2022-04-08
New Executive Chef
Sofitel Brisbane Central announces the appointment of Bastian Boll as the hotel’s new Executive Head Chef.
Cities don’t transform themselves culinarily—it takes innovation and passion. So when a chef comes along with the promise to shape culinary innovation for Brisbane—we embrace them.
For Bastian Boll—Sofitel Brisbane Central’s newly appointed Executive Head Chef—cooking is much more than a career.
“Food is an artform for creating joyful moments between people”, says Bastian. “Ingredients are the materials, and then the memories of those moments are like the canvas for culinary art”.
If such ‘canvas’ moments between people help cities reimagine themselves, then global experience can be a master ingredient in the creation of inspired chefs.
From Munich to Stuttgart, from Ireland to Canada—and now of course in Australia—Bastian has been led by this cosmopolitan passion.
“I’ve always been excited by how my food is impacted by people and cultures”, he says. “It’s a passion nurtured by mentors—first Marc Rennhack in Germany, then Mickael Viljanen in Ireland and Scott Thomas Dolbee in Canada”.
Bastian has been Station Chef at the Michelin-starred Olivo in Steigenberger, Chef de Partie at multi-award-winning Gregans Castle in Ireland, and saucier at the five-diamond-rated Four Seasons Whistler in Canada.
As Head Chef at Wein Cantina, Bastian crafted Munich’s gourmet sensation fine-dining five-course experience—reimagining the menu each week to satisfy a city hungry for new ideas—before his hunger for innovation then brought him to Australia.
“To me, Australia has always represented open possibilities—a place open to every influence you can imagine”, says Bastian.
Fitting then for Bastian to start in Australia’s most cosmopolitan city, Darwin. He began at Pee Wee’s at the Point—named in the top ten fine-dining restaurants in the South-Pacific in TripAdvisor’s 2014 Travellers Choice, and Best Stand-Alone Restaurant in the NT twice running.
Moving to SkyCity Darwin—the city’s only five-star beachfront resort—Bastian became Head Chef at the resort's fine dining outlet, where he was awarded a Chef's hat. He then joined Novotel and Mercure Darwin Airport hotels as Executive Head Chef.
But it’s Bastian’s new role—as Executive Chef at Sofitel Brisbane Central—that most excites him.
“It’s the biggest canvas you can imagine—from the diversity of culinary outlets, the amazing produce demanded by Sofitel’s luxury status, to the sheer scale of operations”, says Bastian. “I can now mentor the next generation of industry leaders in Brisbane—and together we can reimagine how food ignites these special moments between our guests”.
Bastian’s appointment is timed with a reimagining of the branding launched across Sofitel’s property—with signature restaurant renamed Suzette, and dynamic new visuals across its restaurants and bars animating the collective spaces.