This spring, Vue de Monde executive chef Hugh Allen will open his own 40-seat fine diner, Yiaga, in the lush surrounds of Fitzroy Gardens, where he’ll serve boundary-pushing Australian cuisine in a bid to create a new destination eatery.

Allen has spent six years on the project, which will operate independently of Vue Group (although Vue’s owners Far East Organization will help with the financials).

The chef signed a lease in October 2023 on The Pavilion in Fitzroy Gardens, but began scouting for the perfect venue even before he was appointed executive chef of three-hatted fine diner Vue de Monde in 2019.

“Everywhere I’ve worked has had such an incredible location,” says Allen. Alongside the sky-high Vue de Monde, he’s worked at René Redzepi’s peerless Noma in Copenhagen and Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris. “I knew I wanted to open a destination restaurant, but I knew I wanted to do it in Melbourne.”

Given how many beautiful parks Melbourne has, there’s a lack of beautiful places to dine in them. “Around the world, pavilions are a place of hospitality,” says Allen, who was particularly inspired by London’s parks.

“I knew I wanted to open a destination restaurant, but I knew I wanted to do it in Melbourne.”

Hugh Allen

East Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens felt right. Its pavilion (alongside the Model Tudor Village) was occupied by myriad hospitality businesses for more than a century.

A slate roof and steel frame are all that remain of the derelict building. With lauded architect John Wardle (responsible for the Ian Potter Southbank Centre), Allen is reimagining it with all-Australian materials.

Guests will enter through what looks like one of the park’s elm trees, with vertically laid bricks, into a figure-eight-shaped chamber. Beyond, an all-glass dining room will take in the surrounding trees, flowing into an open kitchen with a charcoal barbecue. Tables will be Tasmanian blackwood; the chairs will be made with the same leather used by boots brand R.M. Williams.

The multi-course tasting menu at lunch and dinner will be “slightly cheaper” than Vue de Monde’s $360-a-head price tag, but similarly focused on often-underutilised ingredients that thrive in Australia − though the chef is reluctant to compare the two diners.

“[Yiaga’s] its own thing,” Allen says. “There are dishes that I worked on years ago that we’ve never done at Vue because they’re for here.”

He’s working to source kangaroo racks to dry-age and slow-roast over eucalypt with a paste of dorrigo and mountain peppers, then slice into chops. He’s breaking down hearts of palm (“coconut meets apple meets radish”) to tangle through mud crab in a salad. And he’s levelling up a dessert featured on MasterChef to create a Paddle Pop riff shaped like a banksia pod, with layers of ice-cream and caramel, served in a vase like a native bouquet.

Vue de Monde wine director Dorian Guillon (The Age Good Food Guide 2024’s sommelier of the year) is writing the list at Yiaga, too, with at least half the bottles set to represent Australia.

Eventually, the space will host regular talks and workshops from experts in their field, and a Sunday run club through the gardens.

“I didn’t finish high school, but I love the idea of a campus ... of gastronomy,” says Allen.

Allen will retain his role as Vue de Monde’s executive chef.

Fitzroy Gardens, Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, yiaga.au

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