Robert Daniels to head Atherton’s Kensington Street Social at the Old Clare
Australia’s first Jason Atherton restaurant, Kensington Street Social, will be run by an Aussie with extensive experience in the Atherton-Gordon Ramsay fold.
Chef Robert Daniels returns from Singapore next week to open Social at the Old Clare, Sydney. (Source: Supplied)
Robert Daniels, running the kitchen at Atherton’s Singapore restaurant Esquina, will be home next week to open Social at the Old Clare, the new boutique hotel development in Sydney’s Chippendale by Singaporean hotel entrepreneur and restaurateur Peng Loh. The businessman already has ties with Atherton in Asia. Daniels apprenticed in Sydney with Colin Fassnidge and Peter Doyle before moving to London in 2003 to work with Ramsay at Boxwood Cafe. He then joined Maze working under Atherton and went on to Maze in Prague, then Maze Doha, Qatar. In 2011 he returned to Australia, working at Esquire in Brisbane, Rocksalt in Wollongong and the Merivale group, at Felix, Uccello and Coogee Pavilion. Kensington Street, indeed the entire cluster at the Old Clare that includes Silvereye and Automata, is not expected to open before September.
Melbourne Cantonese institution Red Emperor, in Southbank, has been on a recruiting spree, bringing back several chefs from the restaurant’s glory days. Hon Kau Hui, who first came to Australia in 1984 to work at Flower Drum, was at the helm of the Emperor from 1995 until 2013. He has been lured back to the head chef role by owners John Lin and Lida Gau, along with two more alumni: Man Tim Ngwas head chef before Hui, subsequently moving to Japan, while Kam Tai Ho, the restaurant’s yum cha chef until 2013, is also back. It bodes well.
On one of Australia’s most vibrant food strips, Gouger Street in Adelaide, the hoarding has gone up for the Mexican Society in the premises known by many, for many years, as Mesa Lunga. We’ve lost track of the different ventures local entrepreneur Walter Ventura is involved in, or not. Ventura’s interests are a mercurial commodity. But Society is to be his latest, on the corner of Morphett, and will focus on the food of Central and South America, with chef Greggory Hill(Lucky Lupitas) running a kitchen working on relaxed, long-session dining rather than street food. The matrix is always hard to follow, but … Another Ventura venture, the aforementioned Lucky Lupitas, with its tacos and other Mexican street food, is also moving to Gouger Street from Bedford Park. As an executive chef, Hill will oversee this kitchen too, as well as another newly opened project on Glen Osmond Road, Frewville, at the old Osteria de Mesa site. This, too, has a Latino theme and kitchen oversight from Hill. Hispanic Mechanic — where does he get these names? — has a roster of chefs from Brazil and Colombia and, like all Ventura restaurants, looks very quirky, does branding brilliantly and probably has decent food, too.
As if the Sydney CBD coffee market isn’t competitive already … Surry Hills institution Single Origin opened a city branch last week, Single O, in York Street, focusing solely on on-the-go customers and with food similar to the Reservoir Street base. The new site has been designed by Luchetti Krelle, a practice responsible for many noted Sydney restaurants.
A last-minute hitch with finance for buyers means Adelaide’s queen of Indian food,Ragini Dey, will be cooking at her Spice Kitchen restaurant just a little longer. Dey, 52, an author and hands-on chef, was supposed to settle on the sale of her business last week, but backers for the young trio of two chefs and a front-of-house partner fell away at the 11th hour, she says. “It all came as a bit of a shock,” she says, “but they’ve actually given us a good chunk of money [as a deposit] already, so I’m confident it will proceed.” An offer to stay on and partner the would-be purchasers of Spice Kitchen has not been entertained. “I don’t want to be tied down to a restaurant any more,” Dey says. Instead, she has plans that include lending a hand to sonChiragh, who just opened Naya, a bar in Waymouth Street that will serve street food from a diverse cultural mix, including India. Dey says she’s hoping to settle on July 1.
The next generation Neil Perry restaurant, in Sydney’s Potts Point, should be open by mid-August. Missy French is under construction by Perry’s daughter Josephine, and a serious foray into the restaurant world for this 21-year-old first timer. The format is relaxed classic French food.
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, June 23rd 2015
