Restaurant: Lucio's
Logan Campbell had big shoes to fill when he stepped into the position of head chef at Lucio’s in Paddington. Long regarded as a Sydney institution for its wonderful northern Italian cuisine, Campbell has proved himself more than equal to the challenge, most recently by again scoring two chef’s hats in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for 2007. New Zealand-born, but Sydney-trained, Campbell has worked at some of Sydney’s top restaurants with Sydney’s most respected chefs.
He worked with Danny Drinkwater at the Park Hyatt where Drinkwater gave him what he describes as “essential hotel experience”. At Cicada, under Peter Doyle (who he describes as a great inspiration, along with Tim Fisher and Angel Fernandez), he learnt “discipline and respect for ingredients”. Valuable time was also spent at Mezzaluna working with Beppi, Norma and Marc Polese who are well-known for creating Sydney’s first and longest-standing Italian restaurant - Beppi’s.
In his own time, Campbell prefers to cook anything that’s quick and easy, unlike his father who he remembers slaughtering chickens in the backyard before preparing them for dinner. He counts Tabou in Surry Hills among his favourite restaurants for Jacob Brown’s classic French cooking along with Pier in Rose Bay as “the perfect special occasion restaurant”. His number one kitchen secret? “If you touch it, season it!”
Shelley Hepworth, October 2006