From Masterchef to minding her own business: Minoli De Silva opens Ella

Darwin’s Masterchef star is now tantalising tastebuds at her own restaurant in an iconic location.

THE 2020 closure of Darwin’s famous Magic Wok restaurant left two significant holes.

The first was the empty West Lane Arcade premises which for 16 years had been home to one of the city’s most popular restaurants.

The second was the culinary gap left when Magic Wok shut its doors. Its great food and huge range were a fixture of Darwin restaurant circles.

But in a stroke of good fortune, both holes were in-filled simultaneously.

The recent low-key opening of Ella – by Minoli at Magic Wok's West Lane building helped sort the real-estate and culinary challenges in one fell swoop.

The superb Sri Lankan restaurant opened quietly in May but has since earned glowing reviews from patrons.

“Genuinely, the best food in Darwin,” one diner said. “Ella’s is absolutely unreal. A taste of Melbourne’s Flinders Lane in the tropics.”

Minoli is Minoli De Silva, the popular Masterchef contestant who returned for a second series on the show earlier this year. Ella is a town in Sri Lanka, Minoli’s birth-country, which has a reputation for producing superb ingredients and cuisine.

Unidentified, but also crucial to the restaurant is Darwin real-estate agent Seth Chin, who is one of three investors.

Minoli De Silva at her new Darwin restaurant called Ella. Picture: (A) manda Parkinson

He initially sold the premises for the family after Magic Wok owner and founder Frank Lam died in March 2020.

When the purchaser put the property back on the market some months later Seth, with his friend Minoli front-end-centre in mind, bought the property and his ticket into the restaurant business.

“Minoli and I had been friends for a couple of years and I’d always known she loved cooking,” Seth said.

“When she came back to Darwin after Masterchef and was working out what her next step would be I told her I could get a restaurant and would be keen to do business if she was open to it.”

She was!

Shir Kelly, co-owner of TK constructions, also came on board and tens-of-thousands of dollars was spent transforming Magic Wok into Ella – by Minoli. The result is stylish and distinctive and unrecognisable from its well-known predecessor.

“TK did the fit out and was responsible for delivering the incredible transformation which has been made,” Seth said. “Shir has a lot of experience in hospitality and she has been helping managing front of house have a really rounded team in which we all bring different experience and knowledge to.

“We spent a considerable amount of money on the fit-out and we’ve really changed what the Magic Wok was, but we are hoping to become another Darwin institution and one of the top-five restaurants people talk about in Darwin,” he said.

New Darwin restaurant called Ella by chef Minoli De Silva. Picture: (A) manda Parkinson

“The food Minoli has been able to produce and the service from our front-of-house guys and the drinks our bar staff are doing have been exceptional.”

Minoli, a chemical engineer by training, is loving the switch to the kitchen.

“I wasn’t sure if chemical engineering would translate into the kitchen but it’s all about problem solving in engineering,” she said.

“I’m seeing even in the first few weeks since we’ve opened it’s just helped being able to troubleshoot random things that I’ve never actually done in a work context before, but the problem solving definitely helps.”

The transition from the Masterchef kitchen to the restaurant setting has taken some adjusting.

“Masterchef isn’t like a real life kitchen,” Minoli said. “That’s where I learned all my skills and upskilled and a lot of technique.

“But now real people are eating my food and people are paying money to come and eat it so I have more pressure to make sure the food is spot on.

“I have been cooking since I was seven years old, so that’s almost 30 years of cooking, but Masterchef taught me the skills to be a chef. and to translate home-cooking skills into a restaurant.”