Liam Power from fine-dining chef to the Magic Castle !

Throughout my career I’ve had the privilege of working with heaps of amazing and talented chefs all over the globe and I’ve stayed friends with lots of them. I started my apprenticeship at est in Sydney with Liam Power we worked together for almost 3 years under Chef extraordinaire Peter Doyle. I’ve stayed good mates with Liam ever since and he had a career change in 2007 and became a Magician! Crazy right. Liam came by the Depot last week for a coffee so I took the opportunity to conduct this short interview

Guy – It’s been ages since you stopped cooking full time but I know you still like to keep in touch with the food scene and often work some food events. What are some of your most memorable?

Liam – Yeah I think having a chef background gave me a real advantage when it came to creating magic with food and I’ve gotten to create magic for some pretty cool events. I created some custom magic for Gelato Messina for their launch of their collaboration with Tim Tams. I did a combined magic show and cooking demonstration at Bankstown Bites festival where I made ingredients appear then used them in a dish and I’ve done plenty of collaboration magic food events with different venues. Of course the most fun ones have been with you, when we did the charity events at the Depot, you always get in such a fun crowd that loves the magic.

Guy – Oh yeah they are always such fun events. I know you still cook a lot, what’s your go to easy recipe when you want to impress?

Liam – As you know I love freediving and spearfishing and hand caught lobsters are always impressive so probably a hand caught lobster pasta. It’s super quick and easy but a real crowd pleaser. Otherwise keeping with the spearfishing theme I’m loving confit bonito with agrodolce lately or for something super healthy and tasty I’ve been charring veggies on the charcoal bbq and making a warm quinoa salad with them.

Guy –  So when’s my dinner invite? I know you live just down the road from me, is most of your work in Sydney or do you have to travel a lot?

Liam – I’m lucky that being a magician in Sydney there is a decent amount of work going around. Being the biggest city in the country there are 100’s of large scale events happening every week. I do travel a lot though, mainly interstate and regional, there are so many good festivals and events going on around the country that it’s a great way to get to see Australia. I also do a few events over seas which is always fun

Guy – What sort of events do you mainly perform at nowadays?

Liam – Mostly at corporate events but I also perform at a lot of weddings, private parties and festivals

Guy – And do you mainly perform on stage or up close style?

Liam – Both Probably 70/30 close up to stage. Close up magic is really popular because it’s so flexible and can work in basically any event but sometimes people want to really amaze everyone at once and that’s when I recommend a stage show.

Guy – Great to catch up mate, one last question, when am I coming over for some lobster pasta and a magic show?

Liam – How about next week!