Daniel Vaughan

Having Grown up with Great Food

Daniel Vaughan started to cook as a child. His mother has a passion for cooking and his entire family appreciated her culinary delights, both as children and now, as adults. “The children in our family never bought their school lunches. It was always beautifully prepared in our lunch boxes,” says Vaughan, who operates a number of restaurants and cafés, including The Pantry and The Royale Brothers, in bayside Brighton. He is also a partner at Hugo’s in Manly, Sydney. Although The Pantry was established thirty years ago, there doesn’t seem to be a time when Vaughan hasn’t had a hand in preparing food. Vaughan spent a lot of time on the farms of extended family outside Geelong, and his first paid position as a chef was at the Chevron Hotel on St Kilda Road, Melbourne.

Having a house nearby his string of restaurants and cafés was important for Vaughan and his wife, Narelle, given the hours spent at work. Living in the same suburb would afford him more time to spend with his three teenage daughters and two whippets. The couple’s early 1960s house ticked all the boxes, including being tucked away in a leafy enclave. “It has that feeling of Palm Springs,” says Vaughan, pointing out the split levels, large picture windows and feature stone walls.

While the house was lightly touched when the family moved in, the original kitchen was completely reworked. Originally presenting as a series of small enclosed rooms, with walls dissecting the kitchen and dining area, the appliances were fairly outmoded, with a small wall-mounted oven and rudimentary hotplates below. The benches were also extremely narrow, both for preparing meals and for sitting at. “We rarely use the dining table, even though it’s now been opened up to the kitchen. Nearly all meals are served at the bar, with my wife and three daughters sitting on one side, and me preparing on the other,” says Vaughan.