26/07/2026
Chefs work nights when everyone else is dining out, so their own meals happen on the sly, usually on days off somewhere loud, cheap and unpretentious. Forget the tasting menus and the wine pairings. When the pass finally clears and the apron comes off, these chefs are more likely to be found queuing for ramen, splitting a pasta special, or working through a plate of banchan.
Where a chef chooses to eat on their own dime tends to be significant in the world of safe and solid recommendations; the broth that has been laboured over for hours, the burger that turns up exactly the same way every single time, the bakery queue that forms before the doors even open.
We asked WA chefs, from Perth to Busselton to Margaret River, where they go when no one is watching, and what they order when they get there. The answers ran from tonkotsu ramen at forty degrees to a family run tavern pasta night that sells out by eight, all of it under thirty dollars a head. Here is what they told us, in their own words.
