The female floor staff at Australian chef Skye Gyngell’selegant London restaurant Spring waft through the high-ceiling rooms of Somerset House, dressed in vividly coloured, voluminous frocks from London’s cult fashion store Egg. “They’re like Marmite,” Gyngell say. “People either love them or hate them. But to me, they complete the picture.”

Across London at sketch, the Conduit Street restaurant, music and exhibition space, wait staff wear egalitarian cotton uniforms by Perth-born fashion designer Richard Nicoll. T-shirt dress for her, boilersuit for him. In Texas, David Peck has designed a very snappy wardrobe collection for the hotel staff at JW Marriott Houston Downtown.

Wait staff have come a long way since elastic-waisted black pants and ill-fitting, short-sleeved white shirts were the order of the day. One of the prime movers of the transformation from drab to glam has been Melbourne’s Cargo Crew, designers and producers of contemporary workwear for everyone from Sydney’s Merivale Group, Adriano Zumbo and The Grounds of Alexandria to Melbourne’s famed Brunetti cafe, caterers The Big Group and Peter Rowland, and the Vasse Felix winery in Margaret River. “Uniforms are an extension of the visual language that venues use to tell their story,” Cargo Crew co-founder Felicity Rodgers says. “We are quite obsessed with perfecting our designs to ensure fashion meets function.”

Rodgers trained in fashion at Melbourne’s RMIT before launching her own custom-branded apparel company in 2007. She brought this background to bear when starting Cargo Crew with sister Narelle Craig in 2012, creating a range of soft denim aprons that sold faster than the daily special. Three years on, Cargo Crew is a multi-million dollar business, shipping orders daily to the US, UK, Europe and Asia.

POSH NOSH: THE RISE OF THE KEBAB

The humble kebab has an image problem, often seen as greasy stodge to be devoured on a late-night binge rather than something of which Greeks and Turks could be proud. But when Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi opened a kebab house in the heart of London, grilled meat on a stick was transformed very quickly from nosh to posh.

He of the bestselling cookbooks and TV series on Middle Eastern cuisine describes his new food outlet Sesame as “a happy marriage between meat, fresh salad and beautiful condiments”.

Closer to home, MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris is on a roll with his reinvented souvlaki bars. There are now four Jimmy Grants in Melbourne, offering souvas titled The Homer (falafel, Greek yoghurt, Hellenic slaw) and Mr Papadopoulos (lamb, mustard aioli, chips). It’s time kebabs got a good wrap.

A MINUTE WITH BRITISH CHEF JASON ATHERTON

How’s business? Great. We’ve just launched two restaurants – The Clocktower in New York’s EDITION hotel and Social Wine & Tapas in London.

You also have restaurants in Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong. What has global expansion taught you? What works in one city won’t always work in another. Part of the excitement and fun of opening a restaurant is making sure it fits with the food scene and culture out there.

You’re about to open Kensington Street Social in Sydney. Looking forward to it? I can’t wait. It’s always exciting opening up in a new city and Sydney is a beautiful one.

As a chef, are you yell-and-swear or cool-and-calm? Cool and calm. My philosophy is to be nice to people and look after my chefs.

What will make your Sydney restaurant different? The produce. Australia has some fantastic ingredients that you can’t get anywhere else.

What’s the big order? Small tapas-style dishes. Kensington Street Social is on the former site of the Carlton & United Breweries building, so we’re going to work some of that history into the bar menu with some beer-based cocktails, using the beers to make syrups.

Is it harder to make money these days than it used to be? Profit margins are slimmer, as inflation and rises in the minimum wage – not bad in themselves – make a dent. It’s tricky as we try not to pass costs on to guests; we want to provide value.

What’s the business formula? Technically, the four 25 per cents [25 per cent on each on staff, food and beverage, overheads and profit margin]. But you’d be lucky to get that profit margin nowadays; 15 per cent is good.

How do you feel about kale smoothies? I eat healthily outside of the kitchen so kale smoothies are more than welcome.

Five-year plan? Surviving! But seriously, I take each opportunity as it comes.