Jason Staudt is Executive Chef at Stokehouse Restaurant and Stoke Pasta & Bar, in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda.
Staudt, who hails from the Canadian city of Calgary, first attended the Australian Open in 2019 and became "hooked".
He has since deepened his relationship with the tournament thanks to Stokehouse's Premium Experience offering at AO 2023.
> AO PREMIUM EXPERIENCES: contact the team on premiumexperiences@tennis.com.au
We sat down with Staudt to discuss his interest in tennis, being a fan at the Australian Open, and how it was to see AO Stokehouse come to life at the 2023 tournament.
AO: Jason, firstly, are you a tennis fan?
JS: I’ll be honest, I come from a big sporting family – my mom loves tennis and watched it most of my life. I never really got into it until I moved to Melbourne in 2019 and had my first AO experience. Then I was hooked! My mom has come out from Canada the last two years to visit during the tennis, and we’ve had plenty of great experiences on the grounds.
Who is your favourite tennis player right now?
Félix Auger-Aliassime: all court tennis player – bright future of the sport in Canada.
How was your first AO experience with AO Stokehouse?
We had a great first year, plenty of learnings & lots of planning, but a very successful first run. Big volume always makes me a bit nervous – but working with the AO team was a fantastic experience.
What was your highlight of this year’s AO? Both in the restaurant, and on the court?
I’d say the highlight at AO Stokehouse was seeing the restaurant set up come to life. The room looked stunning and felt very much like Stokehouse in St Kilda – you walked into the space and felt instantly relaxed. As for on the court – it was really great to see the next generation of players really pushing through. Next year will be just as exciting!
Were you able to sneak off to a tennis match or two?
Yes, for sure – Day 2 is always my favourite day, jumping around the smaller courts. My mom of course wants to see all the Canadians, so we bounce around trying to catch all of them. We got to see a lot of exciting matches, including the semifinal with Khachanov and Tsitsipas.
Tell us about your signature AO dessert – the Lemonade Fruit Eton Mess ‘Tennis Ball’.
Yes, Ashley Smith our pastry chef served an absolute ace there. Ash, being English, took a classic English dessert, Eton Mess, and had a bit of fun with it. We wanted to create something memorable for our tennis guests. Simply made up of lemon sherbert and white chocolate coating that was sprayed like a tennis ball. A special memory will be watching 450 of those run through the restaurant before guests had to leave for the match. All these bright green balls running through the room. Fantastic!
The seasons are changing, and winter is close in Melbourne. What are some of the dishes we can expect to see coming onto the Stokehouse menu in St Kilda this season?
We've had a great season of tomatoes this year which is still going wild enough, but we have started to swap to more autumn flavours as the temperature drops. We're working on a smoked Tasmanian abalone, abalone mushroom with burnt butter & muntries as a hot entrée. As for the fish – the Wild Caught Barramundi season has started – coming from Karumba/Gulf of Carpentaria, the Barramundi feed on prawns to ensure their flesh is super rich and succulent. We are serving with Ramarro Farm’s delicata squash & moonfish nduja sauce. Absolute cracker! You’ll also find a change to a few of the pastas on the Stoke Pasta & Bar menu as well to bring a bit more warmth to the beach.