Michael Greenlaw of Atria is a seafood and spearfishing professional

Michael Greenlaw’s love of the ocean runs deep. Growing up, the Ritz-Carlton executive chef was always in the water—swimming, snorkeling, fishing and freediving.

“I was always messing around in swimming lessons, never really paying attention, just trying to hold my breath and swim as many laps as I could,” says Greenlaw, who leads the team at the posh hotel with its towering, chic Atria restaurant and adjoining Cameo cocktail bar. “I loved snorkeling and then I discovered I was a really good freediver. That naturally led to spearfishing.”

These days he spends his time freediving and spearfishing in Port Phillip Bay, which he looks out over from the 80th floor windows of Cameo as Flyer calls.

“We’re just doing a new dish with abalone and sea urchins and I’m looking out over Altona and Williamstown,” says Greenlaw, who previously worked at Melbourne’s Westin for five years. “They hand dive for all the short-spined sea urchins there in Altona and it’s a really nice treat that we can take the guests out and show them where they’re diving for them.

“That sea urchin is a pest,” he continues. “It eats all the seaweed and kelp – I dive a lot in that area and it’s bare – so having that dish on the menu is not only beneficial to Port Phillip Bay, but it’s a delicious addition.”

Victoria’s fishing license laws prohibit Greenlaw from serving his own catch to guests (except for the scallops, abalone and oyster shells he has collected and processed into Atria tableware by Cone 11 Ceramics). However, he works closely with fishermen to secure the lesser-known species he spots in the water.

“There are about 43 edible species in Port Phillip Bay and the surrounding area, and you go to the market and you see snapper, flathead and whiting. We’ve had a lot of conversations with fishermen and we’ve found that they do catch these things but they end up as bycatch, feed or fertiliser.”

That includes the grassy whiting and yellow-eyed mullet, which have appeared in Atria’s Victorian Crudo, served with white soy, fresh wasabi, sea grapes and pickled shiso. The evolving main course – a simple, delicious demonstration of Greenlaw’s intentions – could herald venison tartare with smoked bone marrow and blackberries; wood-roasted lobster served on squid ink spaghetti; thick corn tortellini filled with baby corn and Long Paddock ironbark cheese; or dry-aged Macedon Ranges duck with daikon and shiso. “We take inspiration from the 360-degree view. We can point to Mount Macedon, where our ducks are currently coming from.”

His menu is seasonal, of course, but not the quarterly seasons most of us are used to. Instead, Atria follows the Kulin Nation’s seven-season calendar. “There are a lot of restrictions on restaurants that stick to those four European seasons that don’t really apply in Melbourne,” says Greenlaw. “So now we change our menu once a week or two weeks. If we get a call from our suppliers saying, ‘Hey, this is available and it’s at its peak,’ we take a lot of it, make a dish out of it, and whatever’s left over, we keep. We dry it, pickle it, ferment it.”

Making use of leftovers and reducing waste is key for Greenlaw, whose chefs also make a sourdough iso from leftover crusts, which is then folded into the butter served with their bread. They also air-dry and lightly smoke fish frames for use in glazes and finishing sauces, and are considering distilling their own oyster shell gin later this year.

“Whether it’s land, sea, flora or fauna,” says Greenlaw, “we help our producers use unique products that take the pressure off commercial agriculture, pickers and local fisheries.”

This article first appeared in Domain Review, in collaboration with Broadsheet.