Justin Dingle-Garciyya

Often PR people might ask me to talk to someone or I read about them and then approach them, but it was a bit random hearing about you at a Melbourne Cup Champagne breakfast. But then I started reading about the hotel and it sounds pretty fascinating. So is it a Hollywood hotel backed by Leonardo DiCaprio and others?

Oh, there's a few of them. I worked for a company in the States called Morgans Hotel Group. That was one of those groups that when I first started cooking and I got this job in London and saved up my dollars and cents and I went and stayed at one of their hotels, which was the Paramount and the Royalton Hotel in New York. They were designer hotels, everything that we'd read about in magazines, this place was. I went there with a girlfriend. We had a honeymoon before the storm type of thing going into the UK. I wished I had a green card to work for that group. Then about 20 years later, I got a phone call asking me if I'd be interested in joining the group to do some projects in the Middle East and Istanbul and Qatar.

I joined the group, primarily just to do the Qatar project, which was this multi, multi multi-million dollar hotel, no expense spared, in Qatar. It was owned by the King's brother. I flew in there for that and had an awesome boss who was the group chef. About three weeks into my job, he got asked to leave the group because he was using his Amex at stripper bars in Vegas, stupidly, I dont know why to this day he did it. So I got called up. We were opening a hotel in London. We were redoing the branding of the food and beverage of two of the properties in London as well, Sanderson and St Martins Lane and then I would have to go into New York to our corporate headquarters, which was literally for me based at the Hudson Hotel there. We had four or five other properties there as well. We had the Miami properties and the LA and the San Francisco properties. If there was an issue with a chef, I'd have to go in there and resolve it. If there was an opening, I'd go in there as task force. In some cases, I ended up taking over the role of culinary director or executive chef of those properties until we found someone more suitable.

So what does that mean? Does that mean doing menu creation as well as all the other things?

Yeah. All the above. The person I worked very closely with was a woman by the name of Elli Jafari, who is an Iranian woman who left Iran when she was 18 and went and worked in the States. She ended up working for Trump Towers, opened the W Hotel. She's just an amazing woman, just awe inspiring. Our company Morgans after being with it for a while, and we did openings here, there, and everywhere and had these great results; we were the talk of the town type of hotels, and it sounds really shit and really hypocritical, but you get sick of living in a hotel suite. You get sick of all the parties, you get sick of all the openings. I did seven openings while I was with them. I was looking for something else and I always felt I was missing out on something in Australia. There are so many new artisans coming onto the radar, whether it was bakers or charcuterie makers, beverage makers, all of that. So I was looking for something a little bit closer to home. I did Elements of Byron, I opened that property and then my GM went to Hayman Island and asked me to go with him. I flew up there and the place was just shit. It was from a place that was sort of an icon of Australia. It was so run down, and I thought what am I going to do? I thought about it for a while and decided to take it.

Where do you start when it needs that much work?

Always from the beginning. A good clean. Then, looking at the staff, seeing why they're actually there. I ended up bringing up a really big team. Some were international, some had worked with me in London. One was actually working at Heston Blumenthals place in London, the new one he had, as a pastry chef. I had a couple of Italian guys that have worked in London for me, but they were back in Italy. All this talent just came into Hayman. And a month after that, I can't remember the name of the cyclone, but it completely destroyed us. To the point that I could have died up there, it was that dangerous?

How large is the island?

It's pretty big.

OK, but still at the mercy of the cyclone.

Absolutely. Roofs flew off, roads were completely covered with trees and debris about 10 feet deep. I got called up by the assistant GM to come down because we had some guests on the island to see if I could wrangle up something in the kitchen for them. He thought the cyclone was over. It was actually the eye of the storm. And it started up again when I was halfway down the hill. I had bamboo, shooting like spears past me and corrugated iron. I was trying to do combat manoeuvres to get into the kitchen. One and only lost the contract for after that, not because of the cyclone or anything, but they decided to retain myself and the guy that brought me up there. He got sent off to Maldives and I got sent to Bahamas.

It does sound very exotic.

Bahamas was awesome. A beautiful place; one of those places where there's history. From a signed picture on the piano in the cocktail bar of Elvis Presley and Priscilla singing on the piano bar, the Beatles and all of that. It was a real who's who would come down there. When I arrived there, I think the Oscars had just been held. So we had all the Oscar winners down there. I had Puff Daddy or whatever he is called this month, stay there for a month and had to take care of him. It was a nice experience, but just too far away. That's when I met Krister, SJ's husband and he asked me to come to Singapore, to join W. So I came and joined them as the culinary director, which I've never had that title before, but it sounded pretty cool. I absolutely loved Singapore. I guess from the casual aspect of never having to put on a suit or jacket or anything like that. Also I had sort of carte blanche on the the menus there. Walking in there, it was still a little bit old school, fine dining, but supposedly cool because it was in the W, so I changed the concept, which hadn't really taken off here at that stage. But grazing, I suppose modern European.

When was that?

10 years ago, I guess.

What's the reception of the teams when you come in and change things? Whats your style of getting people on side?

The person that you see right here now is exactly the same person. I don't go into a Gordon Ramsey mode or an Attila the Hun type of thing. What you see is what you get. It might be an age thing. I'm just too tired to be that. But at the same time, I've always found that most of the positions that I've had to go and undertake, whether it was with Morgan's or prior to Morgan's, I was with Aman Resorts and, and all, I suppose the sister company, which is now called Alila, which back then was GHM, there were a lot of troubleshooting positions with that. I think that really comes back from my early days after leaving the UK and I got a job in Hong Kong with the American Clubs. At the same time, a gentleman who worked with me in the hotel that I was at in Oxfordshire, the head patissier got a job also in Hong Kong. He was at The Peninsula, which at that time, was the best hotel in the world. He came over and basically went in there with a, 'this is my way or the highway', type of scenario and probably effing and blinding. He was marched off the property and put on a plane, I think after about a month of being there. My first day in the company, the original chef from The Peninsula, was my boss at the American Cluband he told me, "the best way you can reach people, forget how you've been working in the UK and what you've done before, is to work like a coach and coach people, enthuse them, know fully well that people are going to make mistakes and to get more out of them, embrace the mistakes. I guarantee you if you approach that in the right way, it will come off so much more positively and people will have so much more respect for you. If you do need to talk to somebody, you know, we all have face, it's not just a Hong Kong or Chinese thing. Talk to people behind closed doors." That advice stayed with me. I guess when I see something like this pastry chef who, he was pretty bloody amazing, but that was the last time I ever heard of him.

It's worked well for me because I can be myself. I don't have to be this person that I'm really not comfortable being. When I first went to the UK, I started off working at Marco Pierre Whites, The Canteen.

I was there for three or four months and I absolutely hated it. I'd read the book, I'd seen a few bits and pieces on the ABC and I thought, if I'm going to be a good chef, I have to get there. I wrote a letter, because we didn't have emails back in those days and I got no reply from the letter. So I got on the telephone and rang the restaurant and ended up speaking to the chef there. He said if I could get here, he'd give me a job. So that's what I did. I don't think I've ever seen so many people, including myself, so badly humiliated verbally by people that we literally spend 80, 90 hours there a week battling uphill for the entire time.

I had a couple of days off and I went up to Oxfordshire and there was a chef who actually inspired me to get into cooking in the first place from reading his cookbook, Raymond Blanc. I went up there and they let me stay in the hotel for free for the weekend because they couldn't find accommodation for me. I cooked there with the team, did service with them, cooked for Raymond, and they offered me a job.

It was so different. Raymond at that time was one of the people that it was using Asian ingredients in French cuisine, using some Chinese ingredients. For me, that was the norm back in Australia of what we grew up with. But for the Europeans that worked in the kitchen, they thought, wow, what's this coriander stuff? For me, it was like a finishing school almost. I absolutely loved it. I thrived there.

Are you originally from Melbourne?

I'm a Melbourne boy. I played baseball for quite a long time. I thought I would make a career out of it, but my arm went down and that put an end to that. I was also working back in the day, running various nights at the Chevron and Checkpoint Charlie. I scored a job at Checkpoint Charlie as the assistant manager. And for a 19-year-old to have that job, I thought I was the ant's pants for so many different reasons. But it felt quite soulless. I was kind of looking for something to really set my teeth into. I didn't want to go to university, stupidly because I thought, oh, well I'm so much older than the people that would be doing starting now, which is only two years difference now I look back at it. I think it was the New Orleans Tavern of all places. I was in there late one night with a chef from Glo Glo's. I was playing pool against him and I bet him that if I beat him, he'd give me a job in his kitchen. I beat him.

That's a good way of doing it.

The irony of it was that it was probably a very good time for me to get in into that sort of feel, because there was so much bad stuff happening in clubs at that time. I'm glad I was never, ever sort of a part of that. I rocked up at his little restaurant back then, which was called Limbo in Chapel Street next door to Chase's. At that time, there were three restaurants in Chapel Street that you would consider going to. There was the old school Lucciola, which has always been there, Caf Cucina. There was Toscani and there was Limbo Bar Iguana hadn't opened by that stage. I rocked up in a brand new chef jacket, chef pants, brand new knives. Thinking I was pretty cool.

Had you done much cooking?

Never. I washed dishes for the first three months. I hated every moment of it. But for me, it's the best thing I could have ever done to get in touch with myself again, be humbled, appreciate the work that I actually was doing, that I was getting paid for an honest day's work. That's when I came in contact with the Greg Browns of the world back in those days. And I saw this book about Marco. I saw this book about Raymond Blanc and they were pipe dreams at that stage. I went and worked at Chinois when Kevin was the GM there, and Gail was there, who recently passed away. It got in my skin that I'm was going to get in contact with Marco Pierre White and get a job in his restaurant.

That's fascinating, I think the people that do stick it out as chefs or stay in hospitality for so long, obviously you have to have a passion for it. And although you accidentally got into that kitchen, to have those high ambitions and to be so inspired by reading something, there must have been something waiting to be ignited.

Yeah. It was just something that I really enjoyed.

What do you love about it?

The creative aspect of it. I've also been fortunate to do a lot of traveling as well, whether it's been in India, Sri Lanka, New York or Miami, you can always learn something. It could be from the dishwasher, it could be from the lowest ranked cook in the kitchen. But there's always something happening, a spice mix, a technique of cooking. When I first moved to Hong Kong, we had several restaurants in the American Club and back in that day, it was so opulent, so decadent, it was the place to hang out at, and to have a membership I think was the equivalent of $200,000. And then fees on top of that. You had everyone from Jackie, Jan to the politicians in the day, ex-presidents, presidents that were coming into the States.And the type of money that we had to work with, there was no limit.

Once you've crossed over into that sort of high end large scale club situation or hotels, it must be hard to consider anything else. There's a really big difference isn't there, between all of that and then owner operated restaurants?

Totally. The places that I've been working at, they've always attracted a different type of person that goes to it. The guy that sits in the corner that's very, very quiet that appreciates eating and you don't hear from him except to maybe turn around and say he really enjoyed that. He's probably got more money than God. Then you have the other person that comes in because of the association with the brand or the type of venue that maybe speaks and commands a bit more attention than the normal person. And then you have the other people who come in and are so appreciative of just being able to have the experience. And I guess, that one and the first ones are the ones I warm to. Coming back here was luck. Good luck and bad luck. I was in Six Senses. I moved from what was going to be the W in Bali. The GM who recently has just left W Hotels in Australia. He was the GM of Bali at that time. He said, it's W Bali and it's this and it's that, and I only need to pay you $5500 a month. I said, dude, why the fuck would I come and work for you for five and a half grand? I make nearly $17,000 a month in Singapore with the same brand. Look at my resume. From there, I joined Six Senses, which was people I'd worked with previously, some associated with Aman Resorts and some with the GHM. Six Senses was taking what Aman tried to do to a next level so far as sustainability and health and all of that. I literally grew everything that I cooked. The seafood came from a local seafood supplier. My meat was Australian, but farmed in northern Indonesia. It was beautiful, absolutely stunning. I became the vegetarian plant-based specialist for Six Senses Group.

Are you vegetarian and plant-based?

No. But they tried to turn me into it. They made me watch this movie called Oblivion, I think it's called. I think I went vego for about a week. It was pretty horrendous. But no, I got the short straw on that one. But it was kind of cool because when there was an opening or a new chef came into one of the other properties in Asia Pacific, then I'd go and show them this is how we do it at Six Senses. It was very community based.

Corona happened, we weren't really affected by it, but because we grew a lot of stuff on the resort itself, we'd go and help the local villages or those that were in need. I probably would've stayed in Bali except my daughter did really, really well on her Year 12 exams and got into Melbourne University. Given that my daughter lived with me all over Asia, the Middle East, India, she's kind of lived in a bubble most of her life. And Bali is Bali. There's some places you go, there's some places you don't go. So I was said Id come and take care of her. I was looking at the One and Only in Wolgan Valley to rejoin the group and came in and everything went into lockdown again, closed down. I think it's still closed down now because of the landfall. But when I arrived, one of the residents of W Singapore had just moved back to Australia to open up the Sofitel in Adelaide. And through Krister, she needs a chef and someone that can handle F & B because her chef and her F & B have walked out. She had to open the hotel in three months. Could I get to Adelaide? I had a special permit to be able to cross the borders, so I went in there and did it. I would've liked to have stayed there. It's one of the most beautiful hotels I've seen from a restaurant point of view, but this is where my family is. I opened the property, got a chef hat, and then came over here.

Wow. I hadn't quite realized I was speaking to culinary royalty.

Not at all. The biggest thing for me, I've worked Michelin star, some of the hotels that I've worked at have been lucky enough to be in the hot list or top three Conde Naste. But the biggest and probably the most satisfying award that I've ever had was many years ago. I went to Shanghai to open a freestanding restaurant for a Hong Kong company after the American Club. It was called Park nine seven. I took these kids in off the street and made them apprentice chefs. Some years later I was in Shanghai and one of them got in contact with me and invited me for dinner at, a big five star hotel. So, alright, cool. I went and had dinner there and all of that. He turned up and he was wearing a full chef hat and all of that. He said, chef, I wanted to invite you here tonight to say thank you for what you did for me for my career, because now I'm the executive chef of this hotel and this would never have happened if it wasn't for you. There were a few tears. Stuff like that's really important to me. My chef de cuisine that's just started with us here, started his apprenticeship with me and now he's my chef de cuisine. If I could have all of my kids from overseas come and work for me here, I'd have them here at a drop of that hat. So, you know, it's the food, it's the creativeness, it's about being able to share my experiences. It's not to being in the spotlight, that just doesn't really do it for me. It's seeing and helping other people grow with what they do. Like a coach.

Will you open this and then move on to something else?

I'm hoping.

How long have you been involved here? Has it been delayed?

It was meant to open before Covid. Originally the story was they wanted me to go to Maldives. They sent me the contract. The guy who was the GM, I worked with him in Miami and in London. Lovely, lovely guy. I thought it would be great. I like the way he works and I knew we worked well together. But then Covid started happening, and I didnt want to get stuck there, so I had to decline the position. Then they said they had Australia in the pipeline if I was interested. I got a phone call from a gentleman I worked with at Morgans and I thought it was just to reach out and he said he was the new corporate chef for Standard Hotel Groups and I wanted that gig but he asked me to do recon on the Melbourne property.No problem. So I looked into suppliers, the places that are working, ones that aren't, produce. Then he said he wanted to get me involved with the property being that it was my home town. Was I interested? Andy McConnell, who has done so well here, we used to be solvers of the world's problems in Hong Kong. He worked for Michelle Garnaut. I worked for her sister Nicole who I opened a property for in Shanghai. We were buddy buddy and used to hang out after work. There were the German chefs and the French chefs who stayed in one place and then there was a little group of us. It was just a good catch up, a good chat, talk about food, talk about work and party a bit, you know, that type of thing. I thought, I'm up for the challenge. Let's see where this takes me. I'm doing a bit of work for corporate at the moment on other projects, but this is where my heart is at the moment.

So what will the offer be? How many eateries will be in that property?

There's one main restaurant on the ground floor, which, being that part of our company is from Thailand, is Thai, but I've been able to take that food concept from being a Thai restaurant to a modern Thai. But our beverage offering is purely Victorian. I think it'd be a shame not to be that. I don't think we could be anything else or want to be anything else being that where we are in Melbourne. Also with what has happened during Covid, there's so been so much in-house product development, whether it be people like Fin wines or um, Salt Charcuterie. So coming aboard and being able to work with these people is great.Tomorrow I'm going up to taste a kaffir lime Prosecco, all our soft drinks are custom made and self-branded. Theres so much wine history here. It breaks my heart a little bit that we have so much beautiful produce here, beverage wise, but you'll still see these wankers walk into these big restaurants and order a bottle of wine just because of the price and a label that they can't read anyway and know nothing about it.

I was on a wine tour in the Yarra Valley on Saturday and randomly I'd heard of Fin Wines. But it was the winery of the day. It's so beautiful. It's rustic and down to earth and we had this lovely man given doing the tasting and then theres the view down the valley. And the wines are so interesting. We had a vermentino and some pet-nat styles. I was impressed.

I think their parents have proper pedigrees in wine places and so the boys running it have grown up with the wines, it's their spin on it. It's so much what we're doing here.

That's great to hear.And this whole idea when I was reading about the Standard Hotel Group and the whole party thing, will that happen on Rose Street in Fitzroy? Is it going to be that kind of hotel?

No, it's not. We're a little bit of a different take on your normal Standard. We don't have a nightclub. We're more about residents dining, eating, and experience. I guess the ambience of things that goes with that. We're in the middle of a mecca of food and wine around here and stuff that's different.I was down there last Friday night and it reminds me of what Chapel Street used to be like back in the eighties or late eighties. This is the place to be. Thank God, because at the end of end of the day, clubs can be very hit and miss. I'm kind of glad we don't have that. We'll have a more educated market about ingredients, about wine, and the beverage program as well. I think it'll be a lot more appreciated to pour a bottle of wine and know where that vineyard is. My staff are going to know exactly how it's made, what goes into it. It just feels like really showcasing what we can showcase of Victoria, whether it's beer, gin, and obviously whisky to some extent.

It's an amazing place, considering some of the countries that I've worked in, namely India, Sri Lanka, definitely the Maldives, where we had to fly everything in. Absolutely everything. Even in the UK when I was working there, apart from the stuff we grew on the farm, all the seafood would come in from France or way, way up north and the vegetables would come in daily from Amsterdam, so there's nothing really local. I'm sure it's changed now, but you know, it's amazing, especially compared to when I first worked in Bali or somewhere like Hong Kong and all your cheese was Swiss or German or French, and now Australia has taken over.When you see the words Yarra Valley or Rutherglen or Ballarat or Bendigo, theres a bit of pride there, wearing it on your sleeve. It feels right and I keep having to pinch myself that I'm actually home, that this is it. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into this program.

I can't wait for it to open, thanks Justin.

Standard Hotel, Fitzroy