If you’ve heard a pommie accent down at the Imperial Hotel or Pott and the Pigg lately, don’t be mistaken, it’s the team’s brand new chef Bobby Ellis, who plans to bring some British flavour to Cowra palettes.
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Mr Ellis, a former contestant on Masterchef UK, has been working alongside chef Richard Morgan at both establishments since late last year after moving his family out to Australia.
Previously he spent 12 years working in fine dining restaurants across London.
He said working in Cowra gives him the opportunity to get his name out there.
“The whole Masterchef thing… It is still so hard to get yourself known out there as a chef,” he said.
“Coming to regional Australia, to a place like Cowra, classically trained, well experienced chefs are hard to come by.
“You feel like you could be known here for what you do.”
Mr Ellis, along with his fiance Lauren Theobald who also works at the Pott and the Pig, never intended to stay in Australia permanently, but luck would have him meeting the Morgans.
“I lost my mum two years ago and that sort of took a bit of a thing on me and I had enough of living in the UK,” he said.
“Then we came to Australia, just totally out of the blue, wasn’t going to come here.
“We ended up working on a vineyard in Canowindra and sort of realised from then we wanted to stay. Luck fell at my feet that I met Richard (Morgan).”
Mr Ellis says he enjoys working with Mr Morgan.
“It’s so nice to meet someone where we work as such a tight unit, it’s real nice to have a real good friend and a real good chef to work with,” he said.
He said both restaurants demonstrated high quality ingredients and techniques in their cooking.
“Working at the Imperial, it is leading the food in Cowra 100 per cent,” he said.
“The ingredients we use, the cooking styles we use by far shine out in Cowra.
“I’ve worked in fine dining restaurants, Michelin Star restaurants in the UK, these cooking methods are used in them and to be brought to a pub in Cowra, it’s pretty big.
“Richie’s been so good to me, he understands I'm a good chef, he appreciates that, his mind and my mind creates monster dishes.”
Mr Ellis will be hosting a British Tasting Night to the Pott and the Pig on April 6.
Limited tickets are available so phone 0484 608 785 to make your booking today.
The restaurant has also introduced a brand new lunch menu featuring the best selling meals from past menus.
The Pott and the Pig at the Mill is open on Friday and Saturdays for lunch from 11am till 2pm and dinner from 5pm till late.
The Imperial is now open on Sunday nights from 6pm.
