Ibby Moubadder got on a plane to Brisbane for a taste memory that had not left him. Adam Wolfers, raised on Sydney's north shore, has returned to his hometown as executive chef of the two-hatted Aalia restaurant in Martin Place, taking over after Paul Farag resigned earlier this year. Farag leaves with the 2025 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Chef of the Year title attached to his name, which makes this handover a matter of inheritance as much as appointment.
Wolfers' task is more exact than the wider shift happening in Sydney's senior kitchens, where Alex Prichard has moved on from Icebergs Dining Room and Peter Gilmore has ended a 24-year run at the recently closed Quay. Wolfers must inherit a restaurant with standing, understand the work Farag already did, and cook forward without flattening its line.
Why Moubadder Flew to Brisbane for Wolfers
Moubadder immediately thought of Wolfers as Farag's replacement and travelled to Brisbane to make the case in person. The recruitment was not built on a general admiration for a résumé. It began with a dish held in memory long enough to become evidence.
"I still remember a beef brisket pastrami with pickles Adam cooked about eight years ago. I'm a big fan, I've eaten at all his restaurants."
Ibby Moubadder, Aalia co-owner
Wolfers did not have Sydney on his radar when Moubadder came knocking. The lure of Aalia won out, and Aalia's current team page confirms Wolfers is now leading the restaurant after Paul Farag's departure earlier this year.
Moubadder and Wolfers are working to a brief that focuses on lesser-known and niche Middle Eastern and North African dishes and stories. That direction is now visible on Aalia's current menu, which remains focused on Middle Eastern and North African regions and is explicitly subject to change.
Moubadder had expected the team to move carefully, with about 70-80 per cent of dishes eventually switched. His standard is plain: "I've always said if you're changing dishes, make sure it's better or equally good." For a restaurant with Aalia's standing, that is the only useful measure.
Wolfers' Sydney Bench Before the Long Way Out
Peppercorn in Cremorne was Wolfers' first kitchen. From there, the Sydney years placed him in est., Marque, Monopole and Yellow, restaurants where a cook learns through repetition, correction and pressure.
Wolfers then worked at WD-50 in New York City and Quique Dacosta in Spain, moves that widened the field. Those kitchens asked a Sydney-trained cook to work outside the habits of home, in places where method, hierarchy and flavour logic had to be learned in motion.
That experience now meets a restaurant whose language is already specific. Wolfers must hold region, story, memory and technique without turning them into broad reference. His path gives him range; the pass will test his restraint.
Wolfers' Brisbane Years and the Middle Eastern Edge
Brisbane is the chapter that makes this appointment cohere. At Gerard's, Wolfers showed his talent for Middle Eastern-edged cooking, the part of his work that connects most directly to Aalia's mandate.
His later group role across Fortitude Valley venues Agnes, sAme sAme and Bianca adds a different kind of discipline. A group chef has to translate standards across several kitchens, not only command one pass. The work is less romantic than it sounds: repeat the method, make it legible to another cook, and keep the food recognisable across services and teams.
How Wolfers Plans a Careful Handover
Wolfers has set the first boundary himself. He is not entering Aalia to clear the board.
"I don't want to come in and change the whole menu. Paul is a sensational chef, I'm stepping into an incredible venue, we want to keep it at that top-tier level."
Adam Wolfers, executive chef
In kitchen terms, that means authorship has to pass through service reality. A dish cannot exist only as a statement from the incoming chef. It has to hold under prep, pickup and repetition.
For Wolfers, the handover will be measured in decisions made at the bench: what stays, what shifts, and how each change carries the same seriousness as the work before it. The craft is not in making noise around transition. It is in knowing when to cut, when to season, and when to leave a thing alone.
Wolfers Following Farag Without Copying Him
Paul Farag cannot be treated as background. He shaped Aalia's cooking before Wolfers arrived, and his departure leaves a defined body of work rather than an empty space. The wrong response would be imitation. The other wrong response would be erasure.
Moubadder's role remains central. He is the co-owner who remembered the dish, flew north, and now sets the standard for change. He has said Wolfers' food is "full of flavour," and he has put the difference between chefs simply: "Even if two chefs cook the same thing, they're different."
Farag's immediate plans include time off for travel before he looks at opportunities for his next move. One chef steps away from the pass after recognition; another returns after years spent across kitchens and cities.
Wolfers' Recovery, Appetite and the Work Ahead
Four years ago, when Wolfers was 38, he was on the road to recovery from a stroke. He has said the experience taught him how to channel his workaholic tendencies. In a trade that often mistakes exhaustion for devotion, that detail changes the texture of the return.
Wolfers kept a hand in Sydney through his Etelek pop-ups over the years, so the city is not a cold start. A pop-up is not the same as holding a restaurant pass, but it keeps a chef in conversation with diners and with the market's appetite for risk, memory and change.
His feelings about coming back are mixed in the most practical way. He misses friends and family in Sydney, has not missed the traffic, and loves the way people in Brisbane stop in the street to say hello.
Wolfers is looking forward now. The measure is the food, and how steadily he and the Aalia team carry one chef's work into another chef's hands.
