Chef's Story

Shaun Hergatt is the executive chef of Juni, a boutique restaurant which celebrates the height of the season. An intimate affair between the guest and Chef Hergatt, the 50-seat restaurant offers an evolving menu that showcases the bounty of the seasons and ingredients when they are at their freshest and finest. Each element of the unique dining experience is Chef Shaun’s creation, from the restaurant design and tablescape to the composition and presentation of his distinctive dishes. Growing up in a culinary-oriented family in Cairns, Australia, Chef Hergatt was enamored with cooking from a young age. He was exposed to a unique combination of impassioned and professional cooking by way of his Scandinavian grandmother and his father, a professional chef. At 17, the ever-ambitious Hergatt, who has always felt that cooking was “in his blood,” pursued a four-year apprenticeship at Crystal Twig, a fine dining restaurant in Cairns where he was trained in classic French cooking. In 1997, at the age of 23, he became