Two Top Chefs Are Making Things on Sticks at Collingwood Pop-Up Rutsu

Former Ishizuka head chef Shin Kato is a regular at Mo Zhou’s Collingwood fine diner Gaea. Last year when Kato left his role at the Japanese restaurant, where dinner is $315 before drinks, Zhou posed a question: “Why don’t we open a restaurant?”

“We talked about the style and food we could serve [that’s] a little bit more interesting – what doesn’t Melbourne have? – we ended up going to kushikatsu,” Zhou says. The deep-fried skewers, typically of panko-coated meat, vegetables or cheese, are a popular Osakan street snack, but relatively hard to find in Melbourne (though they feature on the dinner menu at Carlton’s new katsu spot Atsu). 

For now, Kato and Zhou’s restaurant concept Rutsu is a five-day pop-up running at Gaea from Wednesday January 7 until Sunday January 11. But the aim is to make it a standalone venue. 

At the pop-up, you’ll find nine types of kushikatsu, all available à la carte with veggie skewers for $6.50 and others for $9.50 each. “Traditionally, [the skewers] are just coated with a fine panko,” Zhou says. But the two chefs decided to use Cobb Lane sourdough trim left over from the toasties sold at Hot Listed Calere, the cafe connected to Gaea run by Zhou’s partner Alicia Feng (the two are also behind Collingwood ochazuke cafe Chiaki). “Only using sourdough doesn’t really work. It deep-fries a little bit too quickly. We found a ratio using sourdough and a bit of the panko. It started [as a way] to use up everything, but sourdough gives them a much crunchier texture.” 

Rather than the usual dipping sauce, the duo has made salts, gels, sauces and purees to pair with different skewers. A kangaroo skewer is served with lemon gel, and a baby abalone skewer with a sauce made from abalone liver. There’s also pine needle mayo, shiso vinegar gel, saltbush salt and grated nasturtium seed, which Zhou says has a similar flavour to wasabi. 

In addition to kushikatsu, there are also some non-skewered dishes including potato salad, Wagyu tartare and chawanmushi. Charles Duan, who oversees the drinks at Gaea, will also design some special cocktails for the pop-up.

Bookings for Rutsu are available via restaurantgaea.com.au/reservation. Rutsu runs from Wednesday January 7 until Sunday January 11 at 1/166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.