Rockpool veteran Khan Danis bound for Alexandria
Khan Danis, Neil Perry's right-hand man on matters of cookery and kitchen management for more than 20 years, is leaving to do his own thing.
His wife, Catherine Adams, who held a similarly senior position at the Rockpool Group as a desserts and pastry chef, left late last year. The two are to open Cipro, a 40-seater restaurant doing simple Italian food at Alexandria, Sydney. Two other Rockpool alumni, Angel Fernandez and Penny Watson Green, will join them there. "It was overdue, really," said Danis on Sunday. "We just felt it was time to do something for ourselves." Cipro, a warehouse space needing a complete fitout, will be very simple, he said. Danis leaves Rockpool at the end of the month; the restaurant should open by mid March. "I wish them well and know the food will be awesome, so I'll be there when it opens," said Perry yesterday. Danis's position as executive chef of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney, will be assumed by Corey Costello, who has been there since it opened four years ago.
Chef Khan Danis and his wife Catherine Adams are to open a restaurant in Sydney's Alexandria.
MELBOURNE:
We may be wrong, but the imminent opening of Little Hunter, in Melbourne's Little Collins Street, smells more classic than passing fad. Yes, Pete MKR Evans is a major backer, as we told you months ago, as are a number of other folks from the Melbourne restaurant scene but it's chef Gavin Baker, a native of North Carolina on his first jaunt down under, who instils confidence. Baker's no pigeonhole chef, having managed restaurants, worked as a sous chef at Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, worked as a consultant to a hotel group and produced his own pop-up food project in Salt Lake City, Utah. Little Hunter, in the basement of the George's building, is to be mainly a meat restaurant. Baker says trumpeting the provenance of produce is not his thing. "Sustainable, ethically produced produce should be a given these days," he says. A lavish interior design is underway while Baker supervises installation of several prize bits of kitchen kit: a hybrid gas/wood grill and a combination pressure cooker/bratpan (commercial stock-making machine), both from the US; and a special Josper charcoal oven - Australia's third, we believe - from Spain.
BRISBANE:
It has been revolving kitchen doors at Spring, the chic Brisbane restaurant and cookery school, since it opened late in 2011. First Andrew Clarke was in the chair; then Kym Machin, who decamped mysteriously in November. Now proprietor Sarah Hancock has appointed Briton Emlyn Thorrington head chef. Thorrington is no stranger to Brisbane; for four years he's been executive chef of the restaurant group comprising Peasant, Cabiria and Libertine, at The Barracks in Paddington. Machin is looking at a site for a place of his own.
SYDNEY:
NSW tourism authorities ought to consider including Sydney's Thai food as one of their major promotional assets, we reckon. The latest reason to head for the state capital is Senyai, a collaboration between renowned Thai chef Nu Suandokmai and Regent Place creative director Marco Chan. The restaurant has been reconstructed from a traditional teak house salvaged in Samut Songkhram, outside Bangkok. Dishes include authentic homestyle Thai dishes not often seen in Sydney, we're told, including sour curry with king prawns and cha-om omelet, chicken livers with chilli and asparagus, and roti grob, a sweet and crisp Thai pancake. Senyai adds to a compelling mix of Asian traders at Regent Place, including Tenkomori, Chef's Gallery (Cantonese/Shanghainese) Chanoma Cafe (Japanese tea) and Yebisu, an izakaya-style sake bar.
CANBERRA:
The city's striking new National Arboretum has given the operating rights for a new high-end restaurant to a local company. Ginger Catering, operated by chef Janet Jeffs, will run both the cafe and dining room - The Conservatory - at the arboretum. Ginger has operated out of Old Parliament House for 11 years. The restaurant, to open this month, will specialise in wood and Japanese charcoal-burning cooking. Jeffs herself will be head chef.
ADELAIDE:
If Adelaide has a cool precinct, it has to be the Euro walkway Leigh Street, where you'll find hipster coffee, sherry and pinxtos, and a couple of decent restaurants. Which makes the sale of Cos restaurant interesting. Proprietor Peter Burrows had sold the business after more than nine years. New kids on the block are Michael Taylor and Sean Warren, whose last business was Buskers Cafe in Rundle Mall. Burrows says they will renovate and put more resources into running a courtyard and upstairs bar.
Source: The Australian, 5 February 2013
