Growing up in the small French village of Quarante, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, Lionel Abello was naturally attracted to the cuisine of the south of France when he became a chef. "A cuisine that you grew up with, it comes straight from the heart," he says to SBS French.
After working in Michelin-starred restaurants around Béziers, he moved to Australia, a country that he love since he was a child, being a big rugby fan. He kept working as a chef in Sydney (Caliniere and La Grande Bouffe), Noosa and Melbourne (The French Brasserie, Metropolitan Hotel and Botanical).
L’artisan in Melbourne
Last year, he said goodbye to the restaurant world to start his own business, , inspired by family recipes. "I grew up with the love of food. These recipes have been in my family for generations. It comes from my heart, " he says.
He makes a pork and Armagnac terrine, a chicken liver pâté, pork rillettes, duck canard, cornichons, marinated olives and smoked and dried tomatoes. Close your eyes while eating and you can almost feel the sun of the south of France on your skin. Abello only uses high-quality ingredients (like the free-range pork from ) and the list is short; there's no additives or preservatives in sight.
It's hard to pick a favourite, but Abello has a thing for rillettes. "What I eat the most are the rillettes with cornichons. You can't eat rillettes without cornichons!" he says, laughing. 
The chef is all about quality rather than quantity, but he still wants to add a few more products to his offering in the coming months, including tapenade and cassoulet.
Lionel Abello Source: L'artisan
He's even thinking about creating a vegetarian or vegan terrine: "I do a lots of testing in the shops selling my products and people keep asking me if I have anything vegetarian or vegan. I'm starting to think about it..."
Some of his products will soon be available online, but in the meantime, you can find them in .
Listen to our full interview with Lionel Abello, in French:
