After being made redundant from the city’s hottest restaurant group, a star chef returns in style with a viral Sydney import.
How do you know Benji Terkalas is serious about sandwiches? When he hires one of the country’s foremost Middle Eastern chefs as consultant.
Adam Wolfers will be in the kitchen for the Brisbane debut of Terkalas’ Kosta’s Takeaway’s this weekend at Gasworks Plaza. The former Etelek, Gerard’s and Anyday chef joined earlier this month after being made redundant from Anyday in late January.
Kosta’s first opened at Rockdale in Sydney and was an immediate hit. Shops in Rosebery and Sydney city at Circular Quay, Elizabeth Street and Martin Place have since followed. Key to its success, beyond the service and neat branding? Chef-made sandwiches.
“It came about through a mate down in Sydney, Nathan Brindle [formerly head chef at Ester], who was helping Benji with Kosta’s,” Wolfers says. “I told him I’d finished up at Anyday and he mentioned Benji was moving up to Brisbane and needed someone to give him a hand.”
“We got along really well and I’d been following Kosta’s on Instagram for so long. So this was the perfect opportunity to see it in real form and … and maybe add my touch to it.”
Key to getting Wolfers on board was that Kosta’s makes its sandwiches fresh from scratch.
“The difference between a sandwich that’s made to order and one that’s sitting on the shelf, maybe for a long time — that’s what sparked me,” he says. “I’ve made sandwiches before but they really look at sandwiches [in detail]: where’s the bread from? What ingredients are they using? And it’s very clever how they do certain things, as well.”
The consultancy is just eight weeks but Wolfers says, if it goes well, may extend into something more permanent between Brisbane and Sydney.
“Stepping back into consultancy is the next iteration of what I want to focus on,” he says. “That’s what I was doing before Anyday. I can help venues like Kosta’s set up and keep systems in place that provide a high-level dining experience but in a takeaway environment.”
Wolfers joins Kosta’s after being made redundant from his group chef role at Anyday just two years on from joining the powerhouse Brisbane hospitality operator.
“I was there for two years and I learned a lot,” Wolfers says.
“It was an amazing company to work for but I think they got to a point where they basically wanted to restructure the company.
“It was a difficult to swallow but I’ve been through enough in life to not let it affect me.
“They really look at sandwiches [in detail]: where’s the bread from? What ingredients are they using? And it’s very clever how they do certain things.”
Adam Wolfers on Kosta’s Takeaway
“I definitely have had a journey … three years ago when I had the accident,” Wolfers continues, referring to a stroke he suffered while cycling. “That sort of [adjusted] my maturity levels to not let these things affect me too much. There’s no bitterness there at all … I learned a lot and have nothing but praise for them.”
Wolfers is the latest and most high-profile in a list of chefs enlisted by Terkalas over the years to help elevate his sandwiches.
In Kosta’s early days it former Cornersmith chef Cameron Harris and Delicious magazine recipe writer Helena Moursellas; more recently there’s been Brindle and Gabriel del Conti (previously group head chef at the Love Tilly Group’s Ragazzi and Dear Sainte Eloise).