Chef Hayden McMillan’s Etta a Melbourne Stand Out

New Zealand-born chef Hayden McMillan recently opened the 80-seat bistro Etta in Melbourne’s Brunswick. Etta is one of four new Melbourne restaurants Broadsheet readers are recommended to try, and McMillan named, one of the “biggest names in food right now.”

“Etta is made up of two polished spaces – one a bar, one a dining room – separated by an open kitchen. Both rooms centre around large, expensive-looking benches made from Australian marble. IF Architecture’s Iva Foschia, who designed the new fit-out for Cutler & Co. and Attica, designed the bistro.

“McMillan (formerly of The Roving Marrow) runs the restaurant with his wife Dominique Fourie McMillan, and Hannah Green. Green and McMillan used to work together at Neil Perry’s Rosetta, and would regularly eat together at The Roving Marrow, where the group concocted their own future diner.

“McMillan’s seasonal menu draws on flavours from all over the world, similar to, but a little more approachable than, Roving Marrow. More than half of the menu is vegetarian. Dishes include tamari- and brown-sugar-roasted buttercup pumpkin served with a dairy-free sunflower cream. And Flinders Island lamb marinated in a cumin and fennel seed dry rub, then cooked on a Japanese-style binchotan charcoal grill.”

Original article by Katya Wachtel, Broadsheet, June 2, 2017.