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Fried Chicken, Champagne and Wu-Tang: How Julian Cincotta Built Sydney's Most Unique Restaurant
Description
Julian Cincotta grew up cooking at his family's café in Western Sydney.
He went on to train under Neil Perry at Rockpool, won Young Chef of the Year, staged at some of the best restaurants in the world — and then opened a fried chicken and champagne bar in Surry Hills with a sneaker wall and a Wu-Tang soundtrack.
Two weeks after they opened, Wu-Tang Clan walked in.
That was ten years ago.
In this episode, Julian sits down with Tim to talk through the whole decade — the concept nobody believed in, the three venues COVID stripped back to one, the emotional weight of closing something you built, and why he's now one of the loudest voices on sustainability in the Australian hospitality industry.
It's a conversation about what it takes to stay relevant, stay true to what you built, and still be standing after ten years in one of the hardest industries in the world.
You'll hear:
00:00 – Fried chicken, champagne, sneakers and hip hop — where the idea came from
03:00 – Training at Rockpool and what fine dining teaches you about everything else
06:00 – Winning Young Chef of the Year and what happened next
08:00 – Opening Butter and why nobody thought it would work
10:00 – Wu-Tang walked in two weeks after they opened
13:00 – Scaling to three venues — and why one to three nearly broke them
18:00 – COVID, leases and the decision to close three venues down to one
22:00 – Why closing felt like failure — and why it wasn't
25:00 – Staying relevant after ten years and through a generation of change
28:00 – The partnership lessons nobody tells you upfront
32:00 – How Julian got obsessed with sustainability
36:00 – Compostable packaging, PFAS and why it's more complicated than it looks
42:00 – Turning Mayo buckets into reusable containers
45:00 – The one thing every owner can do today to reduce waste and save money
47:00 – What ten years at Butter actually taught him
If you want to go further on sustainability in your venue, Julian is part of HospoDECLARE — a movement connecting hospitality operators across Australia to share practical strategies for reducing waste, electrifying operations, and building more responsible supply chains. It's industry-wide collaboration built for people who actually want to make changes that stick. Check out https://www.hospodeclare.com/
Book a free call with the Foodie Coaches team at foodiecoaches.com
Follow along: @foodie_coaches @tim.kummerfeld
New episodes every Wednesday.