What gets Danielle Alvarez out of bed in the morning? The short answer, she says, is that she has fun in her job. The long answer tunes into her impressive resume; the one that saw her headhunted by Merivale top dog Justin Hemmes and flown from California to be head chef at Sydney’s much-anticipated new restaurant, Fred’s.

Alvarez had spent four years working as a chef at Chez Panisse: the Berkeley institution credited with pioneering the sustainable food movement. Fred’s – which will open in Paddington this week – has been in the works for over two years and in that time has whipped up a frenzy in the food press: slated to be Merivale’s most ambitious restaurant yet; set to turn menu development on its head. And so in what way is Alvarez creating her own revolution on Oxford Street? By stripping away the frippery of food and letting produce do the talking.

Alvarez approaches her ingredients in the same way Chez Panisse does. “Essentially it’s simplicity done really, really well (I hope!), nothing tricky or artificial. It’s all very honest. What you see on the plate is exactly what it is.” But where Chez Panisse can be classified as mostly French and Italian fare, Alvarez is influenced by a wide range of cultures, she says. Her menus will be fluid; changing each day according to what’s come in from the local farms and farmers.

“Change must be constant in order to get the best out of everything you use, because nothing stays the same for very long,” she explains. “You can have a loose plan but as you get into it your direction may change – you might want to pickle the onions instead of roasting them because they weren’t as sweet as you thought they would be [for example]. This requires a great deal of trust and faith in your chefs; it’s challenging in a good way. Once you get into that mindset, every day can feel like a new, fresh little package that begins and ends; whereas menus without much change can drag you down into complacency – you forget to taste and think and judge.”

Cooking by flame helps to stave off complacency too: the food at Fred’s will be centred around a wood-fired hearth. Nothing else can achieve the flavour that wood fire can impart, says Alvarez, but also “cooking with live fire forces you to be very aware, present and focused. You have to plan and anticipate which I hope makes the chefs more engaged. I know it works for me like that.”

The menu at Fred’s will be à la carte. And while this might buck the current trend for sharing plates in Sydney, for Alvarez everything she does comes back to people and community.

So what does get her out of bed in the morning? “The longer answer is that I believe that cooking like this and sourcing like this can have a tremendous impact on culture and society. It teaches you to be more sensitive and aware of the entire system because what may seem like a simple meal actually involves so many people in your local community. When you can look at something like a carrot and recognise the hands that grew it, how long it took to grow, the person who delivered it and the chefs that are cooking it, you start to see things differently – you appreciate them so much more.

It forces you not to take things for granted. And not just on the back end – some of life’s greatest moments are shared over a beautiful meal. I like being able to create that for someone, to be in some way a part of that.”

Fred’s is opening on Oxford Street, Paddington on the 25th of October. Image credits: Anson Smart.