Tim Pak Poy

, 1998 (printed 2005)

Tim Pak Poy is a chef and food industry consultant. Trained as a perfumer, in 1983 Pak Poy secured a job with the celebrated chef Cheong Liew at Adelaide’s Nediz Neddy’s. Moving to Sydney, he worked with Anders Ousback and Tony Bilson before becoming head chef at the eastern suburbs institution Claude’s, Woollahra in 1988. Within six years, during which Claude’s received a three-hat rating from the Sydney Morning Herald, Pak Poy had purchased the restaurant. Innovative and elegant, Claude’s soon received the Herald's inaugural Restaurant of the Year Award, and an unmatched score of 19/20; it scored three hats in 1995 and 1997. Pak Poy sold Claude’s in 2004 to concentrate on his co-owned Wharf restaurant, which underwent a rethink in 2011 with the growth of the Wharf Theatre complex. He now runs a consultancy business assisting a wide range of food service clients, advising on the appropriate blends of ingredients, wine, service and ambience and promoting development of foods relatively new to Australia including, for example, black truffles.