship during high school. Now he works as head chef at Conferre Group (Hot-Listed Tipo 00, Hot-Listed Harriot) restaurant Osteria Illaria, a role he took on in May. The Western Australian-raised chef has worked in the kitchen of celebrated Perth fine diner Restaurant Amuse, the Hot-Listed Etta and Dinner by Heston, where he worked with the likes of Tarts Anon founder Gareth Whitton, Chinese-ish author Rosheen Kaul and Bar Olo head chef Aleksis Kalnins.

We caught up with Alexander to find out about his career so far and what he has in store for the beloved Little Bourke Street restaurant.

When did you become interested in food?
With Italian and Māori heritage, food has always been my family’s love language. Some of my earliest memories are the typical cliché of flour falling on my face as I peered up from under the table where my Nonna or Nonno sat, hand-rolling pasta. I also remember getting roped into competitions with my cousins at a packed hāngī over who got to suck the brains out of the fish head – the crown jewel, according to my dad.

How did you wind up at Dinner by Heston?
I moved to Melbourne and was hunting for the best places to sharpen my skills. Within a week, I landed a job at No. 8 by John Lawson at Crown. I was there for three weeks before realising we shared a lift with the team at Dinner by Heston. I bumped into an old colleague who buzzed me into the show kitchen. Pretending to be lost, I made a beeline for the guy who looked in charge, Evan Moore, and asked if he’d give me a job. I spent a couple of years there, rubbing shoulders and making friends with some of the most talented chefs of our generation. One of them, Rosheen, became my partner years later.

After Dinner, I moved home to Perth to regroup and plan another adventure. I spent a few years before, during and after Covid as executive chef at Sneakers & Jeans hospitality group. But as soon as borders reopened, I moved back to Melbourne – it just felt more like my vibe. Rosheen offered me a rockstar shift at Etta, which turned into a year or so.

How did you end up at Osteria Ilaria?
When Rosheen left Etta, I was back on the hunt for that same spark I got from going to work and cooking good food. I trawled Scout and came across an ad for a chef position at Osteria Ilaria. I didn’t realise it was for a pastry role, but fortune favours the brave and possibly crazy and cocky. Andreas [Papadakis, of Conferre Group] called me in for a chat and I landed an informal conversation with his trusted head chef of many years, Jack Ives [now executive chef at Osteria Ilaria and Harriot]. This turned out to be the first step toward taking over Ilaria.

What’s changing and what’s staying the same now that you’re the head chef?
I’m not here to reinvent the wheel, it’s more like it’s my time to drive the flavour bus. My style fits right in with what Ilaria is best known for: clean, delicious and thoughtful food.

What’s inspiring you in the kitchen right now?
I’m often a bit off-script; balancing the perfect dish is like translating your imagination into flavour. Where some might call for acid, I think about what kind of acid, or what it means to the dish. A sweet pickle is acid too, right? Same goes for salt or seasoning, why not use hard spices like white pepper or toasted fennel seed to cure and shape a dish from the base?

What’s a dish that you’re particularly excited about?
A good example of going “off-script” is our duck dish. Typically, it’s been duck, cherries and braised cabbage. But cherries are out of season, so I had to break down what cherries bring to the dish, which is sweetness, acidity and a taut glossy texture. Enter purple carrots.

I hot-smoke and dehydrate them with pomegranate molasses. The dehydration concentrates their flavour and the molasses adds sweet-sour depth, creating something that eats like cooked fruit but still has that firm, cherry-like texture. When diced and finished with jus, it plays beautifully with the duck. Ideas like this are endless – and I’m sure there are plenty more to come as I continue collaborating with incredible producers and dive into upcoming events.

What are you looking forward to?
I’m doing a lunch event with Trisha Greentree at Ilaria on Sunday July 27. We’ve been back and forth on a collaborative menu for a while now. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’ll be familiar, fun and from the heart.