Richard Ousby

This article appeared in today's The Australian Newspaper written by John Lethlean and is about my nephew Richard the son of my sister Louise

A  shake-up in restaurateur Frank van Haandel’s world will see a big promotion for young Brisbane chef Richard Ousby.

The 32-year-old has been made executive chef of van Haandel’s Stokehouse trio, coinciding with the resignation of chef Ollie Gould last week as head chef of Stokehouse Melbourne. Former Van Haandel Group executive chef Anthony Musarra also is no longer involved with the Stokehouse brand and now manages the group’s Fatto restaurant at Melbourne’s Southbank. Stokehouse Q’s manager Peter McMahon, a familiar face on many restaurant floors through the years, becomes operations manager for all Stokehouses. The group faces a big year with the architecturally adventurous rebuild of Stokehouse St Kilda, a Melbourne landmark in its pre-fire days, starting soon, with a projected opening in October next year.


Ousby — something of a baby-faced assassin — has the task of appointing a head chef for Melbourne and ultimately replacing himself in Brisbane. He will move to Melbourne next year to run the ship from the south and cook at the new Stokehouse St Kilda for the first three months of its life, at least. Ousby, who grew up in Bathurst, Singapore and Brisbane, says: “It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind.” Stokehouse Q has gone ahead leaps and bounds under his culinary direction since he was appointed to the helm in May 2013. From an apprenticeship at red-sauce Italian Alberto’s, in Brisbane’s Paddington, to the Waterside Inn in Britain and nearly three years at Quay in Sydney, Ousby has enjoyed an impressive ascension. He won the coveted Electrolux Appetite for Excellence Young Chef award in 2011. “The Waterside was definitely the turning point of my career,” says Ousby, who sent a note up to chef-owner Michel Roux’s hotel room in Brisbane in 2006 that ultimately got him the job in Bray, outside London. “It’s where I was amazed by the effort required and the produce needed to excel.” As for Gould? “No news as yet. Sad to be leaving but looking forward to the unknown. I’ll take a little break. Mykonos or Santorini?”