Three years after taking the reins of Restaurant Botanic and catapulting the fine diner to national and international acclaim – even drawing daytrippers from interstate – executive chef Justin James is stepping away.
It’s a shock announcement for a chef at the top of his game, but James tells Broadsheet he’s ready for a new challenge. “I’ve made a mark here – I think it should be in the hall of fame of restaurants for Australia,” he laughs.
“I’ve been cooking for a long time – 22 years next month – and you get to a point where you decide what avenue you want to go [down]. I’m at the point in my life and career to rethink things and where I want to go in not five years but 15 or 20 years.
“I’m ready for the next level.”
James, who was executive chef at Melbourne’s celebrated fine diner Vue de Monde for five and a half years (before that, he did stints in the kitchens of Noma, Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Eleven Madison Park), took over the heritage-listed tearoom in the Botanic Garden in 2021, rebranding and relaunching the restaurant following an extensive reno (which included a new open kitchen with a giant hearth and a curved chef's table overlooking the action).
Over his three years at the restaurant, James upped the Australian fine-dining ante with “flavour combinations” (not courses) like roasted crocodile tail and daikon broth with toasted oak; emu egg chawanmushi with wallaby tea and native lemongrass; marron doughnut glazed in marron coral (the membranes in the marron head); and a now-signature custard ice-cream made with fallen bunya bunya branches and wattleseed miso.
“The restaurant was a moment in time and place,” he concedes. He’s talking about his tenure, of course, but he’s also describing his vision from the outset: to deliver a moment in time and place for the guest. That place being the lush backdrop of the 51-hectare Botanic Garden and its bounty of produce, from angelica (wild celery) to warrigal greens; the time being the seasons, as well as the culinary journey the diner goes on (a voyage that could last between four and six hours).
“I feel incredibly accomplished, blessed, grateful,” says James. “It was a lot of hard work, a lot of long days, long nights, long weeks, long months, long years. On the third birthday it made sense – it’s a nice way to round it out.
“The ideas are mine and I’m in the walls probably for a good amount of time – in the ceiling, in the lights, in the plates,” says the chef, who had a close hand in the redesign by Williams Burton Leopardi. “But it’s not mine, either. So it’s time to think about what that looks like.”
When pressed on what’s next – and whether it will be in Adelaide – James is tight-lipped, but suggests he’s “figuring all that out”. “There’s two spots I’ve been thinking about,” he says. “But also open to anything and everything as well. Sometimes you just have to make that jump without looking.
“A little time to reflect and rejuvenate the creative juices is something I’m looking forward to as well.”
James’s final service is June 30. Restaurant Botanic owners Steve Blanco and Chris Horner say the restaurant will continue “in its current format”.
“What Justin has created and achieved in just three years is truly remarkable,” Horner said in a press release. “It has been an unbelievable journey, and we were simply privileged to be a part of it,” added Blanco.
