Restaurant: Deep Blue Bistro

Finding a chef who cooks native Australian cuisine is rarer than it should be in Australia. Thomas Heinrich of Deep Blue Bistro is one chef who has become an expert in mixing and matching Australia’s native produce with more traditional flavours, creating original dishes that take you on a tasting journey throughout the country. Heinrich began his career at Basil’s Seafood Restaurant and worked in several other Sydney restaurants before hopping a plane to New York and honing his culinary skills as sous chef at the prestigious Fifty Seven Fifty Seven restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Not one to be seduced by the glamour of New York, it is his time at Coogee Beach’s Deep Blue Bistro, where he currently serves as executive chef, that Heinrich really treasures. “This is something special… The chance to work with Australian native products in this beautiful location and to develop a menu based on your own instincts and creativity where there really is no recipe book, the chance to really show what you can do.” Heinrich’s seven course native Australian degustation menu, which is available on Wednesday nights, is the ultimate way to experience this sublime cuisine including crocodile carpaccio, wattleseed creme brulee, and everything in between.

Shelley Hepworth