Polepole / Glamp
Year
2015–2018
Client
Polepole, Melbourne
Service
Culinary Direction · Launch
One-way ticket from London. Landed a sous chef role, stepped up within weeks, and ran the kitchen for three and a half years. Melbourne’s first modern East African venue — restaurant, safari cocktail bar and 150-pax functions, all from one kitchen.
© Polepole / Glamp
Context
Polepole was the first Melbourne restaurant I ever walked into. I’d landed from London on a one-way ticket — never been to the city before. Took a sous chef position. Within a few weeks, the head chef was gone. I kept the kitchen running while the owners looked for someone permanent.
They didn’t end up looking very far. What they saw in that interim period — the shift in how the kitchen operated, the change in the relationship between back and front of house — was enough. They offered me the role.
The team I built in that kitchen stayed with me. Not just at Polepole — my sous chefs and chefs moved with me across multiple venues over the years that followed. That kind of loyalty doesn’t come from the pay rate.
What I built
Built
Menu architecture across three formats · Sous vide systems (first implementation) · Chamber vacuum sealer protocols · No-smoker BBQ method (curing + drum charcoal + sous vide) · House spice blends from whole spices · Prep and storage systems for 90-cover restaurant + 100+ pax functions · Glamp menu engineered around drinks revenue · FOH/BOH service structure · Kitchen culture and team
Three formats, one kitchen. Ninety restaurant covers, 100-plus functions, Glamp bar food — all running simultaneously out of the same space. Storage was tight, so we built smart: sous vide systems, chamber vacuum sealers, prep protocols that extended shelf life and reduced service pressure under volume. These weren't industry standard at the time. They are now.
The venue had no smoker. The brief still called for African BBQ ribs that could anchor the menu. The solution came from layering: curing, drum charcoal BBQ, and sous vide — three stages that built smoke, texture and depth without the equipment. Paired with house spice blends ground from whole spices, the meats were exceptional. Every blend made in-house. Every spice sourced deliberately.
In year two, the menu moved toward something more personal. Mauritian home cooking — the food I grew up with. Gato pima, dhal puri, goat curry, Creole octopus curry. I flew my mum out from Mauritius. We spent time in the kitchen together. The dishes from those sessions became some of the most requested on the menu. Not sourced from a reference book. Actually sourced.
Glamp ran upstairs — safari-themed cocktail bar, all food from the same kitchen. The menu was built to support drinks sales, not compete with them. Under Venue Manager Ben Heir — the closest thing I've had to a mentor in this industry — Glamp became one of the strongest revenue contributors in the business.
Polepole was also where I put down roots in Melbourne. Weekly goat from the butchers at Vic Market. Cultural spices hunted down in Footscray. Game meats and seafood through Gamekeepers and Ocean Made — supplier relationships I still use today. This is how I work: even when making something contemporary, it stays authentic. The sourcing is where that starts.
The kitchen culture was built as deliberately as the menu — mentoring the team, building trust across every department toward a single goal, making sure people had the tools and context to do their jobs well. The food only holds when the room holds.
Signature moment
Flying my mum out from Mauritius and cooking with her in the kitchen. The Creole octopus curry became the dish people came back for.
Outcome
Three and a half years. A kitchen running serious volume with systems that were ahead of their time.
The team that came out of Polepole kept showing up. Sous chefs who went on to work with me at Chiquito, Mrs Singh and Eazy Peazy — and as second chefs at pop-ups across Melbourne and beyond. A bar back who worked his way up to restaurant manager and is now a top sommelier. Bar and floor staff who went on to work at some of Melbourne's best rooms. That's what a good culture produces.
And a menu that found its identity in Mauritius, not East Africa.
Press
“Their menu is contemporary Melbourne with African flourishes. Chicken ribs… are delicious and the serve is generous. Polepole… is on the ascent and is worth trying.” — Dani Valent, Good Food, Nov 2018
Mrs Singh
Ish