Influential providore of Korean ingredients
Paul Lee, the Sydney providore who heavily influenced the dishes of some of Australia's best restaurants, passed away on Sunday.
His death brought about an outpouring of condolences on social media from leading chefs, including Neil Perry, Andrew McConnell, Phil Wood and Peter Gilmore.
Firedoor head chef Lennox Hastie said there are no words for the loss of such a great man: "Thank you for sharing your amazing passion for Korean ingredients and enriching our lives and inspiring us as chefs."
Lee's death is not related to COVID-19. He collapsed with a heart attack on April 17, and spent the past week in intensive care. He was 54.
Frustrated by the quality of Korean food products available in Australia, Lee and his wife, Idylle, opened in Melbourne in 2012, supplying top-flight restaurants such as Brae, before relocating to Sydney in 2017 to be closer to a posse of ravenous Sydney chefs eager to get their hands on produce such as its hand-harvested seaweed.
The product, from their shop Table 181, popped up as an ingredient everywhere from Bridge Room to Momofuku Seiobo and Bentley.
Sally Gosper, from Two Providores in Sydney, describes Peter Gilmore's hand-harvested seafood dish at Quay as a perfect example of letting the "integrity" of the brown rice vinegar and virgin soy shine.
"Paul was a lot like the products he represented - complex, full of integrity and completely charming," Gosper says.