Russo formerly earned a Sydney Morning Herald chef's hat at L'Unico in Balmain and has worked all round Europe. He's been sourcing produce from hotel owner Rob and Batkovic's farm which produces everything from vegetables and herbs to Scottish Highland cattle. "We're just going back to what was meant to be," he says.

The revamped steakhouse menu has a more paddock-to-plate feel, he says. "We do a fantastic section where we share the love, we do a butcher's board, a tomahawk steak, a 1kg dry aged ribeye Scottish Highland. We've got an heirloom charred carrot salad which is beautiful with hazelnuts. It's not just all meat - there is quite a lot of vegetarian."

Russo plans to work on the Marble & Grain project for the next couple of months and has already spent the past month in Canberra. "We're doing paddock to plate in the sense that the owner has a farm," he says. "We've got a program in place that one day a week the boys in the kitchen must go the farm to help them pick all the herbs, the spinach and it's absolutely fantastic."

He says Canberra has "definitely turned the corner" when it comes to food culture. "And not only that, you're so resource rich that I think people might be quite surprised. Just from what I've seen you've got some really good restaurants, really passionate chefs. It's healthy competition and they're doing a great job."