A Moment For: The Cheffy Potato Hash at Kiln

Isobel Whelan-Little’s CV was impressive way before she became the Ace Hotel’s first culinary director, having worked previously at the likes of London’s Brat, the now-closed LP’s Quality Meats and Caterpillar Club. Her current role has just expanded to include leading Kiln, at the top of the Sydney hotel. But we’re here to chat about the potatoes.

This snacky little dish is an evolution of one Whelan-Little cooked with Luke Powell at LP’s Quality Meats – a potato hash with taramasalata and bottarga, which she “misses every day”. The golden slabs “taste like Macca’s, but better”, according to the chef.

They’re just one dish on a first solo Kiln menu (until recently she was working alongside Noma alum Beau Clugston) that brings a bit more punchiness, a bit more fun, to the offering. Her “bun mi” riffs on a banh mi with LP’s mortadella and chicken liver parfait, and her pretty serve of steamed pippies arrives in a jammy flavour-packed sambal butter. There are two-bite crescents of tempura pumpkin, with a squiggle of comté custard, and a sweet serve of squat little madeleines that arrive on a bed of shells.

“I want the menu to be really nimble, to be reactive to what our producers bring in that

week,” Whelan-Little says. “The harissa paste ended up on the menu as we wanted to find a way to use Living Earth’s surplus of peppers, and the pumpkin tempura was initially a way to use 14 kilos of baby pumpkins that came in, but has stuck around as a clear favourite. It reminds me of eating Laughing Cow cheese as a kid. Nostalgia is a big driver in the way I cook and that allows an element of fun to come out, even in a dish that’s refined.”

There will always be a large dish primed to share, starting with a dry-aged whole duck that’s served two ways (roasted, and made into a sausage), with house-made pickles and tangy hoisin spiked with rhubarb on the side.

Now, back to the potatoes – here are all the details.

What: confit potato with miso-cured egg.
How: potatoes are roasted then turned into a rough mash that’s pressed into a slab and sliced into thick rectangles. They are cooked slowly in oil, then get a quick fry to-order. Three crispy slabs of confit potato arrive with a sunny pool of smoked butter, made over the open kiln. A cured and smoked egg yolk is then finely grated over the top.
Cost: $20
Where: Kiln, Sydney

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