Advertisement
One of the world’s most decorated chefs is opening a restaurant in Melbourne. From October, Dominique Crenn’s all-day Petit Crenn will serve pastries, coffee and French classics at InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto, in a ground-floor site that until recently housed a Haigh’s Chocolates store.
“I love the city, I love Australian people, I want to be part of the community,” she told Good Food, in an exclusive interview.
Born in France, and cooking in California since 1988, Crenn is the only woman to be awarded three Michelin stars in the US, an honour she’s held since 2018. She was named “best female chef” by World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2016 and one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time in 2024, not only for her culinary artistry, but also for her decision to serve less red meat, as part of a push towards sustainability.
The awards focus on her fine-dining restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, where the tasting menu is written as a poem, and many dishes are expressive renderings of memories of Brittany. One signature snack is a cocoa butter sphere filled with apple cider and topped with creme de cassis jelly, representing a regional aperitif.
Advertisement
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
Melbourne’s 40-seat Petit Crenn is more casual, a resurrection of a concept brought to life in San Francisco, where the first Petit Crenn ran for a decade until 2024. It will offer coffee and pastries in the morning, and bistro-inspired dishes, plus cocktails, for lunch and dinner. Opening menu highlights include comte gougeres, savoury madeleines, duck rillettes with red onion jam, sardines with fennel pollen and preserved lemon, Nicoise salad and Crenn’s signature steak tartare with egg yolk jam and sauce au poivre.
“It’s beautiful and fun, an homage to my heritage, the way I grew up with my mama and grandmother, the best produce, simple cooking, eating together,” Crenn says. “We live in a world where we have lost community. It’s all AI, being on the phone. We have a drink then disappear, we don’t take time to sit together.”
Crenn’s fond impressions of Melbourne make it an ideal location. “There’s authenticity,” she says. “You can go up to someone, learn their story. It’s not superficial, the conversation flows.”
Advertisement
Crenn’s influence extends beyond the kitchen and dining room. “I want people to be more connected to the ecosystem,” she says.
In California, Crenn has her own organic farm. In Melbourne, she is getting to know farmers and artisans.
“You have amazing produce,” she says, pointing to Great Ocean Ducks, vegetable grower Five Tales Farm, local oysters, and potter Sam Gordon. “It’s about working with the best ingredients, and from there I will do my little magic, celebrate their work. My dad used to say, ‘You kill it once, you don’t want to kill it twice.’ I’ll embrace the gift, so the farmer can be proud. It’s part of going deeper, understanding the ‘why’ behind it all.”
Petit Crenn is a partnership with Salter Brothers, an investment, property and hospitality company that also owns Rick Stein’s NSW restaurants. Its Victorian portfolio includes the Intercontinental, where Salter’s culinary director, Matthew Butcher, already oversees Italian dining room Ronnie’s. Butcher has spent time with Crenn on both sides of the Pacific to plan the Melbourne opening.
Advertisement
Crenn is the first in a new wave of big-name international arrivals. Pichaya “Chef Pam” Soontornyanakij, from Michelin-starred Potong in Bangkok, and Sweden’s Bjorn Frantzen, who has a trifecta of three-star restaurants, will both open at Crown Sydney and Perth in 2027. Hong Kong’s Mott 32 is coming to Crown Melbourne. Crenn is also designing a menu for next year’s Australian Open and hopes to spend plenty of time here.
“I don’t think people talk enough about Australia, the culture and people, the different origins, the richness of the country,” she says.
How does she feel about opening a restaurant so far from home? “Life is about putting yourself out there, taking a risk and learning,” she says. “I’m grateful to have this experience. I want to bring a little bit of my heart, create a place I would like to go, and hopefully, it’s somewhere exciting for Melbourne.”
495 Collins Street, Melbourne, petitcrenn.com.au
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
Remove items from your saved list to add more.
More:
Dani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.AdvertisementAdvertisement