The Australian chef who made crocodile on toast a thing has been handed the food keys at Taronga Zoo. Me-Gal by Matt Stone will open on December 15, the first in a series of planned steps at the Sydney zoological institution from the trailblazing sustainability-focused chef.
Originally the exclusive domain of in-house guests at Taronga Zoo’s Wildlife Retreat, the restaurant was opened to the public in 2023, bypassing the zoo’s entrance fee. The restaurant Stone has inherited will be restyled to complement its postcard vistas.
“It has got to be one of the best dining rooms in Australia,” Stone said of the views down the harbour to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
The recycled nature of Me-Gal is right in Stone’s wheelhouse. In the years since he was plucked as a young chef in Perth to front the kitchen at eco-entrepreneur Joost Bakker’s Greenhouse venture, Stone has criss-crossed the country, championing zero-waste cooking and native ingredients from Oakridge Estate in Victoria to Good Food Guide hatted You Beauty in the Northern Rivers. In one of Joost’s projects, Stone lived in a no-waste, self-sustaining eco-house in Melbourne’s Fed Square for months with chef Jo Barrett (his then-partner).
After talking with Mark Best at Sydney Tower and Danielle Alvarez at the Opera House – both have partnered with the hospitality giant Tippas White – Stone decided to sign on with the group. He was impressed by the talent Trippas White was drafting and the size and scale they offered in forwarding his kitchen philosophy. “I never wanted to put my name on a restaurant, but [the operators] were very persistent,” the chef said of the restaurant’s moniker.
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Stone’s produce-first approach to cooking will be reflected in the new menu. Expect some wild game and kangaroo alongside ethically caught crayfish.
“Vegies [will be] a big part of it,” he said. “I find the best Australian ingredients, respect the people who grow them and let them do the talking.”
A new kitchen will also be installed: “No gas — cooking on induction is such a great way to cook.”
The wine list will lean in on sustainable and “considered” winemaking, with a heavy representation of female winemakers as well as First Nations-owned wine businesses. The chef’s label, Wines by Matt Stone, will also get a look-in.
“I haven’t cooked [in Sydney] for a decade, if not longer,” Stone said. That last outing, Stanley Street Merchants in 2014, was a three-month pop-up in East Sydney, championing “socially responsible” cooking and urban foraging.
Stone is already eyeing a considerably longer Sydney stay with the Taronga project. “I’ve signed up for three years with an option for longer,” he said.
Of his long-term plans, Stone hopes to overhaul the busy food hall area: “I’ve got big ambitions to make Taronga Food Market waste free.” But before that, he’ll be waving a creative wand and whisk over Taronga’s catering and events. Given these ambitions for the site, you suspect Stone will be extending.
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