“I started on the restaurant floor,” says Neil Perry, the renowned Sydney chef and restaurateur. “I worked front of house at Sails in Sydney’s McMahons Point and it’s that first job that made me a restaurateur,” he adds with a hint of nostalgia above the hiss of the milk frother at Baker Bleu, his pâtisserie in Sydney’s Double Bay. “It gave me an understanding of the business. Taking orders, doing the wage run, monitoring food costs and bookings, dealing with customers. It became clear pretty fast that there’s no ‘front’ and ‘back’ of house: a restaurant is a singular beast. It needs to run on a philosophy of care from the kitchen through to the shop floor.”

His years of F&B experience helped to form part of his thinking around hospitality but Perry also credits another ingredient to his success – one imparted by his mother. “Mum taught me the importance of caring for people, a philosophy that I’ve carried right through my career,” he says, as staff set tables ahead of service like a troop of choreographed dancers. “I’ve worked to build a culture in all of my restaurants, creating environments that have nurtured people.” The staff Monocle meets happily agree.

It’s a creed that he takes seriously as an employer of more than 400 people and in his role as chair of the Australian Restaurant and Café Association. Sadly, that commitment is in stark contrast to a spate of recent allegations against some of Sydney’s highest-profile hospitality players, including the Swillhouse Group and Merivale. A number of alleged sexual-harassment and sexual-assault incidents are currently being investigated by police and the situation has seen government regulatory authority SafeWork NSW step in to investigate. In the meantime, new mandatory sexual-harassment training has been introduced for bar staff across the state. Long famed for its smiley hospitality, Sydney’s restaurant scene is undergoing a painful reckoning.

“We are a family business and take our level of responsibility to the staff very seriously,” says Perry, knitting his brows. “Care is central to running a restaurant; care for the customer, care for the staff, care for the suppliers.”

Born and raised in Sydney, Perry – for the few who don’t know – is probably Australia’s most revered chef. He started his working life as a hairdressing apprentice but quickly cut his losses, first gaining attention when he began cooking at Barrenjoey Restaurant (now Barrenjoey House) in Sydney’s Palm Beach in 1982. He was awarded his first Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide “hat” (analogous to a Michelin star) there in 1984. True fame came from his Rockpool restaurant, which opened in 1989 and held a place in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants for seven years. Since then he has been awarded more “hats” than any other chef. The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief food critic and guide editor Terry Durack believes that it is more than 150 in the course of a sparkling 45-year career. “There is no doubt in my mind that he’s the most talented, driven and inspirational chef that Australia has ever produced,” says Durack, who is a man not known to mince words.

Perry, 67, remains sprightly and is still seeking fresh challenges. His latest is in the inner eastern suburb of Double Bay in what has become known as the Margaret Precinct. It’s here that Perry opened his 160-seat restaurant, Margaret (named after his mother) in 2021. In the four years since, he and his business partner (and wife) Samantha and three daughters have opened four more venues on the very same block. There’s Baker Bleu, a buzzing bakery and café, and Next Door, a more casual sister restaurant to Margaret (to handle the inevitable overflow). Most recently, the grand 240-seat Chinese diner Song Bird opened in nearby Gaden House.

In the basement of Song Bird is a glamorous art deco-inspired cocktail bar called Bobbie’s, co-owned and operated with Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson of Dante in New York and Beverly Hills. Gaden House was designed by Australian architect Neville Gruzman in 1969 as a suburban office block. The space has been reimagined for Perry by architecture and interiors studio Acme and Caon Design Office, known for its work on Qantas’s international lounges and aircraft. Perry also works for Qantas as creative director of food, beverage and service.

“I love being here,” says Perry when asked about his enthusiasm for Double Bay, which has been dubbed “Double Pay” by some snarky Sydneysiders for the suburb’s long-held reputation as a stuffy and exclusive inner-city hamlet peppered with overpriced shops and restaurants. “After coronavirus, the dynamic of the city changed. People now have a sense of comfort around their suburb and a greater sense of community,” he says. “Double Bay is a community, a true village. The mix has been very important for how the Margaret precinct functions and how we’ve been able to turn Double Bay into something.”

Patrons begin to arrive for lunch at Margaret and Next Door as Baker Bleu customers wind up their morning with the last sip of coffee, many taking a hefty loaf of sourdough or a baguette home with them. Perry’s working week runs from Wednesday Sunday. “Once Wednesday starts it’s a full-on five days; everything is in motion, even more than when we were in the city [proper],” he says. He, like many of his patrons, also starts the day at Baker Bleu with a coffee. “I visit first thing and talk to the baker,” he says. “We talk about how the overnight bake went, which [most people don’t realise] is completely dependent on the weather.”

He then spends part of Wednesday at Qantas where he has nine staff working full-time on lounge and in-flight catering design. He might undertake a wine tasting with the staff or continue refining menus before heading back to Double Bay in time for lunch.

From 11.30 it is time for pre-lunch briefings and Perry bounces between venues. “I go to all of the restaurants and talk to the staff before lunch service begins at midday,” he says. Margaret has two sittings for lunch. Some days Perry calls service from the pass, ensuring that every dish is turned out to his exacting standards, or works running the grill. If not in the kitchen he spends the afternoon working on strategy beside his CFO and CEO, or writing recipes at his head office tucked in a nearby laneway.

“We’ll generally still have lunch guests here at half-past five. We are dealing with 150 to 200 people for lunch every day and that second sitting is still here when we serve the family meal [for staff].” Family meal sees Perry’s floor and kitchen team eat dinner together before the service starts all over again in the evening. “I call in the afternoon to see what is on offer and usually eat with the staff,” he says. He then puts on his chef whites and works the dinner service, again calling dishes or manning the grill. It’s a heavy schedule and a long day for a man now past retirement age but certainly not past his prime.

“Making money isn’t the motivating force,” says Perry. “Because we care so much about the customers and staff, the net result is that it’s much easier to run a restaurant because the restaurant is full,” he says, as if achieving such alchemy is easy. “If you create great memories, people keep coming back.” And come back they do. Perry’s venues remain booked out in a city that is struggling with soaring prices. While the old adage of ‘Double Pay’ persists, one can’t deny the transformation of the suburb. Perry has injected liveliness and more than a little fresh flavour into what was recently a stale corner of Sydney. — L

Plenty of places in Vienna serve Austrian fare but a modern twist on the traditional Wirtshaus (a small, neighbourhood pub) is a rare find. Rarer still is an extensive wine list that perfectly accompanies the menu. The pairing was the thinking of chef Julian Lechner and co-founder Simon Schubert (pictured, on left, with Lechner), who oversees the wine list and boasts multiple accolades as a sommelier.

Reznicek takes its name from the street it inhabits – itself named for a composer – just north of the Innere Stadt in Vienna’s 9th district. The duo preserved much of the smart wood-panelled interior, a nod to the venue’s history as a neighbourhood restaurant since 1927. Beyond the wisely chosen wines (sample something from the Wachau valley just outside Vienna), the signature dish is the hearty cordon bleu. “It’s schnitzel on crack, with cheese and ham,” says Lechner. Other favourites include a duck baked with apples and red cabbage.
reznicek.co.at