It was in the early-90s when New York Times’ legendary food columnist, R. W. Apple, tried Bill Granger’s scrambled eggs and declared it “the best in the world”! In fact, he was so intrigued by the dish that he smuggled a sample of the scrambled eggs back to New York to be tested in a lab, just to see what it contained! Of course, it was just eggs, butter and cream - the magic was in its cooking: the pan used, the technique, the timing.
For me, going to Bills at Darlinghurst when visiting Sydney was akin to making a “breakfast pilgrimage” of sorts in the 1990s/2000s. That huge flower- and fruit-laden communal table sang “Sydney” all over.
I remembered going to Alan Yau’s very first Wagamama in 1993, I took a look at its long communal table and thought, Hey, London’s adopting the Sydney way of seating now. 
It was a huge surprise for many of us when Bill Granger decided to move from Sydney to London, with his entire family in tow. He gave his reasons in his subsequent TV cooking series.
For us, he was an Aussie food icon, like Neil Perry or Maggie Beer or Stephanie Alexander. It’s akin to having Nigella Lawson suddenly announce that she’s emigrating to Australia.
