From the kitchen of his Palm Cove restaurant, Nu Nu co-owner and head chef Nick Holloway serves up tropical North Queensland on a plate, surrounded by lapping waves of the ocean and the scent of the Melaleuca trees. In fact, this vivid landscape permeates his menu.

For many of us, a visit to Palm Cove isn’t complete without a trip to Nu Nu. The absolute beachfront restaurant is much beloved not only locally and regionally, but also with travellers and food critics.

The bloke behind the vibrant menu is co-owner and head chef Nick Holloway who continues to design dishes that can be described as fresh, energetic and quintessentially modern Australian with a definite tropical north Queensland twist.

For Nick, food is a reflection of the place he calls ‘home’. “The thing I am so seduced about by North Queensland is the incredibly dramatic landscape,” says Nick, “in terms of geography and the environment, the weather’s dramatic, hot, steamy, sunny, windy; things grow, they die, they melt into the earth – it’s awesome.

“I feel like being in the country, with community values and regional values, the closeness to the landscape, and the people who live here, is in my DNA.”

Hailing from Lakes Entrance in eastern Victoria, Nick grew up a country boy, spent time at a boarding school and later moved to Melbourne where he honed his culinary craft in the big smoke for 12 years, working in three hatted restaurants.

“We [Nick and his business partner Jason Rowbottom] looked at restaurant sites in Melbourne, but nothing took our fancy. Then Jason came up here [Palm Cove] on holiday and instead of thinking ‘why’, we thought ‘why the hell not?’”

For Nick, the move to Palm Cove coincided with what he calls “a massive move towards regionalism” and it significantly contributed to his culinary success. “I really found that when I moved here everything about my life improved, in terms of my career certainly. It’s a pretty hazy definition between work and play, the two overlap so considerably.”

At home, Nick’s not shy of the kitchen. “I cook at home religiously, every Sunday without fail. I have a massive, outdoor wok burner and wood fired oven, we constantly cook from the veggie patch, my kids are very invested. We’re a very outdoorsy family.”

Today, Nick and Jason have established Nu Nu as a relaxed yet sophisticated institution in the north, a restaurant synonymous with easy luxury, a menu as simple as it is complex. These contradictions work, and reflect the bloke behind the menu who’s also a living contradiction. Rugged and raw yet refined and polished, focused and businesslike yet creative and imaginative.

“I’ve been ruminating about luck. Some would perceive me as lucky but I think that relationships are the foundation of everything; relationships give rise to opportunity and from opportunity comes the courage to act.”

 “Some would perceive me as lucky but I think that relationships are the foundation of everything; relationships give rise to opportunity and from opportunity comes the courage to act.”
– Nick Holloway

Nu Nu’s acclaim has been established by its idyllic location and inspired menu and bolstered by a six-year run in Gourmet Traveller’s Top 100 Restaurant, Nick’s guest appearance on 2015’s MasterChef Australia and a contribution to Starlight foundation’s charity cookbook Dish which released earlier this year. His latest food relationship is with charity Ozharvest and is based on the shared philosophy that: “Health is about health of the community and health of the individual”.

The Longest Lunch at Nu Nu will be held October 6. Nu Nu Restaurant and OzHarvest Cairns are joining together for this rad event, a date on the beach not to be missed.

Nu Nu Restaurant – 1 Veivers Road, Palm Cove

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