Fine dining is now a dine at home experience
If there is one positive to come from COVID-19 and the unending bouts of lockdown, it is that fine dining has found its way to our homes with some of Australia’s finest chefs and restaurants now offering takeaway menus.
Neil Perry, who recently opened his new restaurant Margaret in Sydney’s Double Bay, now offers dine-at-home meals.
“It’s taken me 64 years to realise that I just wanted to have one restaurant and to be here everyday cooking, working with my team and to be with my customers and that’s been taken away from me,“ Perry says of the pandemic.
“I personally struggle a lot with what’s going on. I’ve had some really dark thoughts and emotions because I’ve got so much on the line and I worked so hard all my life to be in the position that I’m in. I have this beautiful restaurant and there’s boxes and tarps everywhere. It’s pretty soul destroying, but we’re staying alive.”
Shane Delia is another chef who has taken matters into his own hands.
The owner of Maha, Maha Bar and Maha East launched Providoor during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
“When the whole world was thrown into turmoil, the hospitality industry was scrambling,” Delia says.
“We spoke to our customers and asked them if they would be interested in getting a premium product at home that could be finished at home in 10 or 15 minutes and we were overwhelmed with yesses. I worked out pretty quickly that I could do it with a cold delivery model.”
Other restaurants offering fine dining at home include Rockpool Bar & Grill and Pyrmont’s Sokyo restaurant.
Irit Jackson, 9th August 2021
