A new Italian restaurant in Melbourne has put hemp at the centre of its cooking. Hemp Kitchen manages to include hemp – legalised for consumption in Australia since November 2017 – in all of its dishes.
"Higher living without the high," is the motto of the restaurant, whose founders say they are motivated by hemp's nutritional value rather than the plant's connection to marijuana or drug culture.
Hemp used in food in Australia must contain less than 0.5 per cent of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The versatile plant has now been introduced in various dishes and recipes throughout the world, adding different vegetable proteins and amino-acids to dishes, and allowing the creation of new gluten-free recipes.
Flour made from hemp, hemp oil and hemp seeds are the main consumable byproducts of the plant. The founding trio of Hemp Kitchen worked hard to develop their recipes to include these components in authentic-tasting Italian recipes.
Manager Emanuele Cereda, pizza maker Vittorio Nasti, and chef Leone Pantani say it was a challenge to weave hemp into their recipes - particularly in the doughs used for pasta and pizza - but it's one they believe they have surpassed.
"We had to do many, many tests," says Cereda. "Before opening we would often meet in the kitchen to study and experiment with the dough to be able to make the basic dough we use for making pasta, pizza and bread.
"We use gluten-free flours and hemp flour, and combine them into something that could, for example, taste like a normal pizza without anyone noticing. I can say that today we have done it. Many people who do not know that it is gluten-free do not notice it, and this is very satisfying for us."
Cereda and his business partners have always worked in the restaurant and hospitality business. Nasti comes from a family of traditional Italian pizza makers himself.
"With a bit of passion, a little curiosity and enjoying the challenge, we have revisited the classic dishes of Italian cuisine by trying them on re-adjust to modern cuisine dishes that are based more on health," says Cereda.
In Australia many restaurants have recently introduced hemp to their menus, especially among those focused on alternative cuisines, offering customers health-conscious, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free dishes. In Nimbin, NSW, for example there is also the Nimbin Hemp Bar, but Hemp Kitchen is the first restaurant in Victoria where hemp is in every dish on the menu.
Vittorio Nasti, pizzaiolo, Leone Pantani, chef, Emanuele Cereda, manager Source: SBS Italian
"Hemp Kitchen is for everyone," Cereda says. "It is a much more nutritious and lighter cuisine. Because it is gluten-free, even people who do not suffer from coeliac disease feel the dough is easier to digest."
Starting a business in a foreign country "was not an easy choice and it is not easy to carry out," Cereda says, "especially because Melbourne is a very competitive place. But I think that here, if you really want something, you'll find the opportunities to get it."
The trio say that soon they hope to run cooking classes at Hemp Kitchen to share the tricks with the customers about how to integrate hemp in Italian cuisine. When they'll start has not yet been revealed to us but ... stay tuned, we will let you know as soon as they pass the information!
