Support Chef Luke Burgess to feed people in need.

Luke Burgess first arrived in Tasmania more than 20 years ago, building his early reputation at Sydney’s Tetsuya’s and Copenhagen’s Noma before opening Garagistes in Hobart in 2010 — a restaurant that food journalist Pat Nourse later described as something that had fallen 'from outer space' for its groundbreaking approach, and which is widely credited with helping transform Hobart into a genuine culinary destination

After Garagistes closed, Burgess spent years working across the food scene, co-authoring a book on eating in Tokyo and deepening a long-running fascination with Japanese food culture. In April 2025, he opened Scholé, a ten-seat wine bar and restaurant inside a heritage confectionery shop on Hobart’s Liverpool Street, built around Tasmanian blackwood salvaged from former coffin-making workshops on the same street, with the original 1890s pressed-tin ceiling preserved overhead.

Scholé’s produce-driven à la carte menu carries a distinct Japanese accent — think tamagoyaki reworked with nori, sweet corn and shiitake, or albacore tuna on a Swedish-style hemp seed cracker — alongside a fiercely local wine list built on spontaneous fermentation and organic farming, with single-use plastics banned entirely. Every Tuesday, the restaurant transforms into Tachinomi, a standing room Japanese-style bar service inspired by Tokyo's izakaya culture.

At CEO CookOff Hobart, Burgess brings the same restless, boundary-pushing instinct that first put Hobart’s dining scene on the map — now distilled into one of the smallest, most considered rooms in the city

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