Melissa Hoyer
A fantastic culinary initiative from Bondi’s Icebergs Dining Room and Bar (IDRB) which has announced the Icebergs ‘Long Weekender’, presented by Don Julio. The four-night Easter celebration of Sydney’s hospitality scene will bring together some of the city’s most dynamic and influential chefs under Bondi’s iconic roof.
Across four evenings – from 2 to 5 April – IDRB will host guest collaborators including Nat Thaipun, Billy Wong and Jean-Paul El Tom. Each chef will take over the kitchen for one night, presenting a three-course menu reflecting their heritage and culinary influences.
The menus will celebrate Thai, Cantonese and Lebanese cuisine, designed to showcase the flavours, traditions, and personal stories that shape Sydney’s dining scene.
Alex Prichard, Culinary Director of IDRB, said: “We’re excited to bring together a group of chefs we genuinely admire for the weekend. Australia has incredible talent, and each chef brings their own background, influences, and style,” says Alex.
“It’s about sharing their stories with our guests, enjoying great food and company and making the most of the weekend by the ocean.”
The Easter long weekend will kick off on Thursday, 2 April, with Nat Thaipun, celebrated chef, best-selling author, MasterChef winner, and member of Melbourne’s acclaimed Vue de Monde team. Nat will bring her vibrant contemporary Thai cooking to Bondi.
An Australian-born Thai chef renowned for blending traditional Thai flavours with global techniques, Nat’s dishes are layered, bold, and instinctively generous. For her Icebergs night, Nat will create a three-course menu inspired by the heat of the kitchen, the salt of the ocean, and her mother’s years working in a Thai-Italian kitchen.
Custom cocktails will be by the Maybe Sammy team influenced by their El Primo Sanchez venue. Live sounds will be by multi-instrumentalist Jake Meadows on the harp.
On Good Friday, 3 April, Billy Wong, co-owner of the renowned Golden Century and founder of XOPP, will take over. Raised by acclaimed restaurateurs Eric and Linda Wong, Wong helped shape Golden Century’s original legacy and its 2025 reopening at Crown Sydney. His concept, ‘Cantonese seafood on the Pacific’, will celebrate the vibrancy and precision of modern Cantonese cooking through a seafood-driven three-course menu. Live sounds will be by Bartolo.
Easter Saturday, 4 April, will see Jean-Paul “JP” El Tom, co-founder and executive chef of Marrickville beloved Baba’s Place, Corner 75 and the new SIT Cafe, bring his generous, nostalgic and technically refined cooking to IDRB. El Tom’s takeover, a celebration of Lebanese flavour and suburban memories, will honour the culture and community that shaped him. Live sounds will be by Zi Nori.
The ‘Long Weekender’ culminates on Sunday 5 April with a sunset wrap party celebrating the chefs behind the series. The collaborators will present a signature dish reflecting their heritage, technique or defining career moment, together forming a collective portrait of Sydney’s contemporary dining scene.
A curated wine shortlist and live vocals by Lucy Washington with Icebergs resident Charlie Chux will kick the celebration into the evening, with sunset lunch bookings available from 4.00pm. Live sounds by Lucy Washington and Charlie Chux. Each three course menu will be $180 per person, including a welcome drink.
*** Bookings are now available. . . .
