Overview
Neil Perry did it, so Luke Mangan's going to try. Fine dining chefs have been trying their hand at the more casual fast food game, with new chains like Burger Project testing the takeaway waters for top tier hospitality figures. Now, lauded Mojo chef Mangan will launch his first foray into the ever-expanding burger bubble, opening a chain of burger joints dubbed (somewhat cringingly) Chicken Confidential in January. Announced this week, the new venture will focus exclusively on chicken (obviously), will be part of an expansive movement of chains that Mangan is looking to install across Australia and into Asia over the next couple of years. An exclusive preview of the menu is available for lunch at Mangan's CBD restaurant, Glass Brasserie, from December 7 until December 22.
Mangan opened his first restaurant in 1999, and his entrepreneurial antics have proved to be as unstoppable as a Pringles can. Since 1999, he's opened joints all around Asia and Australia, crafted menus for P&O Cruises, cooked in the sky with Virgin Australia, written books, opened a providore and a whole host of other enterprises. Now he's got his eye set on Sydney's growing fascination with food that can't be good for you but who cares, it's delicious, where the two towering tyrants of this fascination are burgers and damn good fried chicken.
The aim of Chicken Confidential is to blend the two, focusing on crafting incredible chicken burgers for a readily waiting public. At least, this is the niche that Mangan is hoping to exploit, but with so many excellent dedicated chicken joints already with deep roots all over the city, it's hard to predict if punters will flock (puts Box of Shame on self) to this new kid on the block. Only time can tell if the venture will be less secretive than the name would imply.