About Us

History Of The Restaurant

Throughout its history, Claude’s restaurant has been at the forefront of fine French dining in Australia. The restaurant is quirkily located within a Federation terrace in Woollahra that discreetly fronts onto Sydney’s Oxford Street. In May 2006, Claude’s celebrated its 30-year anniversary with Chui Lee Luk as the present owner.

There is a duality to Claude’s. It is considered a Sydney institution, yet there has always been an experimental edge to it. In the first place, founding owner/chef, Claude Corne (May 1976), introduced a consciousness of good French food to Sydney; Damien and Josephine Pignolet (July 1981) showed the dining public what sophisticated French dining was about; and Tim Pak Poy (January 1994) demonstrated how an Australian confidently interprets French cuisine and raised the sophistication of the dining experience at Claude’s higher.

Each person who has taken on the restaurant throughout its history has done so on a similar basis. Each individual aimed to create a hospitable and sophisticated dining environment in which they could give expression to their individual style of cooking and all have subscribed to the formalities of the French dining culture. Creating the best food they could was always foremost on the minds of each owner.

It would seem that another tradition had been created at Claude’s when Tim Pak Poy sold the restaurant to Chui Lee Luk in August 2004, with chef/owner passing the restaurant over to one of the chefs in the kitchen as Damien Pignolet had done before him. Since taking over the restaurant, Chui Lee Luk has continued to strive for excellence whilst preserving a range of Claude’s traditions. Some of the mainstays of the menu remain: sorbet between the savoury courses and a light as air sweet soufflé.

Claude’s remains a place that fosters creativity, innovation and also worthwhile traditions. Its allure for the diner is the understated nature of the dining room which allows you to concentrate on the dishes, the wines and the company before you and make of the evening what you will.