Chef

It's the food, and so much more: Indonesian aunties who ply you with sweets, staff who know your child's favourite booster seat. For these chefs, these restaurants and pubs double as a second home.

With more than 20 years’ experience serving laghman, polo and toho kordak across the city, co-owners Ershat and Hislat Shukur still run their restaurant with heart.

After shuttling back and forth between the mainland and Tasmania, chef Ali Currey-Voumard is keeping things simple at Public Wine Shop.

Culinary doyenne Alla Wolf-Tasker shares a taste of her latest project Dairy Flat Farm, where guests are invited to celebrate the seasons and relish simple flavours straight from the paddock.

Executive chef Khanh Nguyen has cooked up a menu featuring a Vietnamese-Bunnings sausage sanga mash-up, potato wedges with sour cream remixed, and the ice-cream sandwich of his dreams. And he’s eyeing that 16 June open date, Melbourne lockdown be damned.

From a South Melbourne market stall to Yarraville café Mabu Mabu and now her 130-seater in Federation Square, the self-described “Island girl” has many reasons to celebrate.

The Vietnamese savoury pancake, rendered into crisp, golden goodness before your very eyes.

From the Mornington Peninsula to the big smoke, the former Pt Leo Estate chef is ready to strike out on his own.

The industry talent pool was running dry long before the pandemic, and it’ll take a change in government policy, and self-reflection from restaurants, to make hospitality great again.

The Sokyo chef puts his Osaka okonomiyaki down, flips it and reverses it.