'Focus' on food in Melbourne

Oscar Mendelsohn is often referred to as a 'polymath', which essentially means that he is one of those people who managed to pack so much into one life that reading about them is exhausting.
Trained as a chemist he ran an analytical laboratory in Melbourne and was a great advocate of civilised dining but for a much more comprehensive account of all his interests and achievements see the entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography here
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During the 1960s he published a number of books which reflect his interest in food and drinking - such as From cellar and kitchen, A salute to onions: some reflections on cookery and cooks, A dictionary of drinks and drinking - and was a regular contributor to Epicurean magazine- 'a journal dedicated to the appreciation of the finer things' and the first Australian magazine devoted entirely to food and wine.

In the late 1940s Mendelsohn edited a short-lived journal called Australian Focus Monthly or just Focus. I am a bit hazy on the exact details of this publication. A journal called View, a journal of opinion  ran for four editions from February 1946 (volume 1, number 1) to May 1946 and then became Focus, the Australian journal of opinion for two editions, June (volume 1, number 5) and July 1946. The first edition under the title Focus Monthly was August 1946 (volume 1, number 7). Focus appears to have ceased publication with the edition for September 1948. In this journal Mendelsohn addressed the issues of interest to him with the aim of providing  his readers with a publication 'catering for intellectuals and presenting a point of view unbiased by party political prejudices or powerful sectional interests'.

The first Focus (June 1946) introduced a column called 'Alimentary'. Over the years this was authored by a variety of people and covered a range of topics. What interests me are the restaurant reviews.
The first 'Alimentary' was titled 'Eating in Melbourne' and began

As befits the second-largest Australian city with the worst climate, the drabbest architecture and the most wowsery controls, there has to be compensation somewhere, and Melbournites find one avenue of it in restaurants. There can be little doubt that the eating places of Melbourne are the best in Australia. By best I mean, of course, in quality of food. And to be good they have to be very much so - good in spite of the dearth of wine licenses and the puritanical prevention of anything that might tend to mitigate the effects of the winter, ten years of Country Party rule and the edicts of the Housewives' Association. ... For good cooking at reasonable prices, Melbourne is far ahead of every other Australian capital, and indeed, for food alone, not noticeably below civilised European and American standards.

The author of this paean to Melbourne signed himself 'Pot'. The editor describes 'Pot' as 'a regular contributor' who may have been L. L. Politzer.  Politzer was a writer and translator, originally from Munich, who wrote for 'Alimentary' under his own name in later editions (February 1947, September 1947).

Pot wrote enthusiastically about the Italian and Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. His Italian favourite was the Society Restaurant, 'a  pleasant place' where 'the minestrone and the spaghetti are always reliable'. The best value for money in Australia however was to be found at Nello Borghesi's Hoddle Restaurant in Collins Street. The San Lina, in Exhibition Street, is 'cheerless' but 'satisfactory'. Although not the place it had been, the Florentino remained 'steadily good' somewhere to be relied upon for 'civilised food and deft service'. Mario's also rated a mention as 'much improved'.

Pot's articles mention some of the changes in the restaurant culture wrought be the war years.  The Italian Society Restaurant had changed its name to simply the Society as 'a wartime concession', and Mario's had thrown off 'the hectic, pseudo-naughty atmosphere, and the rather arrogant attitude of the U.S. Army days'. The war years had meant austerity both in the home and in restaurants with controls on prices and a shortage of ingredients and of suitable staff. Some restaurants chose to close altogether. On the plus side war work brought many more civilian workers into the city and the arrival of American troops (in 1942 and 1943), who came with money in their pockets, meant even more mouths to feed and a reasonably prosperous time for some restaurants and cafes. Menus were often changed to accommodate the American's palates. As Pot's comments suggest their presence may not have always been to the good but their fondness for Chinese restaurants in particular is credited with being a milestone in the popularising of Chinese cuisine in Australia.

For the servicemen a Chinese restaurant was somewhere  cheap, a source of familiar food for many and particularly attractive because most were open late into the evening and open on Sundays.
Pot found the Chinese places, of which 'there are dozens, both in the city and in the suburbs', all 'reasonably satisfactory' although the best are 'outwardly repulsive or off the beaten track'.

In truth, you cannot go seriously wrong in any Melbourne Chinese place, provided it is not equipped with a radio or other obvious European improvement.

Although standards were down because of the difficulty of obtaining imported ingredients he could still recommend the Dim Sims, Bor Lor Kie and the Kie Sie Min. The Tien Tsin he claims as 'one of the best outfits of its kind in Australia' but his top choice is 'that repulsive dump, the Chung Wah'.

Other places Pot noted include the Melbourne Oyster Saloon for seafood, the 'solid, unpretentious, inexpensive' fare at Kanis (both of which he  later classifies as 'hearty, essentially masculine places', of which Melbourne has too few), the superb food (although perhaps not the floor show) at Claridge's, and the Riverside Inn where they were 'making a brave and commendable effort to provide fine food under civilised conditions' although he feared it would become very expensive once the war time controls on prices were removed. He was also able to recommend a handful of places in 'the two-bob and  under class' providing hearty meals. The meals at Melbourne hotels however were undistinguished and 'no better than they ought to be'.

By November 1946 the restraints of the war years were being cast off.

Many of the most interesting and civilised of the restaurants have been expanding, spring-cleaning, furnishing, re-allocating and generally showing a determined effort to consider the interests of customers.

Whilst there was still no question of 'the present superiority of Melbourne restaurants over those in Sydney', Sydney had taken 'a real advance towards a grown-up attitude to life' by introducing new liquor licensing laws making it possible for restaurants to serve light alcoholic beverages.
Staff numbers were returning to normal, more tables were available and the 'soddening influence' of the Americans was fading so that the diner could now expect to be greeted with 'smiles, good humour and an evident desire to please'.

Most of the places which closed during the war (usually restaurants attached to hotels) have reopened. The Society has opened a new upper floor, the standards at the Florentino remain high,  the Latin continues its 'good-natured service', and Molina's has come back to life setting 'a standard in the intimate, family type restaurant in the best Continental tradition' (although the meal he describes - antipasto, scalloped oysters, fried chicken, chunky fillet mignon and a rum omelette sounds unremarkable and not particularly 'continental'). Change has not however been all to the good. The Ritz in Lonsdale Street has been taken over by an Australian and now offers 'a drab menu of commonplace cooking'  reflecting a lamentable decline in standard.

Pot returned to the Melbourne restaurant scene in April 1948. All is still well, the standard of food and service continuing to improve but 'Mediterranean cooking, especially that of Italy, has almost monopolised the upper strata of Melbourne'.

Admiration though I have for the Italian alimentaria, I still regret the sameness that is creeping over our Melbourne eating houses. The pasta may be a little better here, the antipasto there, and so on, but these differences are not extreme. What one does miss in Melbourne is true variety.

Despite the Chinese restaurants and the Greek 'steak-a-d'oysts (quite Australian and extremely useful)', the afore mentioned Mediterranean places and the 'characterless' international fare to be had at the big hotels Pot felt that there should be more. Why no Scandinavian, or German or other Central European restaurants, and why not 'a first-class Indian establishment'?

Tired of Italian conformity Pot rated the Occidental Hotel in Collins Street as the best place to eat in Melbourne. Expensive yes, but good value. A close second was the London Hotel where the meal 'must be unsurpassed in the world to-day for value' - soup, fish, entree, poultry, sweets, coffee and salad could be had for an outlay of only 5/-.

Thirty years on much had changed of course although not perhaps the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. When Peter Smark compiled his Eating Out in Melbourne 1977 he did include one restaurant where the food was' basically Scandinavian' and one where the food was classified as 'Bavarian' out of a total of 125. In addition three Indian restaurants and three serving Hungarian food were also considered worthy of inclusion. The five Greek restaurants listed had moved beyond steak and oysters. Smark's selection also included 17 French restaurants, 18 Italian and eight classified as Cantonese. The biggest group, 42, fell into the catch-all of 'International'. Whilst it might still be true that the Italian restaurants had a certain sameness about them there can be no dispute that Melbourne no longer lacked the variety to satisfy even a demanding critic like Pot.

To read more about the development of the restaurant scene in Melbourne see Charmaine O'Brien's Flavours of Melbourne. A culinary biography (Wakefield Press, 2008). The influence of American serviceman on the popularity of Chinese restaurants in Melbourne is covered by Barbara Nichol here.