Maverick Sydney chef Mitch Orr, perhaps best known for his high-wire Jatz crackers, will depart Kiln restaurant just two years after it opened. The flagship restaurant at the Ace Hotel Sydney, Kiln has already lined up an ace replacement: Copenhagen-based Australian chef Beau Clugston.

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide editor Callan Boys says Clugston’s return to Australia to helm Kiln is some of the “most exciting” dining news this year.

“Beau was a key talent at Noma for a long time,” Boys says. “Certainly not one of these chefs who work for two weeks picking borage flowers at the Copenhagen restaurant and then plaster ‘formerly of Noma’ across their Instagram profile.”

After closing his Rushcutters Bay restaurant ACME, Orr was handed a sizeable challenge opening the rooftop restaurant, which was part of the 2022 Sydney launch of the ultra-cool Ace international boutique hotel brand. Kiln got off to a great start, snaring the coveted New Restaurant of the Year at the 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards for its daring menu and creative spirit that steered away from hotel dining cliches.

“Mitch Orr is nothing if not contrary; someone who seriously believes Jatz crackers deserve to be on the menu, topped with a mountain of smoky butter and a fat, salty anchovy,” veteran critic Terry Durack wrote in his Good Food review.

Orr spread his wings in more recent times, juggling Kiln while signing on as food and creative director at St Kilda’s Prince Dining Room in Melbourne. It failed to recreate the same magic with critics, however.

Clugston, who was born and raised in Sawtell in northern NSW, departed Australia in the early 2000s to pursue his career internationally, working in Gordon Ramsay’s kitchens at Claridges and Maze, and Rene Redzepi’s Noma, where he worked his way up to R&D chef. In 2018, he opened his acclaimed restaurant Iluka in the heart of Copenhagen, where he continues to work as chef-owner. He will split his time between Copenhagen and Sydney.

“It’s taken me 20 years away from home to realise how good I had it growing up in Australia, with access to such high-quality and unique ingredients,” he said in a statement.

“There’s an entirely different alphabet of flavours to cook with that you just don’t get outside of Australia, and a wild, almost prehistoric essence that really excites me, especially when it comes to seafood and native fauna.”

Orr said he was excited to pass the baton on to Clugston. “Leading the team at Kiln over the past two-plus years has been an incredible chapter in my career. I’m so proud of all we have achieved, the people who have helped make Kiln so special and most importantly the community we’ve built around all that we do.”

Clugston’s menu will be available at Kiln from late January.