Austrade media release

19 March 2007

Austrade has praised Aussie chef turned restaurateur, Luke Mangan for his entrepreneurship, as he forges a new meaning to the term ‘chain restaurant’ and opens Salt in Japan next month with others planned for Hawaii and the US.

Acclaimed for his top notch restaurants and as a celebrity chef, Luke Mangan said in examining the export potential of taking his brand name restaurant Salt into Japan, the earnings projections are very promising.

“After doing the sums, I expect the 85 seat Tokyo-based Salt restaurant will earn at least a third more than if it were based in a large Australian city,” Mr Mangan said. 

“The reason for the Tokyo earnings projection is based on Salt being positioned right in the heart of its business district in the new Mitsubishi building and because Tokyo has a much larger population than Australian cities. 

“Other factors working in our favour include the success of the “Aussie brand”.  The Japanese are passionate about food and wine and love everything Australian.

“We’ll be flying in fresh seafood and produce from Australia a couple of times a week such as lobster, barramundi, oysters and lamb – there will also be a large fish tank full of fresh ‘seafood’.  Austrade has been and continues to recommend Australian food and beverage suppliers to our partners, the PJ Group.

“The décor and food will reflect the best of Australia such as our beautiful sunsets and wave-like curves in the ceiling and dining room – it will not be a tacky Australian themed restaurant though – it will be classy yet not formal,” he said.

Austrade’s Tokyo-based Senior Trade Commissioner, Phil Ingram said Japan is Australia’s biggest export destination for food; worth almost $9.9 billion in the last financial year - $2 billion above the US, our next biggest market. 

“Australian produce is highly regarded in Japan, however our cuisine until recently was not well known.  Salt’s opening follows Austrade’s concerted drive to increase awareness of Australian cuisine in Japan,” Mr Ingram said. 

“Until recently the Japanese that visited Australia was those most familiar with our cuisine and they’ve gone back form their holiday ecstatic, finding our European/Asian fusion second to none.”

Salt will open in Japan surrounded by much fanfare.  The culture for any new major building opening in Japan, such as the Mitsubishi in which Salt will be housed, is to have week-long celebrations.  The Mitsubishi ‘party’ will start on 25 April with the official opening of Salt on Friday, 27th April. 

The opportunity to open Salt in Tokyo came about when Tokyo-based international restaurant developers, Port Japan Partners came to Australia to seek a partner. 

“Port Japan Partners went to all the best restaurants in Australia and finally settled on us, I ended up selling them a 49 per cent share of the Salt brand.  We met three of four years ago, so it’s been a long process,” Mr Mangan said.

“The Tokyo-based Salt will have eight Australian chefs in the kitchen out of a total of 15.  I’d like to have at least five Japanese chefs, and possibly another two Aussies.  My head chef Shannon who’s been with me for ten years headed over to Japan in December 2006.

We set up a test kitchen and got him familiar with suppliers and ingredients, so now he understands how it works – he’s also had a Japanese girlfriend for quite a few years so that helps.  My other seven chefs have gone over too,” he said.

Luke Mangan fell into the restaurant game after being kicked out of school at 15 for throwing some paper at a teacher – something he doesn’t recommend to others.  He has seven brothers and said his strict father made him promise to finish an apprenticeship at one of Australia’s top restaurant’s Two-Faces where he had spent some time on work experience.

Now, when asked about what motivates him, Mr Mangan said: “I just want to be the best I can be and I don’t want to fail.  The reason why I’m venturing overseas is that I like to examine opportunities that present themselves to me and this venture is sound.  It also gives the chefs that work for me a chance for more responsibility and to grow,” Mr Mangan said.

ENDS

Media contact

Name:  Karla Davies
Tel:      +61 2 9390 2745
Mobile:  0421 288 755
Email:   karla.davies@austrade.gov.au

For further news and information from the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) visit www.austrade.gov.au/mediacentre.