Marque restaurant to close down

Mark Best

After 17 years, former three hat restaurant Marque in Sydney’s hip Surry Hills is closing down.

Why is it happening?

Chef and owner Mark Best says it’s time to move on, pure and simple.

“Seventeen years is enough, I think,’’ Best said in a statement.

“I like the craft of restaurants and I like the art of it, and I like the customers. (Generally.) But when you've spent most of that time pushing against current trends, it's tiring. I've come to the point where I'm happy to move on. I'm 50 years old and I've got a lot left to achieve and I don't want to repeat myself. I can honestly say that looking back over 17 years at Marque, I've stuck to my guns.

“It is of course with mixed emotions that I have made this decision, however it seems sensible, timely and prudent to do so. The personal investment in a small business takes its toll, and it’s with a combination of a sense of loss, pride and relief that I bring this phase of my career to a close.”

Best leaves behind a real legacy for the restaurant industry.

Marque appeared in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2010.  It currently sits in 16^th spot on the Australian Gourmet Traveller top 100.

It picked up three Good Food Guide hats in 2004 and Best was named the guide’s chef of the year in 2010. In 1995, he won the Josephine Pignolet Best Young Chef Award.

Best, who started out as an electrician in Kalgoorlie before he took up cooking, said the restaurant had gone a long way since the time he opened it as a small bistro in 1999.

He says his proudest achievement is the young people who worked there who went on to become chefs in their own right. They include Brent Savage, Dan Hong, Daniel Puskas, Karl Firla and Pasi Petänen.

The last orders at Marque will be at the end of the financial year, finishing with  alumni dinner on Thursday, June 30.

by Leon Gettler, May 17^th 2016