Obama chef has big plans for Queens Wharf restaurants
Uday Huja is the new director of culinary for The Star Brisbane’s bars and restaurants.
Barack Obama’s former chef is tasked with rolling out 50 new restaurants, including a lavish Skydeck, in Brisbane’s $3.6 billion Queens Wharf development.
“Queens Wharf has been coming out of the ground for eight years and everyone has been watching so to say that the expectations are high is an understatement and we now need to deliver,” Huja said.
Huja has stated his new job is bigger than cooking for ex-presidents but is excited about the challenge.
“What we really want to do is feature the best of Queensland and the local Brisbane spirit,” he said.
“We really want to create a memory for those guests who visit and we want them to think, ‘What an amazing place this is’.”
Service will be at the forefront of the new precinct, with staff expected to undertake a three-month training program. The theatrical nature of dining is also on the menu.
“I think in hospitality, theatre has sometimes been forgotten,” Huja said.
“Dining shouldn’t be transactional, it should be an experience, so we would really like to bring that back by interacting with our guests and potentially introducing trolley service.”
Huja is now on a hiring spree across Queensland and also has his eye on ex-pats from Dubai and the UAE.
The two-phase rollout of restaurants across the precincts is set to kick off in April 2024, with the opening of up to 22 new food and beverage venues. These include a high end Japanese, a glam Italian restaurant, steak and seafood restaurants, and a Luke Nguyen Vietnamese offering.
Jonathan Jackson, 13th November 2023
