Neil Perry has done this before. His new restaurant, Song Bird, is his 24th and counting – and still, he bounces in, ponytail swinging, ready for the day.

Since the 1980s, Perry has defined Sydney dining with his celebration of great produce, flavour-first cooking and proudly Australian vernacular with steak and seafood. Along the way, he built the sunny seafood-driven Blue Water Grill, pioneering fine-diner Rockpool, modern Asian Spice Temple, elegant Italian Rosetta, and the sum of all his parts, Margaret in Double Bay.