Coomer’s truffles no trifling indulgence

David Coomer is spending a lot less time in the kitchen these days, but he hasn’t turned his back on the industry completely. Amy French reports.

CELEBRATED restaurateur David Coomer is much more likely to be found on his Manjimup truffle farm these days than in the kitchen, following the closure of his acclaimed Star Anise restaurant earlier this year.

And that’s just how he likes it.

Mr Coomer and his wife, Kareen, bought the farm in Manjimup three years ago as a family weekender, 11 years after they first opened Star Anise in Shenton Park, which they had turned into one of the most sought after fine dining experiences in Perth.

Mr Coomer still commutes regularly to the city to help out at Pata Negra, the Spanish restaurant he opened with long-time friend Kurt Sampson in 2009, but he says the new venture is set up so he can be less hands-on than at Star Anise.

The former WA Business News 40under40 winner hopes to trade in his apron for life on the farm full time if his trufferie is a success, but knows the dream is a little way off as it will be at least five years before he sees any kind of produce.

 “There wasn’t really a business plan. We just sort of had this idea that we’d whack a few truffles in … it was more just a getaway really, a family weekender,” Mr Coomer says.

“Really, truffles was just putting something on it, value-adding the property, and giving me another interest for restaurant after-life which hopefully might turn a quid.”

More recently, however, that idea turned into a serious business venture, and the Coomers invested a “reasonable” amount of money in the farm on trees and setting up an irrigation system. 

At this stage the trees have been in a greenhouse for a year and Mr Coomer says that, like any orchard, it will take time to establish; but he hopes they will show truffles in five years.

Some kind of commercial production is expected in about eight to 10 years.

Moving out of the kitchen onto a farm has been a relearning experience for the talented chef, who grew up on Sydney’s north shore and trained as an apprentice boat builder before moving to Kings Cross, where he began his cooking career working in a bar in Newtown.

Mr Coomer moved to Perth after meeting Kareen and worked at No. 44 King St with Mr Sampson.

His only link to farming is through his mother, who was a horticulturalist, and Mr Coomer says although he’s made lots of mistakes, done lots of “dumb things”, and had a lot of people laughing at him, it has been a really nice transition.

“It’s a bit different to restaurant world. There, (on the farm) there’s always tomorrow,” he says. 

Mr Coomer credits his friend and fellow truffle farm owner Al Blakers as being a great help with the truffle farm, offering advice and loaning equipment.

Mr Coomer has no plan to take on any new challenges in the restaurant world but hopes instead to spend 10 per cent of his time in the city (where he spoke to WA Business News) and the rest down south.

“Hopefully this place [Pata Negra] will still be running but that’s what I want to do, potentially I want to be down in the country, not here,” Mr Coomer says.

With the large international demand for truffles Mr Coomer could be onto a winner, but he’s well aware of potential challenges he could face. 

“It’s a whole different set of logistics; there’s the waiting time for it all to happen and whether the market’s going to stay good for truffles,” Mr Coomer told WA Business News.

He says another issue is that a lot of other small trufferies are likely to come on line at the same time.

With that in mind, he says, there have been talks about forming a cooperative of sorts to keep truffle prices stable.

Truffle farmers can earn anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 a kilogram.

“Between me and a couple of other people we’re obviously discussing fairly heavily where it’s going to go and hoping to form a cooperative between certain growers,” Mr Coomer says.

Last year, Manjimup held its first truffle festival to showcase the Truffle Kerfuffle, which Mr Coomer says he hopes will grow to become a much bigger event next year.

“Next year’s one, we’re hoping will be bigger and better organised without sort of making it too slick because at the end of the day it’s Manjimup, you don’t want it to be too fancy,” he says.