New chef Sharn Griener for Chin Chin
Incumbent Ben Cooper has been made group executive chef ahead of the imminent launch of Kong next month and the interstate expansion
IN a business restructure to accommodate the likelihood of Chin Chin restaurants in both Sydney and Brisbane within the next 12 months, Melbourne’s Lucas Group has hired a new executive chef for the CBD powerhouse. Sharn Griener comes to the mod-Thai bar/restaurant from the role of head chef at Ezard — just down the road — and before that sous chef at Teage Ezard’s Gingerboy.
Incumbent Ben Cooper has been made group executive chef ahead of the imminent launch of Kong next month and the interstate expansion. Chris Lucas confirmed he is looking at sites in both Sydney and Brisbane. “There’s no preference at this stage as to which city we may open in first. It will largely be dependent on us finding the absolute right site,” says Lucas, whose other businesses include Baby and a substantial catering operation. He says the decision to open elsewhere was based purely on the interstate component of Chin Chin’s current audience.
A STALWART of the Perth restaurant, Duende in Leederville, changed hands recently, ushering in a raft of new staff. Nick and Julia Crocker have taken over from the town’s well-known Table Theory group (Nic Trimboli, Dan Goodsell and Graham Arthur) that operates Il Lido in Cottesloe, Balthazar in the city, Gordon Street Garage in West Perth and Bread In Common, Fremantle). Chef Dan Nelson joined Duende at the start of the year from The Garden; general manager Aaron Commins (ex-Must and Print Hall) is new, too.
SPEAKING of old favourites, Melbourne Wine Room, an icon way ahead of its time in the 1990s but withered on the vine in recent years, is finished. In its place is Babi Ju, a fun and contemporary Indian from Horn Please operators Jessi and Jennifer Singh. We’re hearing raves from for Babu’s “Indian street food, classic and not so classic curries, naan and other surprises from the tandoor”. Middle Brighton Baths’ Paul Raynor bought the Wine Room in 2011. It probably wasn’t a great investment.
HAVING launched a Sydney Gault & Millau restaurant guide last year, the French publisher will expand into Melbourne this year with a single title devoted to both markets. It’s another tilt at the hegemony of the Fairfax guides, which cover entire states (with interstate content) rather than just metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne. The food publisher also intends to launch a quarterly food magazine in September — with Guy Grossi on the cover.
FLASH Cantonese restaurants in blue-chip CBD locations are not part of the Brisbane restaurant culture, so it’s not surprising the launch of The Imperial, at Brisbane’s Riverside Centre on Eagle Street, is attracting a lot of attention. Sitting beside the river among a who’s who of dining tenants (including the new Blackbird), The Imperial belongs to Larry Wang, known to
locals as the former proprietor of Sunnybank’s Shangri-La. The signs are promising: an executive chef (Raymond “Dr” Wu) from Hong Kong and a dim sum chef, John Leung, with a similar 30 years’ experience back in HK. Congee by the river? Yes please.
Source: The Australian - 29th April 2014
