There is something very easy and generous about the way Reki Reinantha tells his story. He came to Australia from Indonesia as a high school student, began studying architecture, then slowly found himself pulled towards the kitchen and the pleasure of making people happy through food. Since then, his path has taken him through Japanese restaurants, major hospitality groups, pop-ups, setbacks and, eventually, businesses of his own. Since then, his path has taken him through Japanese restaurants, major hospitality groups, pop-ups, setbacks and, eventually, ventures of his own. Today, that includes Sachi, his seafood and sushi restaurant built around the idea that exceptional Japanese food can be both highly skilled and genuinely accessible; Atsu, which has earned a loyal following for its fun katsu, skewers and highballs; and Common Cuts, a newer venture that applies the same philosophy of quality and approachability to Melbourne’s steakhouse scene. But what stayed with me most was not the scale of what he has built. It was the way he talks about the people around him: the responsibility of leading a team and the very lovely belief that good things happen when you are surrounded by good people. Listening to Reki, it becomes clear that the restaurants are only part of the story. At the heart of everything he has created is a commitment to community, opportunity and the relationships that make hospitality.
Reki Reinantha: I think it’s a very simple journey. Like other immigrants, I came here to Western Australia first as a high school student from Indonesia, lucky enough to have had an opportunity to go for a scholarship, just a very small one. And eventually, I decided to study architecture. Melbourne is still one of the best places to study architecture in the world. I was lucky enough to get into university in Melbourne, at Monash University, before I actually left my architecture degree to pursue cooking.
Conversation with a chef: How did that come about?
Well, every time people ask me, I always say it was quite natural. My family from my dad’s side, most of his sisters and brothers have been on a hospitality journey somehow. Either they’re bakers or they’ve opened a small restaurant. So, we were always told not to go into hospitality, because it’s hard and it’s demanding and you don’t spend a lot of time with your loved ones. But there are other sides of hospitality that made me want to pursue it. When I was still doing an architecture degree, I worked in a takeaway restaurant. Obviously, when we were young, we were taught how to do basic cooking in my family, so I could already do a little bit. I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the tools; I could cut vegetables, cook and handle a wok. I thought, instead of working part-time in another industry, I thought restaurant work was the easiest option for me. When I got into a position as a line cook for the first time, I realised how immediate it was to make people happy. When I decided to study architecture, I also thought of creating a space that people could enjoy and be immersed in through the design. So when I saw how immediately I could make people happy, I thought, I really enjoy this. I spoke with my dad. He was not pleased about it. But I went for it anyway. I wanted to prove to him that this decision was actually the best for me, and that it would be the best for everyone as well, by pursuing this path.
I went to cooking school and worked at the same time. And I think I’ve been very lucky throughout my 14 or 15-year cooking career. I worked my way from takeaway shop to bigger establishments with Lucas Restaurants as a head chef in Kisumé. And learned my way through understanding hospitality in general. Like, from takeaway to semi-fine dining, and obviously bigger establishments, doing millions of dollars,. The opportunity of doing that made me realise what I really want to do. Referring back to why I love hospitality in Melbourne. I feel it’s so natural. People just do it because they love it. Melbourne is a nice platform where you can just show that you really love this, and you’re able to do this, and you’re able to succeed at it as well. When you are a young cook, you go to a lot of places, and then you see these small shops doing specialty dishes, and you can feel the genuine hospitality in what they do. Some of the establishments in Melbourne have been open for 20 years. That made me feel oh, I want to be one of them. I want to do something that I love with the people that I love and showcase the best that we can offer. I think that’s pretty much it. But I think my travels to Japan in my early years as a chef in a way shaped my decisions about the restaurants we have opened now.
I was going to ask how you got into cooking Japanese food. Was Kisumé your first Japanese cooking?
Over my entire career, I can say more than half of it, I worked in Japanese restaurants. The first takeaway restaurant was Mexican, and then after that, I went to several Japanese restaurants. I went to a Greek restaurant for a bit, Italian for a bit. I even worked for a very brief period at a Jewish café in the Caulfield area, before I actually went to Kisumé. And Kisumé was not super traditional. It was a good experience for me because I can say that it was literally an Australian restaurant using Japanese techniques. And sushi as well, of course.
What is it that you love about Japanese food or Japanese cooking?
They try to showcase the best of the ingredients. They don’t have to interfere with it. I think the discipline of it, and how they really appreciate the natural flavour of the ingredients. Tempura, for example, even though tempura historically wasn’t traditionally Japanese. Thee was a European influence, I believe. In Japanese cuisine, they try to highlight the real flavour of the ingredient itself. I’m from Indonesia, and my dream, when I was a young chef was eventually to open an Indonesian restaurant of my own. I felt that if I learned how the Japanese approached their own cuisine, I felt I could do the best of Indonesian cuisine in Melbourne. That’s what I thought at first when I was young. I tried to pursue that by working in Japanese restaurants. I felt, oh yes, this is how they do it differently. And then every now and then I would cook at home and then I tried different methods, combining Japanese methods with Indonesian methods, to see what’s the difference. Obviously, at the end of the day, I realised that there was a reason why people back then did what they did, and now I understand how to showcase it better. Like, obviously, we’re not combining because everyone’s different, the climate is different and the ingredients are different. But back then when I was young, I thought, maybe this discipline, was the thing that was missing. Because I always wondered why Indonesian cuisine around the world was not as big as Japanese cuisine or Thai cuisine. I thought, maybe the key was to learn these different cuisines, and take and implement those things in Indonesian cuisine.
And then something shifted?
When you grow as a chef, you understand. There are always two sides, because now, I can almost say I’m a former chef now, because I’m hardly ever in the kitchen. When you see it from two different points of view, a restaurant is also a business. Now I understand why people don’t change the essential way of doing things. I still feel Japanese cuisine is the dearest to my heart, because I learned most of the basic cooking in Japanese kitchens. And I think I’ve been very fortunate to learn from that point of view as well.
I was speaking to Aaron Schembri, who has Kadota in Daylesford, and he spent 10 months in Osaka, learning from a master chef, and he was saying that in Japanese cuisine you’re always learning. In Japan, they have masters of tofu or masters of rice or sushi. They’re always trying to do better and better and better. I feel like it’s an unfolding cuisine.
In Japan, they’re just trying to get the best out of one ingredient, and it’s amazing how much they respect that. They have so much respect for that. It’s amazing. And I think, maybe that’s the reason why Japanese cuisine is one of the best in the world.
I feel throughout the whole journey, I was just lucky. I think I was surrounded by very good people and those good people had the same vision as me. When you have a lot of people with the same vision as you, it’s so easy to move.
Reki Reinantha, Sachi, Atsu, Common Cuts
When did you know that you were ready to step out from working from someone else and to start your own place?
It’s a good question. A lot of people have been asking me this, and I’m never able to answer because it’s a similar question to when are you ready to become a parent? You will never be ready. Unless you try. It was my sixth or seventh year in Kisumé, and a friend of mine had started his pop-up at a bar in Brunswick Street, in Fitzroy, and we used to catch up every week back then, and he kept telling me how free he was to express what he wanted to cook. At the same time, he was able to bring together a lot of people who had the same way of thinking as him and do it as a collective, and he said he always felt joy at the end of the day, he didn’t feel he was forced to do this. It felt like he really wanted to do it. In terms of my entire cooking career, compared with all the best chefs in Melbourne, my career was maybe only half as long. But, at the time, I was turning 30 and I had just got married. I went on a trip to Sydney with my wife, and I spoke to her about it. I said, if I try and fail, I can always go back to the workforce. It felt like the right time. My wife said, you need to be happy, because I can see that you feel under pressure. Lucas is a big company. I met with some people who wanted to invest in my idea at first. We shook hands, and then I sent my letter of resignation, and after I sent my letter of resignation, after three weeks, the investors stepped away and they said they had found someone better to do this. Nothing had been signed. But I had already resigned. Then this friend of mine, the one that kept telling me about the pop-up, called me and said Reki, take my spot because I’m thinking of getting another spot to do a pop-up. There was no other option for me. I took it and then I was very fortunate that one of my close friends, who had also recently left Kisumé. joined me and wanted to do this together. And then we started Rei in Boney on Little Collins Street.
Did you feel like you had to have an offering sorted? Because going forward, that would be your thing?
Because this wasn’t a story where you step out and you do what you always wanted to do. At the time, it was about survival. People didn’t know me. At the time, I only had me and my partner and my friend who eventually became my business partner as well. I just shared with them what my vision was and what I wanted to do. But in the meantime, in this pop up, we just had to survive and save money.
What did you do?
We did whatever they asked us to do. The concept was a gastropub. So we just tried to make bar snacks, whatever worked with the drinks and everything. We were quite lucky. I think one of the food influencers at the time came in, and she was quite happy, and not long after that, the place was booming. Eventually I thought it was time to do the brand that I had always wanted to do. That brand was Sachi, my first restaurant. Sachi comes from the word for happiness, Sachi itself means happiness, but it comes from a phrase in Japanese, umi no sachi, which means treasures from the sea. It comes from the idea when I went to Hokkaido in 2014, to this small city, Hakodate, and got $7 chirashi don, like sashimi don, with the best seafood in the world. I remembered how, when I had that, I was very happy. So I wanted to do that as well. How could I combine my knowledge of working in a bigger establishment with amazing seafood. amazing suppliers, and a place where people can go every day. In Back then, most of the good sushi restaurants and Omakase were $200 to $300 per person. Obviously, there’s a reason why: good hospitality, good produce, but how can I make some sort of a bridge? You couldn’t go there every day. I wanted to make a place where I could go every day. That’s where Sachi comes from. I didn’t know where I should do it. A friend of mine who is now my business partner actually offered his space. It’s now Atsu. Back then it was something else. He told me I could use it Tuesday and Wednesday because he was closed on those days. So, three of us, with whatever we could get from the pop up, bought the first eight plates, and the seafood, and we got got eight customers, and then with the next sales, we bought another plate, and then with the next one, we bought cutlery. Previously, we just borrowed the cutlery. We just kept doing it and then on Valentine’s Day, we got pretty good sales and then one guy came and said, How about you use my restaurant? He was moving. He said I could take his lease for six months. That was how we moved the pop-up to Hawthorn. That was the second Sachi pop-up in Hawthorn. It was supposed to be for six months, but it ended up being a year and three months. During that time, we eventually saved money, and then we could take a lease in the city. And voila, that’s where the journey started.
Somehow, when you step away and you do whatever you need to do as a business owner, you miss cooking. The world seemed lighter when I was just on the line. Now that I have almost 70 people on my back now, all my employees, I need to make sure that they are able to stay employed and provide for their families. That’s the big pressure on business owners that is rarely mentioned.
Reki Reinantha, Sachi, Atsu, Common Cuts
When did Atsu and Common Cuts come along?
Some unfortunate events happened with Sachi as well. This is a funny story amongst friends, but I don’t know if it is something a lot of people can relate to. When you build a restaurant, there’s always something going on. You try to plan everything perfectly but you will never know what’s going to hit you. Sachi was actually delayed for a good seven to eight months for the construction. During that time, we had to pay rent. So we had to pay two venues’ rent with one lot of sales. Obviously, it was quite painful. When Hawthorn ended, we didn’t know where to go. The shop wasn’t ready. My friend, the one who had given me the place for the Atsu pop-up, said I could take his space. We moved everything from Hawthorn to Atsu. Eventually, we got the city place ready and I said to Kantaro, the friend who had been so generous…and it sounds silly when I say this, but when I was growing up, my dad told me this thing about energy within the space, and how you can feel good energy. That space was calling me to do something with him. I told him this. We were just having a coffee and I said, How about we do things together? He just said, Done. And then, three months later, we opened Atsu. It was a very spontaneous idea. I told him I wanted to do something that, would make the place feel vibrant with comfortable food you could eat at any time, and an easier operation. He said, maybe it could revolve around something that we can eat with drinks, highballs, and we thought, okay, let’s do katsu. We did skewers as well. We try to have two different breadcrumbs for different proteins to bring out the best of the ingredients. We also highlight highballs as well. The place already looked amazing. So we didn’t have to do a lot of things there.
Common Cuts was because of the memory of Boney when I did the gastropub. I never knew I would like it this much and want to open a gastro pub. We were looking for the space, and then we found a space, put the deposit down, got rejected, refunded, went to another place, put the deposit down, got rejected again, refunded again, three times, and then we got offered this place. When I stepped in, I could feel it straight away. The place was saying, Reki, take me. Let’s do this together. It was quite messy when we took it, because they had painted some things on the walls and everything, and then I told my business partner, let’s make it a bit more music-oriented, because we love music, all of us, and we brought in our own collection and then played music here, and maybe we could put a DJ here. Then steak has always been the one that people always love. At the time, the movement in New York and all around the world was about steak frites. I didn’t want to do steak nights, I wanted to do a week of steak night. I tried to source the ingredients to sell it for $28.50, every day, Monday to Sunday. I was lucky enough to have a business partner who was also trained in Italian cuisine, and so we do a lasagne as well.
That’s cool. You are growing an empire.
People always say this, but I feel throughout the whole journey, I was just lucky. I think I was surrounded by very good people and those good people had the same vision as me. When you have a lot of people with the same vision as you, it’s so easy to move.
What was behind your decision to step away from the pans, to stop cooking and be an owner rather than an owner chef?
Cooking is my relaxation. Every now and then, if I feel that I want to take a break. I’ll ask someone to go home, and I just jump in. I love cooking. But we can never have a strong team if they never experience what I experienced. I thought it was best for me to step away and guide. Then those people can guide the next set of people. I feel that’s the system that will make our group stronger. Luckily enough, we have been very fortunate to have a lot of young professionals who really have the same vision as us, and want to push this together and of course, be rewarded. Every time we open a venue, I want to give opportunities to those young professionals that want to step up in the game.
It’s a wise move, to do that,. It’s very sustainable for you as a chef as well, because being on your feet all day, every day. You can’t do that forever.
I know there are people that do, but it is definitely hard. Somehow, when you step away and you do whatever you need to do as a business owner, you miss cooking. The world seemed lighter when I was just on the line. Now that I have almost 70 people on my back now, all my employees, I need to make sure that they are able to stay employed and provide for their families. That’s the big pressure on business owners that is rarely mentioned.
How did you learn the business side of things?
I wasn’t taught directly by any business owner, I tried to take bits and pieces throughout my career. I was very fortunate to be able to work very closely with most of the owners of the establishment that I worked with. Most of the small business owners that I also used to work with, I was fortunate that they were able to explain to me why they do what they do. Eventually when I was with the Lucas group, I could totally understand why they do what they do, because if you have thousands of employees, whatever decision that you have to make, you won’t be able to please everyone. But I’m pretty sure the decision has already been considered to be the best for most of us. It’s not easy. So, I have a huge respect always for him and all other business owners as well, now that I’ve become one of them. It’s hard, but it’s rewarding. I’m proud of myself. I can totally try to relate to my shops as if they were my kids: you can never love one more than the others. And sometimes you make a decision to make sure that most of them are happy, but you have to make the sacrifice of being hated, for your decision, until six months later they realise that it was actually a good decision.
With all that in mind, and now you’ve had quite the journey, what would your advice be to a young person starting out as a chef?
Everyone has a different personality. And everyone has a different goal as well. Always just focus on your own goal and always remember yourself as well. Try to set different goals, short-term, midterm, and long-term goals, and just try to focus on that. When things are tough, usually you’re on the right path, because if it’s easy, everyone would do it. Never give up because you will never know what’s going to happen. Keep good people around you. I think when you have good people, you can achieve anything. Skills can always be learned, but it’s very hard to be surrounded by good people. I’ve been very fortunate. My entire team now is made up of good people. It’s great.
Atsu, Level 1, 15-17 Lincoln Square, Carlton
Common Cuts, 380 Russell Street, Melbourne
Sachi, 179 Queen Street, Melbourne