Danielle departs Fred's

One of Oxford St’s most cherished restaurants is set for a shake up following the shock resignation of head chef Danielle Alvarez from Fred’s this week.

American-born Alvarez was a big-name signing for Merivale boss Justin Hemmes and lured to Australia eight years ago to open the venue, which launched in 2016.

In a statement released this week, Alvarez said the decision to move on from Fred’s — which she lovingly created with the help of the Hemmes family — had been “enormously difficult”.

“After five and a half years I have made the enormously difficult decision to step down from my role as head chef of Fred’s in May and take some time away from the front line to focus more on the creative aspects of my career,'“ she said in the statement.

“Without a doubt, developing Fred’s with Justin (Hemmes), which started from an idea sitting around his kitchen table, and then bringing it to life, has been the greatest and most satisfying achievement of my professional career.

“It has been an incredible journey watching this dream of feeding simple, delicious, high-quality food to people in a beautiful setting surrounded by an open fire, come to fruition and I am so proud of the place it is today, cemented in the Paddington and Sydney community.

“As with all creations there must come a time where the baton is passed on to the next person to lead a new chapter. I can’t wait to see how Fred’s continues to evolve.”

The hunt is now on for Alvarez’s replacement, with speculation that a head chef will be garnered from within the Merivale talent pool.

Alvarez is a big loss to the Merivale stable, with Fred’s one of the group’s restaurant jewels. It received rave reviews from critics, who lauded the chef’s dedication to producing simple but sophisticated farm-to-table fare. Alvarez trained under Alice Waters at California’s famed Chez Panisse and continued the tradition of that restaurant in Sydney.