By Amy Ripley
BILL GRANGER: 1969 – 2023
Bill Granger, who has died of cancer aged 54 in London, did more than anyone to bring the sunshine, simplicity, and joy of Australian cuisine to restaurants, cafes, and home kitchens around the world.
Crowned “the egg master of Sydney” by the New York Times because of his indulgent scrambled eggs – the secret was two eggs, a third of a cup of cream, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of butter – it is thanks to him that avocado on toast, fluffy ricotta hotcakes and banana bread are now standard breakfast fare.
Bill Granger in Sydney, 2009.Credit: Getty
A self-taught cook, during his 30-year career he published 14 cookbooks, selling more than 1 million copies, and made five television cookery series that aired in over 30 countries. His 19 restaurants span Sydney, Seoul, Greater Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and London, serving 1.5 million people a year worldwide.
As well as his famous brunch recipes, his food mapped important shifts in the Australian cultural landscape, from Italian, to Thai, to Chinese, broadening out palettes and reflecting the changing multicultural nature of the country.
It all began on Liverpool Street, at the Paddington end of Darlinghurst where, in 1993, an art school dropout, he opened his first cafe, selling not much more than avocado on toast, eggs, fresh orange juice and good, strong coffee. He could offer so few dishes to begin with because the small kitchen only had a four-burner stove, a grill, fridge, and coffee machine.
Bill Granger dropped out of art school before opening bills in Darlinghurst in 1993.Credit: Fairfax
“Bill had made this tiny, jewel of a space so completely and utterly stunning. Everywhere I turned there was care, beauty, and optimism, just like Bill himself,” his friend and sometime collaborator Kylie Kwong (Kwong) wrote in the Herald.
Open six days a week for breakfast and lunch, it was an airy, sun-drenched room, with a large oak communal table that seated 14. Sydneysiders, tourists, and celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Leonardo Di Caprio and Julia Roberts flocked there, drawn by the array of simple, yet delicious signature dishes including sweetcorn fritters, fruity granola, and, of course, those scrambled eggs.
“The food isn’t revolutionary but there are some surprises: a wake up call of freshly squeezed orange juice, wheatgerm, yoghurt and bee pollen; toasted coconut bread made on the premises and delicious. bills is not just a great room, it is a completely focaccia-free zone and for this we give thanks and praise,” the Herald noted approvingly in 1994.
William Granger was born on August 29, 1969, in Melbourne and grew up in the beachside suburb of Mentone. His father – like his father before him - was a butcher and his mother a vegetarian but they sidestepped any disagreements about food by eating separately. His parents later split up but remained friends – “it was the mismatch of the century,” their son recalled ruefully.
Bill Granger poses for a photo at Buckingham Palace, 2011.Credit: PA
Granger and his brother Steven did not grow up in a household of gourmands. Their parents worked long hours, and so Granger learned to cook from Australian Women’s Weekly recipe cards kept in a box by the stove, progressing to cooking three-course meals for his parents and their friends.
He was also inspired by the food that his Jewish and Greek friends ate. “I loved the fact that food was an important part of their lives and celebrations and I never had it, so I’m inventing it for our family. Some people are really lucky and grow up with great food but most of us aren’t,” he told the Herald in 2006.
After school, he studied architecture briefly at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology before tiring of the city’s inclement weather and fleeing to Sydney in search of light and warmth. He switched to studying fine art and began waiting tables at La Passion De Fruit on Oxford Street to make some extra money.
The cafe specialised in breakfast and lunch, but Granger rented it from the owner three nights a week to do his own dinner service. It taught him much about working in a kitchen but was a financial quagmire.
Bill Grangerand other Royal chefs in a kitchen at Buckingham Palace in London, 2011.Credit: PA
“I went through a lot of money,” he said in 2008. “It was a good introduction to the restaurant business, but what it really did was show me that I wanted my own place. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it and worked with some great friends ... when you do business at that age it’s very much a co-op feeling. You’re all young and doing it together.”
By 1993, he had opened bills on Liverpool Street, financed by a $300,000 loan taken out against his grandfather’s life insurance policy. “I remember thinking time was running out. I felt an overwhelming need to put down a stamp and do something,” he said.
It was here that Granger was introduced by a colleague to Natalie Elliott, a documentary film producer who became his wife and business partner, and who was instrumental to his success. The couple went on to have three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny.
“To be honest, while I do have a good head for business, I’m instinctive. I don’t have good follow-through,” he told The Australian in 2008. “Our relationship is great because Natalie produces me as a creative and allows me to have time, because that’s a struggle when you work in a creative business – having enough time to be creative.”
A dedicated father and husband, his love for his family was evident. “My family ate together about three times in our whole childhood and I think that’s why I do what I do now – my business is about the joy of the domestic and having food on the table,” he said.
“At times it’s a struggle when we finally get the girls to bed at 7.30pm and there’s [still] piles of work to do. The flip side is that one of us can pick them up from school every day and we feel really involved in their lives.”
The success of his first restaurant was followed by bills 2 in Surry Hills in 1996 – still deliberately lower case and with no apostrophe – then a third restaurant in Woollahra.
In 2000 he opened the critically acclaimed billy kwong with Kylie Kwong on Crown Street, although he stepped back from the business in 2002. By 2008, he was going international, opening a restaurant in Japan, near the town of Kamakura, at Shichirigahama beach. This was followed by his first London restaurant, Granger & Co, in 2011, then his first site in Seoul in 2014.
Granger was welcomed with open arms in his adopted home of London where his healthy, optimistic food struck a chord with pasty, sun-starved Londoners, more used to builders’ tea and bacon sandwiches in greasy spoons than exotic avocados and cheerful lamingtons. His first restaurant was on chichi Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill, rapidly expanding to the very smartest of suburbs including Chelsea, Clerkenwell, King’s Cross and Marylebone, all of which saw queues around the block for weekend brunch.
Bill Granger and Kylie Kwong in 2000 at the opening of their joint venture, billy kwong in Surry Hills.Credit: Jennifer Soo
Described by writer Kathy Lette as “bright and brilliant as a Bondi ray of sunshine”, he was much-loved by his peers and friends in the food industry across the world.
“One of his greatest qualities was the way he celebrated people and accepted them for who they truly were. Everyone who knew Bill remembers how non-judgemental he was; he saw the sunlight in everyone and every situation,” said Kylie Kwong.
In January 2023, Granger was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his contribution to tourism and hospitality.
Bill Granger is survived by his family, his friends, and his food.
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