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RETIREMENT & LIFESTYLE PLANNING | |
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Ian Parmenter is a lucky man. As we talk, he is sitting in a leather armchair in front of the slow-combustion fire, with a glass of his own wine in his hand. The house is newly built and spacious, with a broad terrace that l
ooks on to the vegetable garden and the vineyard. Beyond that is Margaret River and the lush bush of south-west Western Australia.
There’s more, too. “I’m 57, and I’ve never had more energy,” says Ian. He’s never been busier, never been so involved in community life.
He has never looked better, either. He looks his age, and it suits him: he’s a man comfortable with himself and his life. Not fussed about going bald, not feeling the need to work on his image.
It’s a great life for the man known around Australia for being the bloke in the kitchen, promoting cooking and Australian food. His five-minute segments on ABC television ran for 450 episodes, produced spin-off books, ideas, recipes, festivals, guest appearances.
The dream retirement didn’t just happen, however. He and his partner Ann Dewar didn’t wake up one morning and head south from Perth to fall into good times. The life that they now have is on a continuum, another stage of a journey.
The secret to the success? Like all good cooks, Ian knows about timing. He knows how to say yes, and when to get out. When to move on.
It’s a mistake to think he has retired. The television segment has ended, but he is still writing, still making appearances, still a crucial element in the bi-ennial Tasting Australia festival in Adelaide, and a passionate supporter of Margaret River and its food producers.
He’s a fine example of what new-style retirement means. He is an equally fine example of how working possibilities have changed. There’s always been the east coast view that the south-east is where everything happens in Australia. If you want to make it, you’ve got to be in Sydney, or maybe Melbourne. But he made his Australia-wide name from Perth, and he’s continuing to have Australia-wide input while based in a small town nearly 300 kilometres south of Perth.
His partner Ann Dewar says she retired seven years ago, but that’s not quite true. She retired from occupational therapy, and has moved on to her next working life. The new one involves vineyard management, the vegetable and fruit garden, and managing the business.
Their move to Margaret River began in an earlier working life. He was a television producer, working mainly in entertainment, producing broadcasts of the Australian Film Institute awards, Rock Arena, the America’s Cup and was commissioned to do the broadcast of one of the Leeuwin Estate concerts. It was the first of three – and it brought him to Margaret River, and in contact with Tricia Horgan of Leeuwin Estate.
“I fell in love with the place,” he said. “We decided we would spend more time here.” A property came up for sale as a deceased estate, and they bought it. “We didn’t know what we wanted the property for, didn’t dream we would live away from the capital city.”
The original plan was to plant timber for furniture, but one day over lunch at Maggie Beer’s in the Barossa Valley, the chief winemaker for Orlando changed their minds. “Phil Laffer said it would be criminal not to plant grapes,” remembers Ian. So they planted a hectare of chardonnay, and called the wine Artamis – the Latin name for the woodswallows that live on the property.
Ian’s big project is Tasting Australia, a multi-faceted festival that attracts food and wine lovers and epicurean writers from all over the world to Adelaide. It grew out of his failed attempts to interest the ABC in a half-hour Australian food show. No one was keen, but Ian was determined. He approached the South Australian government just after it had lost the Grand Prix to Melbourne, and the commitment was made for three festivals initially. Ian is now contracted for another three.
His involvement in food started when he was a boy. His father, a brewer for Whitbreads’s in England, was posted to Belgium when Ian was nine. “Somehow I felt I’d come home,” he says.
The family was originally Huguenot (French Protestant), and fled religious persecution in France to settle in Norfolk. There’s a church called St Peter Parmentergate in Norfolk that is probably a reminder of the family connections. Interestingly, the Frenchman who popularised the potato in France in the 18th century was Antoine Auguste Parmentier – a very similar name. Any connection? Probably not, says Ian, although he has seen a portrait of Parmentier that bears an uncanny resemblance to his brother.
He was a passionate cook and food book collector during his 20-year long stint as an ABC producer, and was asked one day in 1992 to produce a five-minute food segment to replace an existing one. He asked who the presenter would be. “I was told ‘You can present it’. I was cheap and they knew I had a good kitchen,” he recalls.
At first he was daunted, thinking that his food heroes such as Sydney’s great chef Tetsuya Wakuda might be watching the show.
“Who on earth am I to be showing people how to cook? But then I realised I had to entertain people who needed a map to find their kitchens. It had to be accessible – and fun, even silly.”
The public commitment to Australian cooking, food, and food producers started there. He brought in Australia’s best – ginger from Buderim in Queensland, Gay Kervella from Western Australia and her fabulous goat cheese, Sydney chef Serge Dansereau, and countless others.
In Margaret River, he has been influential in setting up a local food producers’ group and the monthly farmers’ market. The markets have been a huge success, attracting large crowds to buy locally grown fruit and vegetables, and foods that are locally produced. Margaret River preserves and olive oil are developing a strong name for themselves.
When he is not travelling – which he does for the equivalent of three to four months of the year – his day starts early. He is usually at his desk by 7am, so he can deal with his e-mails, and be around for the start of the Eastern states working day. In summer, when the time difference for the west is three hours, he will begin even earlier. After an hour or so, he will go into Margaret River township for coffee and to pick up the newspapers. Then it’s back to work – articles for Delicious magazine, and other writing. His next book, an account of his life called From the Frying Pan into the Fire Brigade, will be released next year.
At about 4pm, he stops working, and starts thinking about preparing dinner. The kitchen, by the way, is a stunner, with huge benches and an enviable collection of copper pots.
His own tastes are eclectic. He is amused by a list of foods people hate. A recent survey in England found that the most hated food was tripe – but since most people would not have eaten it, he says it’s meaningless. For him, one of the biggest challenges is to engender a respect for really good seasonal ingredients. “How do you get people who’ve never tasted a good tomato to have a say in what’s sold in supermarkets?”
That’s what he’s been doing for the last decade. And in his new life in not-quite-retirement, that is what he will continue to do.
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