WHEN St Emillion-born and raised Frederic Naud came to dinner at Bistro Thierry in 2009, he wondered how much of the French experience owner Thierry Cornevin had captured. It didn’t take long to find out. Settling into a corner table, Frederic was taken with the mood of the place and the similarity to a bistro in Paris, Lyon or any other of France’s dining out meccas in which he had spent so much time. “I loved it, especially at night-time,” Frederic says. “I loved the atmosphere.”

After years of working in some of the great kitchens around the world, including Paris and New
York, Frederic accepted Thierry’s offer to head the kitchen at the much-loved Hawksburn
restaurant for Francophiles, Bistro Thierry. Frederic soon discovered he was cooking for a very
discerning clientele. “I found Melbourne people really knew their food,” he says. “And there’s a
consistency to the food here. In Sydney things change every three months. Here traditions are
allowed to begin.”

Frederic trained in Bergerac (Dordogne), in south-west France, and after graduating traveled to
Switzerland where he worked at Le Richmond Hotel in Geneva. From there it was then onto
London’s Hyde Park Hotel. Paris was next, at Les Restaurant Marty les Gobelins in Montparnasse, followed by a position as Chef de Partie at the Grand Hotel Des Bains in Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland. He then spent two years under Daniel Boulud and Sylvia Portay, head chef at Alain Ducasse’s Louis 15 in Monaco, a three-star Michelin restaurant. He rounded off his experience with some time in New York as a Chef de Partie at Le Cirque, a four-star restaurant as conferred by the New York Times’s Good Food Guide.

“When I was training, my friends and I all wanted to travel,” Frederic says. “We vowed to let each other know of opportunities they heard of around the world. I met Patrice Repellin originally from Koots Salle a Manger who mentioned there was a position going on Hayman Island.”

So, in 1993, Frederic arrived in Australia as head chef at La Fontaine, a French fine dining
restaurant on Hayman, where he met, worked and became friends with Oliver Ferretjans, (the
original Bistro Thierry Sommelier, since retired). In 1997 he moved to Sydney where he took a role as head chef at Astral Restaurant at Star City and then head chef de cuisine at Jonah’s
Restaurant, which won Best European Restaurant of the Year in 1999 as awarded by the
Restaurant and Catering Association. Jonah’s also received rave reviews as a gourmet getaway
retreat.

In 2001 Frederic came to Melbourne as executive chef at Lynch’s Restaurant, later moving to
Watson’s Restaurant and Wine Bar in Carlton and then to Koots Salle a Manger in Kooyong where he worked with his friend, chef, Patrice Repellin. It was a little while later when he received the call from Thierry Cornevin. It was Oliver, who then recommended Frederic to Thierry when Thierry was looking for a chef. Frederic started at Bistro Thierry in October 2009.

Frederic often travels back to France to source new ideas for the menu, mixing the classic with the new. He has been in Australia for 30 years, but his French heart still beats true. He truly feels “at home” at Bistro Thierry as Thierry gives him free reign to run with his ideas. “It feels good. It feels very similar to a bistro in Lyon. It’s a great environment to cook in.”