Uses for Obsession

Ben Shewry is a chef and restaurateur who knows obsession well, whether it is crispy-edged lasagne, saltwater crocodile ribs or the perfect potato. Obsession is what drives him, and it has carried his Melbourne restaurant Attica to international prominence among innovative dining experiences. Uses for Obsession is part memoir and part manifesto. Shewry turns a sometimes searing, sometimes comic eye on creative freedom in the kitchen, food journalism, sexism in hospitality, the sham of the farm-to-table sustainability ethos, the cult of the chef and the Family Bolognese.

He grew up on a farm in a close-knit rural New Zealand family. He describes how a childhood among nature and a respect for First People's cultures shaped his work, the values he lives by, and the meticulous, inventive multi-course menu that Attica is known for.

The book also tells the intimate and desperate story of how Attica survived 262 days with an empty dining room. During a period of upheaval across hospitality, it became a takeaway food business, a merch shop and a summer camp. Shewry was told it could not be done, and that doubt both tortured and drove him.

At its heart this is a positive story and a counterweight to the macho chef culture built on old ideas of leadership and success. Shewry makes the case for a new way forward, a blueprint for the restaurant and the workplace of the future, built on kindness, community, truth and a refusal to give up.