"It Was Incredibly Daunting For Me"- Jacqui Challinor on Opening the Biggest Restaurant of 2023

"It Was Incredibly Daunting For Me"- Jacqui Challinor on Opening the Biggest Restaurant of 2023

Author: Broadsheet August 16, 2023 Duration: 18:02

Many are calling it the opening of the year. Magnificent, resplendent, palatial, ornate – no number of adjectives really do justice to the Nomad Group’s stately new restaurant Reine. The team has taken over the aptly named Cathedral Room inside the former Melbourne Stock Exchange, a neo-gothic building at the corner of Queen and Collins streets, completed in 1891. The opulent heritage space features vaulted ceilings, gothic arches, solid granite columns, mosaic floors, limestone walls, marble dado and stained glass windows. Executive chef Jacqui Challinor joins Around Town in the restaurant's opening weeks to discuss inspiration, her favourite menu items and where she thinks Reine will be in twelve months time. 

Featured on today's episode: 

  • Reine and La Rue

New episodes of Broadsheet Melbourne Around Town drop Monday, Wednesday, Friday each week. Subscribe on the LiSTNR app to make sure you don’t miss an episode. And keep up-to-date on everything Broadsheet has to offer at www.Broadsheet.com.au, or at @Broadsheet_melb. 

Broadsheet Melbourne Around Town is hosted by Katya Wachtel and produced by Nicola Sitch.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


Every other Tuesday, Broadsheet Melbourne: Around Town offers a quiet moment to step into the city's vibrant current. This isn't about listing events; it's about the people quietly shaping the texture of daily life here. Each conversation pulls back the curtain on a different facet of local culture, from the precise craft behind a neighborhood restaurant's menu to the creative impulse driving a new gallery exhibition or an independent fashion line. You might hear from a chef redefining a classic ingredient, a designer building a sustainable brand, or an artist whose work captures a particular Melbourne mood. The podcast, produced by Broadsheet, moves fluidly between food, art, and society because, in this city, those lines are always blurring. Tuning in feels less like consuming media and more like grabbing a coffee with the most interesting person in the room-the one who can explain not just what's happening, but why it matters to the way we live, work, and gather. It’s for anyone who believes a city's character is built through these countless, thoughtful contributions, one story at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Broadsheet Melbourne: Around Town
Podcast Episodes
Why Melbourne's in a "Thai Boom" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:37
2023 has been a boom year for Melbourne's Thai food fans. Make a beeline to a 20-seater serving some of the city’s best (and spiciest) dry curries, a vibrant city diner attracting queues for its noodles, and a charmer wi…
Two Australian Bars Have Made the World’s 50 Best Bars List for 2023 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:35
Each year the prestigious World’s 50 Best Bars awards drops a countdown of 100 bars from around the world that elevate the drinking experience in their cities. This year, two buzzy Australian venues – Maybe Sammy in Sydn…
Two New Cookbooks We're Adding to Our Shelves [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:27
Thanh Truong hypes fruit and veg knowledge on social media and has a sideline as the ABC’s unofficial fruit correspondent. He talks cultural connection through food, glamorous berries and his new book Don’t Buy Fruit & V…
Kirsten Tibballs: Australia's Chocolate Queen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:25
Kirsten Tibballs is a pastry chef and chocolatier, the host of SBS’s The Chocolate Queen, a judge at the world's most prestigious baking competitions and the educator behind Savour School in Brunswick. And she’s amassed…