After a stellar three-and-a-half-year run at Etta, Rosheen Kaul has left the building. The 32-year-old chef joined Etta in 2020, and in the years since, the dazzling work she did in collaboration with owner Hannah Green raised not only her own profile, making her one of the most talked-about young chefs in the country, but also took Etta to a new level of renown.
Kaul’s next steps are to take a break, focus on her freelance journalism, and finish off the manuscript for the “sambal-y, relishy, oily, tasty,” follow-up to her hit book, Chinese-Ish. “I’ll still be cooking here and there, but have no permanent plans as yet,” she says. “I’m going to lie down with my laptop for a while,” says Kaul. “It’s an exciting time.”
Back at Etta, Lorcan Kan is taking up the pans. His CV includes Attica (where Hannah Green also worked) as well as time at Contra in New York City and Where the Light Gets In, a sustainability-focussed restaurant in Manchester.
“It’s a full circle moment for us,” says Green. “We came up together working at Attica and have been watching each other from afar over the years, throughout all the incredible things Lorcan’s been doing overseas. I’m so happy to welcome him as part of our team.”
Kan says his menus, which will kick off in July, will be informed by his formal European culinary training and his Chinese-Malaysian (Baba-Nyonya) heritage.
“When I’m dining at a restaurant, I want to eat food I’ve never had before,” he says. “I like to find dishes in which different cultures intersect, cook them traditionally, and then approach each in a way that feels right to me. It’s really exciting to be able to do this at Etta now, drawing on all the different food cultures I’ve experienced through family and travel, and working with the Australian producers I’ve heard so much about while overseas.”
Etta, 60 Lygon St, Brunswick East, (03) 9448 8233, ettadining.com.au
By Pat Nourse