One of Australia’s largest hospitality groups, which owns Rockpool Bar & Grill, is in the spotlight after the departure of senior staff, including culinary director Corey Costelloe.

The upmarket Hunter St. Hospitality restaurant stable and its mid-market sibling, Pacific Concepts, have undergone major cost-cutting and closures in recent years. They include the Italian restaurant Rosetta, which exited The Rocks in 2021, Bridge Street’s casual Italian Fratelli Fresh and The Bavarian from its Campbell Parade location, at Bondi Beach.

Pacific Concepts has venues that include the Mexican-themed El Camino Cantina, Fratelli Fresh, The Bavarian, Bar Patron and The Argyle.

Costelloe said he was informed this week that he was no longer required as culinary director at Hunter St. Hospitality. Senior staff in operations and group marketing roles have also been let go.

Costelloe will be in demand by other hospitality groups, but says he’ll scout Sydney to open his own restaurant. He rose to culinary director at Hunter St. Hospitality – which oversees Rockpool Bar & Grills in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Rosetta in Melbourne, and the upmarket Asian concepts Spice Temple and Sake.

Pacific Hunter Group (owner of Hunter St. and Pacific Concepts) chief executive Thomas Pash told Good Food that venue closures played a part in staff cuts. “As the size of our portfolio has decreased post-COVID, a few senior roles across the business have been impacted as part of a strategic restructure,” Pash says.

The post-COVID period has been a testing time for the restaurant group built by Quadrant Private Equity, which acquired Rockpool Group from chef Neil Perry and his partners in 2016, merging it with its Urban Purveyor Group, which it purchased for $175 million in 2015. Though Perry has left the business, he retains a small stake.

In April 2023, The Australian Financial Review reported that the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult for parent company Pacific Hunter, with a financial report lodged with the corporate regulator showing the company posted a $75.7 million loss for the 12 months to June 30. For the previous financial year, the company recorded a loss of $87.5 million.

Pash is confident the worst is over for senior staff cuts.

“We don’t anticipate any further changes at this point,” he says.

Neil Perry meanwhile has since opened Margaret in Sydney’s Double Bay, which was named The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide’s Restaurant of the Year 2024.