Vulcan's mighty oven fires again with Fumo

Vulcan's lives again! Well, kinda.

When chef Phillip Searle and his partner Barry Ross shut up shop back in 2014, it looked like curtains for fans of Searle's smart, idiosyncratic cooking.

But never give up, never surrender that W.J. Amos oven. Because Joe Campbell, Searle's right-hand man in the kitchen for more than a decade, has bought the space and stoked the fires.

It's a whole new era and a whole new reason for Sydneysiders to hop on the mountains train for a long weekend lunch.

Though Campbell applies similar sensibilities to Searle when it comes to his cooking (simplicity on the plate, sharp technique behind the scenes), the menu here is driven a little differently. While Searle's cooking was sometimes so subtle it bordered on the austere – definitely part of its cleverness and charm – Campbell favours spice, aromats​ and acid.

He serves up crunchy pickled radish, carrot and broccoli to get your mouth in the mood before what you might describe as something like a very busy tom yum, where plump mussels, fish, and thin rice noodles are served in a hot and sour broth, perfumed with lemongrass and amplified with seaweed.        

An almost mousse-y mix of pork and crab is stuffed into whole squids, which are baked and served in slices with a bright, acidic cabbage and carrot salad, lifted with coriander and mint. The salad overpowers the squid/pork/crab ("sqorb"?) combo, which is a bit of a shame, but the basic building blocks of the dish are solid.

Better luck with a dish of firm sauteed tofu and mushrooms, dressed with sesame, seaweed, and Asian herbs.

When it comes to vego-friendly fare, ordering here is extremely easy. Take a massive wedge of wood-fired pumpkin, served with tender chickpeas, yoghurt sauce, roast Dutch carrots, braised kale, celeriac puree and a sort of kale salsa verde, that cuts through the starch.

Meat-wise, oyster blade, slow cooked till it just about falls apart at the suggestion of cutlery, is bathed in an almost rendang-style sauce, finished with a fine chiffonade of fresh lime leaf.    

I seem to be the only person at the table to get behind a slice of firm baked custard flavoured with shochu and lifted with passionfruit, but everyone's pretty firmly in favour of the ice-cream terrine, layering blackberry and raspberry sorbets, champagne and sour cream ice-creams finished with a (slightly overdone) macaroon crumble.

Just as it's always been on this restaurant site, Fumo is a party up the front in the simple, earthy dining room where the sturdy scotch oven heats the space while the business of the prep area (it looks like the world's most glamorous garden shed) is out in the back courtyard. It's still lovely and romantic to think of the bulk action happening straight out of the oven in that tiny front service area, though.    

The days of the boozy long BYO lunch may be over (Fumo is now fully licensed) but here's hoping the days of the boozy train ride home go on forever.

Bottom line: Stuffed squid ($24), pumpkin wedge ($32), ice-cream slice ($17).