Made to order: How Australians are recreating the hottest restaurant looks in their own homes
Tools of the trade
Certainly for restaurants, design has never been more important. “People go for the entire experience,” the interior designer behind Neil Perry’s Rosetta, Melissa Collison, says. “They do want to be wowed, and the expectation and benchmark for that is getting higher and higher.”
Melissa Collison is the designer behind Neil Perry’s Rosetta. Photo: Christopher Pearce
One of the most significant commercial design trends has been the move towards open kitchens. “Kitchens in hospitality used to be hidden so you couldn’t see what’s happening. Now people want to see who’s making their food, they want to see it being fried or steamed, they want to smell it,” Collison says.
That exposure has resulted in an insatiable appetite for the best equipment money can buy. “When they’re creating a residential kitchen they’re getting two ovens, a couple of dishwashers, commercial fridges, complicated cooktops.”
Madam Shanghai, also designed by Melissa Collison, plays on the popularity of open kitchens. Photo: Rohan Venn