Opel Khan’s culinary upbringing wasn’t what you’d call typical. As a child in Bangladesh, his prominent family employed 10 chefs in a kitchen that kept the large clan and constant guests lavishly fed. A young Khan gravitated to the “chaos” and camaraderie of the kitchen, and at 17, after his family moved to Australia, the self-taught chef started his first restaurant in Sydney’s Newtown, launching a three-decade career that’s made him a local industry legend.
Talking to Khan now, it’s clear he hasn’t slowed down. “If I slow down, I’ll be a very sick person,” he laughs, “I can’t slow down.” Khan credits the success of every venue – from French fine diners to fast-paced pizza bars – to his staff, with whom he is forever recreating the busy kitchen he frequented as a chubby kid. “I always tell my team, ‘As soon as you join, you are no longer my team, you are my family members’, and that is the key,” he says. However, Khan could be forgiven for showing favouritism to two employees – daughters Lucinda and Jasmine; the former a talented chef, the latter a natural front-of-house.
When joins Khan’s team for lunch, it’s at
