Wilma opens its doors today, Friday 3 December, in the heart of the city, brought to life by founder and Head Chef of the late and great Biota Dining – James Viles.
Other than for the two-hatted Bowral restaurant, Viles is esteemed as the Culinary Director of Harvac Group, allowing him to oversee the menus of cult-favourite establishments like Akiba, Kokomos, Loquita, and Sage.
He brings his newest Asian-Australian menu to Canberrans through the skill of head chef Brendan Hill.
“I lived and worked in Hong Kong and Shanghai for a while, and I love eating and cooking Southern Asian barbecue. It’s been a huge part of the last 20 years of my life,” said Viles. Even at Biota he considered installing lazy susans on every table.
Wilma has 200+ capacity, and a custom-made, two-tier konro yakitori grill, weighing just over half a tonne and made out of black steel by a local blacksmith.
Viles will be cooking a lot more than yakitori on this creation. The barbecue section will see the likes of roasted duck, char siu pork, and a chilli beef short rib finished over the coals and then glazed.
He plans on sourcing local native timbers to work with in the smoker – red gum and spotted gum – to add an Australian element to infamous Asian flavours.
A sister bar, The Pearl, is also situated inside Wilma featuring Asian inspired cocktails such as an Osaka old fashioned, and lychee dragon fruit Margarita.
Wilma also homes a live raw bar, with chefs slicing sashimi and shucking oysters in front of diners.
The snacks menu is where you will find san choy bow, prawn toast with Davidson plum sweet and sour sauce, and even a WILMA sausage sandwich with bulldog sauce.
Viles’ favourite dish on the menu can be found in the wok section.
“I really love XO pippis; I don’t know any chef who doesn’t,” he says. “We’re doing ours with what we call a ‘wastage XO sauce’, which uses the leftover fish frames from the sashimi bar. Instead of shallots, we’ll serve our XO pippis with stir-fried Warrigal greens and, of course, the fried bread on the side.”
Viles’ commitment to sustainability also takes form in native Australian and locally sourced ingredients appearing on the menu, like ducks from nearby Tarago and truffles from Majura.
“We’re not traditional Central or Southern Asian cuisine. We’re taking those flavours that Australians have fallen in love with since the 1960s,” says Viles. “There’s a Chinese restaurant in every regional Australian town … Australian culture was adapted to them, we love them. It doesn’t matter who you are, we all love it.”
You’ll find Wilma at 1 Genge Street, Canberra City.
To find out more visit WILMAbbq.com.au
