Bill Granger - Australian Food

In the 20 years since Bill Granger published his first book of recipes, Sydney Food , the world has fallen in love with the joyfully casual Australian way of eating. As a self-taught cook, straight out of art school, Bill furnished his first street-corner eatery in minimalist style, serving a small but perfectly formed menu of domestic dishes around a central communal table. He captured the hearts of Sydneysiders and visitors alike, while setting an exciting new standard for caf dining. Since then, Bill has been crowned the egg master of Sydney ( New York Times 2002), the king of breakfast ( The Telegraph Magazine , 2016), the creator of avocado toast ( Washington Post 2016) and the restaurateur most responsible for the Australian cafs global reach ( The New Yorker 2018). Nowadays, from Sydney to Tokyo, and London to Seoul, queues form to enjoy ricotta hotcakes (Sydneys most iconic dish Good Food 2019), fluffy scrambled eggs, lively salads and punchy curries. It is a bright picture of Australian food that has travelled across the globe, packed with fresh flavours and local produce, healthy but never preachy, whose main ingredient seems to be sunshine itself.

The plates at any of Bills restaurants are more sophisticated today, reflecting decades of global experience and culinary creativity but the warmth of atmosphere and joy of eating remain the same.

The key to Bills global success is that he changes constantly, and yet has never changed. The principles remain the same take something people love to eat, and make it fresher, lighter, more beautiful. Its irresistible. Its the sort of food you eat when youre on holidays, and yet you can eat it every day. Terry Durack, 2009 Sliding Doors theory in one universe you turn left; in another you hook right. If the theory is true, a world exists where a 23-year-old Bill Granger stays in art school and never opens a caf in a remodelled Darlinghurst pub.

What a grey world to live in. A universe, potentially, without communal restaurant tables and avocado toast. One in which Grangers ricotta hotcakes dont become Sydneys most iconic dish and the self-taught cook never perfects his recipe for golden, curdy scrambled eggs. Brunch never takes off as A Thing and corn fritters dont become a corpse-reviving constant of every suburban caf. Thank heavens that in our universe Granger is better with pans than paints. Callan Boys, The Sydney Morning Herald , 2019 Such defiantly unpretentious food made bills feel like an extension of home and launched a whole new culture of eating in Australia his uniquely Aussie take on informal dining has been oft-imitated and exported around the globe.

David Prior, Cond Nast Traveler , 2016 Bill Granger [is] the restaurateur who is most responsible for the Australian cafs global reach. Amelia Lester, The New Yorker , 2018 New Yorkers have taken to the modern breakfasts served at the citys rapidly multiplying Australian cafs Mr. Granger had no intention of reinventing the image of Australian food as seen from abroad, but he did. Julia Moskin, The New York Times , 2018 The avocado-on-toast mania can be traced back to one man:
Bill Granger, who began serving the now staple brunch dish in 1993. Milanda Rout, The Australian WISH magazine, 2018 You may consider your own scramble the paragon. Or your mothers.

Or Julia Childs or Michel Gurards, served in an eggshell with a jaunty black cap of beluga. Fair enough. But believe me, I would stack Mr. Grangers up against all comers, fully confident that they would hold their own. RW Apple Jnr, The New York Times , 2002 Among Grangers greatest offerings is his reinterpretation of what breakfast should be in a country where breakfast has, until relatively recently, meant a full English, with sausage and bacon and eggs, plus mediocre coffee. Hannah Goldfield, T Magazine , 2015 Renowned as the King of breakfast, Granger has always been ahead of the game in terms of food trends.

Today, he is celebrated for having brought relaxed, joyful food with a sunny twist to Britain. Francesca Ryan, The Telegraph Magazine , 2016

Another? Apparently, this guy knows everything there is to know about Australian food. Hes got tickets on himself. What even is Australian food? Healthy, hip and possibly with a smashed avocado on top? It is true that since I opened bills Darlinghurst in Sydney in 1993, a joyfully casual sort of Australian food has backpacked its way across the world, being welcomed wherever and bringing a touch of Sydney sunshine to restaurant countertops from New York to Tokyo, Rome to Seoul. This adoration all feels very new Australia was long an underdog in global culinary rankings. When I was growing up, we went quietly unnoticed beyond our sandstone shores and isolating oceans. I imagine for anyone outside Australia who bothered to think about it, our cooking was generally considered to be like British food only worse.

However, because of some lucky stars and gratifying quirks of fate, the world seems to have embraced the Aussie way of eating and fallen in love with the all-day caf. The word that gets used most is sunny. I love that, but Im not about to get any tickets on myself. I have always believed Australia serves the sort of food that brings people together over coffee, over communal tables, over all-day menus and makes us all feel good. And I dont think its just the food its the way we eat and serve it. Theres always been a casualness about Australian eating.

Weve never dressed for dinner (most of us barely ever use a tablecloth). The majority of us are sprinkled in towns and cities around the coast of this great wide land, our climate means we get to eat outside a lot of the time, and we dont need to be wealthy to enjoy a family picnic by the beach or a barbecue in a park with friends. Other than our First Nations peoples, who have their own unique relationship with this land and the traditional food it offers them, we are a population of immigrants who sailed over or blew in from many countries over the past couple of centuries. Australia is often described as a melting pot which is a glorious culinary term. One in four of us was born overseas; around half have at least one parent from overseas. Sport might be Australias god, but food is our means of inclusivity.