What Chef Adam Woodfield Is Serving This Season – and the Surprising Ingredients Behind It

With 10 menus to oversee across the various dining outlets of the Quincy Hotel Melbourne, Adam Woodfield’s role as executive chef is anything but typical. Daily operations are a delicate balancing act of creativity, logistics and leadership, with a particular focus on seasonal food.

At Salted Egg, on the first floor of the Flinders Lane property, Woodfield brings a modern twist to traditional Southeast Asian flavours, curating a dynamic menu that caters to both Quincy Hotel guests and local diners. Beyond lunch and dinner, he’s responsible for breakfast offerings, room service and a snack menu for rooftop bar The Q.

The key to keeping things fresh? Incorporating seasonal produce and unique ingredients into every aspect of the menu, ensuring variety for both his team and customers. Here, Woodfield shares how this commitment shapes his time in the kitchen and your experience at the table.

A day in the life of a hotel chef

For Woodfield, being an executive chef isn’t just about creative menu decisions – it’s about maintaining a personal connection with his team and suppliers, even when the schedule is relentless. A typical week sees him spending four days on the line with his team, supporting them and ensuring everything runs smoothly.

“You hear a lot of stories about executive chefs just doing the walkabout, checking everything’s okay,” Woodfield says. “That’s not in my DNA.”
The remaining day is dedicated to admin: meetings, approvals and ordering. At Salted Egg alone, Woodfield manages not only breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, but also alternative options for guests with dietary requirements and two specially selected “feed me” set menus. With a rotating and expansive line-up, it’s vital to stay one step ahead.

Regional techniques take centrestage

It’s when you spend time on the line that real creativity and collaboration happens. As the cooler months approach, Woodfield is preparing to roll out a new menu focused on dishes from southern Thailand, known for their heady, heavily spiced flavours. Alongside these regional recipes, his team is also introducing some fresh ideas.

Take the Hat Yai chicken, named after the city in Thailand. “One of my chefs introduced me to this dish,” says Woodfield. “He found it hard to find a good version here in Melbourne.” The dish is marinated for two days in coconut milk, fish sauce and spices, then coated in a tapioca and rice flour batter, deep-fried, and served with house-made sweet chilli sauce.

Another standout is the pad cha stir-fry, an earthy, spicy northern Thai dish made with squid and various aromatics including green peppercorns. “It’s a tricky one to land fresh, but we’ve secured a weekly delivery from growers on the east coast,” Woodfield says. “We’re really excited about this one.”

For vegetarians, the new menu also introduces a creamy southern Thai curry, which blends the aniseed flavours of celeriac – which has just come into season – with the peppery bite of betel leaf, all simmered in a golden turmeric-infused sauce.

“We didn’t think it would work, but it’s like a marriage made in heaven.”

Sourcing and seasonality

Despite Salted Egg’s broad international influences, Woodfield remains committed to supporting local suppliers. “We’ve got a very tight relationship with our fruit and veg supplier,” he says, ensuring they can access harder-to-find ingredients like betel leaves, which have become a staple at the restaurant. “We go through about two kilos a week. It used to be really hard to source, but now it’s a lot easier.”

The kitchen also draws inspiration from producers like Melbourne Mushrooms, which supplies Salted Egg with lion’s mane mushrooms. On the new menu, they’re brushed with sweet soy and mushroom oyster sauce, roasted, finished on the grill, and tossed into a herb-heavy salad.

Even though the dish is vegetarian, it’s gaining popularity among meat-eaters. It’s currently featured on both the $39 express lunch menu and the vegetarian “feed me” menu.

For Woodfield, every menu shift brings new ingredients, new techniques and an opportunity to push the kitchen in exciting new directions. His latest lunch and dinner menu is available at Salted Egg daily from midday. Breakfast is also available between 7am and 11am.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Quincy Hotel Melbourne.