{"id":54730,"date":"2025-09-12T08:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/?p=54730"},"modified":"2025-09-12T08:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:39:41","slug":"appetiser-brad-sloane-executive-chef-tilley-and-wills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/blog\/appetiser-brad-sloane-executive-chef-tilley-and-wills\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Q&A: Brad Sloane – Executive Chef, Tilley & Wills Hotels"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Brad Sloane oversees six chef teams for Tilley & Wills Hotels<\/a> along Australia\u2019s eastern seaboard. Despite his laid-back manner, he\u2019s a sharp and focused operator whose leadership has helped this dynamic group of bars, hotels and a beachside resort achieve both success and acclaim. With venues in Sydney, Coffs Harbour and Brisbane, the group shares a focus on hospitality, contemporary style, fun and, above all, great food.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Across the venues, you really have tight menus.<\/strong>
I\u2019ve been working with Nick Wills, co-founder of the group, for 15 years. His mantra is \u201cfood comes first.\u201d That applies across the board – from Four Hundred Mexican Cantina<\/a> in North Sydney to the Shafston Hotel in East Brisbane and even our resort, Aanuka Beach House. We serve restaurant-style food in a pub format – elegant, but familiar. It\u2019s all about giving people what they want, when they want it.<\/p>

Where did you learn that approach?<\/strong>
I was head chef at the Riverview Hotel<\/a> in Balmain. We had bar food downstairs and an \u00e0 la carte British gastropub upstairs. Same ingredients, different treatments. In the bar, it was fish and hand-cut chips; upstairs, the same fillet cooked acqua pazza. Steak came with dauphinoise in the restaurant, and chips and sauce poivre at the bar. Two different menus. It was a killer to execute – but it taught me how to straddle both worlds. Joining Tilley & Wills Hotels was a natural progression. I wanted to build a bar menu with the skill, technique and ingredients of a restaurant.<\/p>

How do you manage kitchens across two states?<\/strong>
It\u2019s all about great staff. I\u2019ve been building teams for 15 years and I\u2019ve been lucky to find some exceptional people. I treat it like managing a football team. If I see a chef de partie ready to step up, I move them forward. Otherwise, they\u2019ll leave. Promoting internally bridges the cultural gap – it keeps everyone aligned, saves on training and shows there\u2019s a real career path. Longevity is gold. The head chef at Shafston Hotel<\/a> in Brisbane? He was my sous chef at Riverview 15 years ago.<\/p>

And the resort?<\/strong>
We renovated a rundown beachside resort in Coffs Harbour and needed a chef. Through a recruiter, we found Richmond Rodrigue, a former local working in the Hunter who wanted to move back. Total stroke of luck. He\u2019s incredible. He just gets what we\u2019re about. He even won Australian Professional Chef of the Year at Foodservice Australia 2025. Aanuka<\/a> is loved by locals and that\u2019s what makes it work.<\/p>

You\u2019re opening a new Asian venue?<\/strong>
Yes. CBD Sydney. No name yet, but it\u2019s pan-Asian fusion. And not the kind you workshop in a boardroom. This is driven by the chefs, many of whom are from Asia. They cook each other\u2019s home dishes, mix ingredients and techniques. It\u2019s a natural hybrid. Identifiably Asian but distinctly Australian. Our Indonesian chefs are obsessed with their Korean teammates\u2019 cooking. They\u2019ve made a nasi goreng with spicy kimchi and an egg on top. It\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>

Favourite cuisine:<\/strong> Thai. The mix of flavours and textures is incredible. A lot of Western chefs don\u2019t understand how crucial balance is in Thai cooking. Sitting on a beach in Thailand with grilled seafood and a cold beer? Heaven.<\/p>

Favourite drink:<\/strong> Hendrick\u2019s gin and tonic. Love having a G&T with my missus. She\u2019s English!<\/p>

Most influential chef:<\/strong> Matt Kemp, from Balzac in Randwick. An amazing teacher. He could teach in five minutes what others take years to explain. He hated waste. He\u2019d turn salmon trim into croquettes. He was so passionate but also opened my eyes to the business side of cooking.<\/p>

Favourite place:<\/strong> I grew up in Nowra. Spent long days swimming and spearfishing in Jervis Bay, then hoed down on Husky pies and fish and chips.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As seen in spring 2025<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Executive Chef Brad Sloane oversees six Tilley & Wills Hotels kitchens from Sydney to Brisbane, building strong teams and menus that combine restaurant technique with approachable pub classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-54730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-trends","tag-appetiser"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54730"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54919,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54730\/revisions\/54919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}