Bill Granger: restaurateur remembered as ‘brilliant’ man who exported Australian food culture to the world

Chefs and writers have taken to social media to remember Bill Granger as a “culinary legend” and “brilliant” person who exported Australian food culture to the world.

The Australian cook and restaurateur died at a hospital in London on Christmas Day, the family of the food writer confirmed on Instagram. He was 54.

Granger was born in Melbourne and became a global restaurateur and food writer with a career spanning more than three decades, having taught himself to cook.

Granger dropped out of art school in 1993 and moved to Sydney where he opened his first restaurant, bills, in Darlinghurst. The corner cafe became known for its fresh flavours and breakfast food, served at a central communal table – and on Wednesday, Granger was remembered as the person primarily responsible for the global popularity of avocado on toast and developing a distinctive style of Australian breakfast and brunch, so much so that he became widely known as the “godfather” of avocado toast.

Luke Mangan, an Australian chef and restaurateur who launched the David Jones food hall with Granger, said he was “heartbroken” by the news.

“Bill was one of the nicest, most gentle and humble cooks I’ve met. We knew each other pretty well but, sadly, we hadn’t had the chance to catch up in a while,” he wrote in a Facebook tribute.

“From Bill’s first tiny, little venue in Darlinghurst, he went onto the conquer the food world, opening restaurants and cafes in Seoul, Tokyo and London… and then there were his countless books and TV shows too. At home here in Sydney, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place for brekky than Bills in Bondi, Double Bay, Surry Hills, and, of course, Darlinghurst,” he wrote. “He was just a great bloke.”

“Thank you for your friendship and your fabulous food, Bill. We’ll miss you mate.”

Australian chef and restaurateur Matt Moran described Granger as a “culinary legend”.

“Meeting Bill back in the early 90s, he was just as you’d expect – down to earth and one of the kindest talents in food,” Moran wrote on Facebook. “We’ve lost a culinary legend; he completely changed the Australian brunch culture by opening Bill’s Darlinghurst in 1993, before sharing the joy of Bill’s all over the world. Sending lots of love to Natalie and his family. We’ll miss you chef.”

Writer Joanna Savill wrote on Instagram: “As my well-travelled friend @davidprior said to me recently, Bill Granger played a critical role in changing Australian food culture. And exporting it around the world. What’s more, as he rightly said, ‘Bill… is sunshine.’”

“Our thoughts are with his wife and business partner Natalie and their girls – special people, a special family, a very special and always lovely man.”

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Australian restaurant critic Pat Nourse recalled that before he had ever visited bills, he remembered a girl “enchanting” him with descriptions of a cafe she loved “that was just one big table piled with the best magazines from New York and London, serving only food made that day and excellent coffee, all to an appreciative audience of nurses from St Vincent’s and aspiring fashion designers and class-A drug dealers and other fixtures of the Darlinghurst demimonde”.

“When I moved to the neighbourhood it was still exactly that, and the essentials of the blueprint have been lifted and copied and riffed on so many times and in so many places around the world that it’s easy to lose sight of just what a revelation the original bills was.”

Nourse described Granger as a “Melbourne boy who defined a slice of Sydney life and took it to the world”.

Fellow chef and restaurateur Neil Perry called Granger a “brilliant person, husband and father”.

“I still remember all those years ago visiting Bills and seeing an energetic cook scramble divine eggs in that little kitchen in Darlinghurst, the beginning of something very special,” he wrote on Instagram.

CEO of Food and Wine Victoria Anthea Loucas Bosha called Granger a “Melbourne-born revolutionary and a world-class success story”.

“But he was also one of the kindest, nicest talents in the food world,” Bosha wrote on Instagram. “Bill and his beautiful partner Nat changed the breakfast and cafe game with their chic, sunny style, bottling Sydney’s beach vibes and sharing it with the world.”

Restaurateur Maurice Terzini said he was so proud to see his “dear friend Bill” rise to become an “international star”.

“Thank you for the inspirations and encouragement life will not be the same without you,” he wrote on Instagram.