Chef Mark La Brooy on why he left all-star Sydney scene for North Gong job

So what would prompt him to leave the Three Blue Ducks food empire he founded in Sydney's Bronte, and grew to locations on a farm in Byron Bay, at a surf lagoon in Melbourne and in bushland in Bellingen, among others?

The lure of the local, of course. Like any normal Wollongong worker, being able to work close to home on the Illawarra coast is the grand prix - particularly when it's also your happy hunting ground.

And the opportunity to run the new restaurant in the North Wollongong Surf Club for the Boathouse group - owners of a breathtaking array of coastal venues - was simply an offer he couldn't refuse.

The Boathouse is back on its feet after a financial collapse in 2020, and La Brooy said the high-powered new executives on board since then gave him reason to believe the prospects were great for the company's 10 restaurants.

And then there was the "cracking day" North Wollongong turned on when he was asked to come and have a look and what he said was a spectacular venue at the surf club.

"It probably couldn't have been a better day for to walk in there - no wind, ocean was calm, people on the beach just enjoying themselves.

"I thought, 'this is just something so special' The hairs stood up on my neck.

"Things pretty quickly escalated because obviously I was still a part of Three Blue Ducks at that stage, and I decided to jump on board and do something in my local."

This was something he had been trying to achieve with the "Ducks", a Wollongong venue, but since it hadn't happened he found himself spending much of his time travelling to and from Sydney, with his wife and two young children in Austinmer.

"My life is here, and I think also to be able to do a venue in my local area, to be able to express myself a bit through what's on offer, that's a nice thing to be able to engage with your local community with."

It's clear that La Brooy's role won't be limited to the North Wollongong restaurant, extending to the group's operations further afield.

There are Boathouse venues from Rose Bay to Patonga, including some of the Harbour City's most spectacular locations - the Manly Pavilion, Balmoral Beach, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Palm and Whale Beach. Add North Wollongong to that list.

The group's menus mostly offer a similar list of coastal Italian favourites across all venues, and the time may be ripe for a bit of a shakeup. They're crowd-pleasers, but La Brooy will have something a little more sophisticated in his sights.

"I think it's just going to be coastal - I'd hate to restrict myself from ever being able to pick up soy sauce or Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)," La Brooy said.

"I think it's just gonna be that sort of seaside, seaside feels. I won't pigeonhole myself."

Fresh is what La Brooy does best - and close to home is a happy hunting ground.

In his perfect world the swimmer crabs on the menu would have just been pulled out of Lake Illawarra, the crayfish special would be snagged to order from their holes aside the rock shelf, the venison would have arrived direct from the Illawarra Escarpment (with a few days to age, naturally).

That type of hands-on harvesting is what he does in his spare time, and he's hoping to feed these into the new restaurant. To that end, he wants to hear from local suppliers, hoping to come across some first-class produce he doesn't know about already.

"I'm hoping that some people and suppliers come out of the woodwork," he said.

"It is a bit of a call to arms ... I've lived here for six years, but I've never owned a venue here. So from a fruit and vegetable perspective, from a meat and fish perspective, I'd love to hear from some local suppliers around showcasing what's grown or caught or fished in the area."

And with planning getting serious for a projected opening in June, there may be a few winter warming dishes turning up at the start.

There's a giant pizza oven on its way from Italy to do the cooking, and it will be crying out for work it can do.

There will be lamb on the menu, drawn into the boundaries of local from La Brooy's first 16 years in and around Goulburn farm country.

Venison is a must, being one of La Brooy's favourite foods, but it will be the Samba deer - regulations so far prevent the Rusa, which make a menace of themselves in the escarpment, ending up on restaurant plates.

He's excited about what lies ahead but may miss the mateship of the Ducks days - for the greatest influence on his cooking, La Brooy nominates a peer- old mate "Daz" (Darren Robinson, co-owner of Three Blue Ducks, who La Brooy met working at Testuya's in Sydney).

"I'm so proud of what we've achieved as the Ducks, you know, and there's obviously a camaraderie that forms from building such a wonderful business together," La Brooy said.

"Those guys [and] that time that I've had is also always going to hold a special place in my heart.

"But I think also, you can't do the same thing forever and be with the same group forever.

"And when I learned about the Boathouse group and learned of their ambitions and some of the firepower that make up that senior team, and to be invited, you can't turn that down ... it's like, it's like being invited to play for the All-Star team.

"I could either have a life that's very familiar and comfortable, or I can push myself out of my comfort zone and push and strive to be better and learn more and do more. And I think that it's just in my nature to take that pathway."

Being given a chance to leave one's comfort zone for a new challenge, while finally being close to home, must feel to La Brooy like he's speared a whopper - on a perfect Wollongong day.