Hatted chef Kym Machin has returned to Brisbane CBD dining, unveiling his first menu at The Wolf in Post Office Square.

It’s a long time between services in the city for Machin, whose last regular restaurant gig was at iconic fine diner Urbane, where he turned heads (and won a couple of hats) with his innovative, precise cuisine. Machin left Urbane in 2012 to open his own cafe, Bare Bones Society, in Jindalee, with his wife Jade Machin, while the couple raised their two children.

“Sometimes Urbane feels like a long time ago,” Machin says. “But sometimes it feels like only yesterday.

“I had one of the guys who worked with me there come onboard yesterday, and he said, ‘You’re not as full-on as you used to be.’ And I was like, ‘Raising two kids, owning your own business out in the ’burbs, I had to mellow out.’”

Machin’s return to the city comes at an interesting time for Brisbane dining. While traditionally styled fine diners such as Urbane are, for now, a thing of the past in Brisbane, the hospitality industry struggling in the face of ever-tighter margins, the 48-year-old Machin has watched with interest as restaurants such as Exhibition and Joy have achieved an elevated degree of dining while keeping on top of their overheads.

“It has changed so much in those 12 years,” he says. “And for the better. There was a big decline in fine dining but in the past five or six years, it’s grown again.

“We’re not talking something super formal, like you might find in Europe. But it’s a more relaxed style of elevated dining that’s flourishing up here right now.

“I think restaurants such as Exhibition and Joy, they’re doing a style of dining that doesn’t budge on the quality of the produce. They keep it real but also make it viable.

“And that’s something I want to spend more time teaching younger chefs: so they know how to work with food costs, with those basic things, because there’s a big lack of skill in that area, of how to keep a restaurant afloat.

“That way of recycling waste and using all the produce. That, crossed with awesome food is where we need to be.”

Machin’s first menu at The Wolf kicked off in late July, and is slightly classical in style, but he says to expect it to change frequently and push in more adventurous directions as he beds in with the kitchen team and develops his relationship with The Wolf owner Fabian Rebelo.

“The first menu is very much a ‘can he cook?’ type thing with Fabian … but once we trust each other and I find where the skill level is with the team [you can expect it to change].

“And I’d like to see it change as quickly as possible – pretty regularly – particularly with the seasons because everything comes and goes so quickly at the moment … I don’t want people to get bored.”

On the menu, you can expect dishes such as tiger prawns with a cardamon bisque, coconut and a cauliflower puree; market fish with clams and potato served with a chowder and sea herbs; and chevre agnolotti with thyme, charred onion, asparagus and truffle.

“I left the city when the kids were young,” Machin says. “I wanted to be with them when they grew up in those younger years, when they really needed me.

“But now they’re a bit older, they don’t need me around so much any more, and I really needed to come back and do good food again. Being back in the city allows me to do the stuff that I love doing.”

Open Mon-Fri 11.30am-3pm, 5.30pm-9pm

260 Queen Street, Brisbane, (07) 3211 9678

wolf260queen.com.au