Root cause

A top Brisbane chef goes total vegan, with two new venues.

Alejandro Cancino knows his peers are

scratching their heads. Why would the vegan chef quit a job running Urbane, Queensland’s top-ranked fine diner, just to avoid cooking meat?

Not only is Cancino striking out on his own – leaving Brisbane’s The Urbane Group, which also runs Urbane’s starred bistro sibling The Euro – he and his wife Paola are self-funding their new plantbased project on the Sunshine Coast.

He says people think he’s crazy for opening a vegan restaurant in the middle of nowhere. “And yes, I am a dreamer,” says Cancino. “But I’m also a doer.”

Their 30-seat vegan café, Lola’s Kitchen, is due to open in mid-August in a shopping strip at Kuluin, a small suburb west of Maroochydore. It’s named after their daughter: her birth last June inspired the couple’s decision. The menu will reflect what the family eats at home. Cancino mentions gnocchi with minestrone, tempeh mash with cabbage, avocado on toast with sesame cheese or, perhaps, a house-baked fruit loaf. “It will be food I am proud to serve my daughter.” In March next year, they’ll also open a high-end eight-seat vegan restaurant, trading only three nights a week. “I hope that I’ll be doing something interesting enough that people will drive to the Sunshine Coast,” says Cancino. “It’s only 100 people a month.” Unlike the café, the fine-dining restaurant will explicitly be pushed as a vegan establishment. “I want to highlight plant-based cuisine as something that is real and happening,” says Cancino. “A movement started.”