Five Chefs, five stories and one delicious tour of Australia’s most exciting kitchens. From Perigord Noir roots to island degustations, plant-based Italian comfort, modern Japanese finesse and playful regional desserts, each dish carries a personal thread.
These are recipes that invite you to cook slowly, taste boldly and travel by fork right at home.
Growing up in Perigord Noir in the South of France, Francis Luzinier had the best ingredients right at his fingertips from vegetables to tobacco and animals.
Fast forward and Francis now heads the kitchen at PARC Brasserie & Bar on Hindmarsh Square in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD, where diners can experience the essence of Europe and the Mediterranean in elegant style.
Francis loves this recipe because time is the essence – marinating the beef, sautéing it and slow cooking for 36 hours at 85 degrees. The beef is melt in the mouth and marries well with the carrot purée.
Immersed in a rich Italian food culture from a young age, Davide Foschi developed a deep appreciation for culinary traditions.
After stints in Bahrain, Grand Cayman and Michelin-starred London restaurants, Davide’s culinary journey eventually led him to qualia on Hamilton Island, where he leads the degustation restaurant Pebble Beach.
Sharing his recipe for celeriac and oyster, David says:
"Celeriac, with its earthy roots and humble resilience, reminds us that sustainability begins with embracing the overlooked treasure of nature, this recipe is a unity of land and ocean.
"This dish has an unusual flavour that binds the soil with the ocean. This mild, fresh flavour comes out together in a fascinating way; when in season, we love to use white asparagus instead of the celeriac.”
You could say Funghi e Tartufo Chef, Alessandra D’Angelo’s culinary journey has been shaped by her children.
From Palermo, Sicily, her first restaurant was born almost as a joke and bet with herself – when it became successful the work became Alessandra’s greatest passion.
Now Chef and owner of plant-based Italian Melbourne restaurant Funghi e Tartufo, Alessandra was a single Mum focused on her children when they decided to leave Sicily to attend university in an English-speaking country.
Try her recipe for potato and saffron gnocchi:
"It is served with a sautéed cherry tomato sauce, resting on a rich creamy base of velvety broccoli and zucchini purée. I absolutely love this recipe. It’s made with simple, natural ingredients that come together wonderfully, creating a dish rich and balanced in flavour, leaving you feeling content without feeling weighed down.”
Born and raised in an old town in Tokyo near the Tsukiji fish market, Yukio Ozeki would frequently dine out at a wide variety of traditional Japanese restaurants. The fun and flavour charmed him and he became fascinated with cooking.
These days, you can find him heading the kitchen at Chef-hatted Terasu in the Ardo Hotel in Townsville, creating modern Japanese fare that blends traditional techniques with Australian ingredients.
Defining his style as simple, choosing fresh ingredients to bring out the best flavours in the dish, Yukio shares his recipe for spicy tuna rolls:
"Bold and flavourful, these spicy tuna rolls combine fresh, vibrant tuna with a kick of spice, creating a perfect harmony between spicy tuna and aji verde sauce in every bite. This is one of the most popular sushi dishes at Terasu, made with exceptionally fresh tuna that is air-shipped. The flavour balances the rich, buttery tuna with a creamy, spicy kick.”
Head Chef at hatted Wagga Wagga dining destination Magpies Nest, Amy Pellizzoni says diners can expect good food in a beautiful setting nestled in an elegant stone stable built in the 1860s, offering vineyard views and Modern Australian set menus.
Using anything out of the kitchen’s gardens, she is always on the lookout for how she can introduce the fresh flavours of what is in season into the forever-changing weekly seasonal canapes, desserts, salads and shared vegetable bowls.
Amy shares her recipe for strawberry kimchi, which is paired with coconut panna cotta, puffed rice granola, raspberry and lychee elixir and coconut yoghurt snow on the restaurant’s menu.
"I set myself a challenge to make a dessert kimchi with no idea how I was going to even approach the idea. I managed to create something that really gets the customers talking and something that is a bit out of the ordinary, but also quite divine.”
