Get busy in the kitchen with Damien Pignolet

Queenslanders will have the chance to get busy in the kitchen with one of Australia's finest chefs and restaurateurs, Damien Pignolet, when Spring opens in Brisbane in a few weeks.

Chef

Queenslanders will have the chance to get busy in the kitchen with one of Australia's finest chefs and restaurateurs, Damien Pignolet, when Spring opens in Brisbane in a few weeks.

The acclaimed chef, who co-owned Claude's in Sydney from 1981 to 1993 and has had Bistro Moncur since 1993, has been confirmed as one of the first chefs to step up at the Spring cooking school.

Under construction, Spring will also include a restaurant and takeaway outlet, retail space and wine store.

Owner Sarah Hancock says she was inspired while studying economics at Cambridge in Britain, where the lure of beautiful restaurants proved tough competition for the study books.

"I used to wonder about what it was that made some places so special, how they achieved that X-factor," she says.

Hancock hopes to create something exciting and welcoming at the corner of Felix and Mary streets, the likes of which has not been seen in Brisbane before.

Above all, she hopes people will feel "at home" at Spring.

The open design will mean that the cooking school, restaurant and retail areas will all be visible to each other, which will also give the place a life of its own.

Former Courier-Mail restaurant reviewer Lizzie Loel will be general manager and the executive chef is Andrew Clarke, who comes from the Hunter Valley's two-hat Rock Restaurant at Poole's Rock Winery.

Matt Tierney, who worked at Aria for the past two years after starting his career in Brisbane with Brew Bakers, will be in charge of the patisserie.

Hancock hopes Spring, with an emphasis on sustainably grown and organic produce and complete with vintage tractor outside, will entice visitors to think more about fresh produce and to be inspired to learn more.

It is due to open in November.