Five minutes with: Attica's Ben Shewry

LIFE+STYLE chats to chef Ben Shewry from Victorian establishment Attica, which has made the S.Pellegrino World's 100 Best Restaurants list again this year:

1. What is the best thing you have tasted?

I ate 25 tacos in five days on a trip through LA (in 2009). They were the traditional soft white corn type and I am now a devoted taco fanatic.

2. What is your favourite dish to prepare?

I love Spag Bol - it's a hard dish to do really well but I've rarely had a version I didn't enjoy on some level. It's deeply satisfying.

3. What has been your biggest cooking blunder (ie has anything ever gone wrong for you in the kitchen - even as an apprentice)?

Every day we have a blunder - it is almost like a rule of learning here. Most are kind of deliberate; as in "what if we try it this way" and it fails. But of course eventually one day it will work and that's how we progress. Of course these "experiments" are never served to guests.

4. Why do you love food and cooking?

It's the best fun - I've been around it my whole life and it's not my only passion but it sure seems like a good day to while away the days. That and the endless learning - if you have a restless mind like myself then it's the perfect career.

5. Finish this sentence:

When I retire I will . . . surf every day. . . .