Rakesh Pillai

RAKESH PILLAI
EXECUTIVE CHEF
A senior culinary professional with 25 years’ industry experience at prominent Australian venues as well as international five star hotels and resorts in United Arab Emirates and India, Rakesh has been a leader within ICC Sydney’s culinary team since the venue’s opening in December 2016. Rakesh is renowned for being a creative and strong contributor to the venue’s award-winning culinary service. As the Executive Chef, Rakesh leads a diverse team of passionate and productive chefs and kitchen professionals. Rakesh proactively strives to understand his client’s needs and he thrives on dedicating time to collaborating with them to achieve their culinary objectives.
As part of his extensive experience, Rakesh has led kitchen brigades at RHR Group, The Star and Hilton Hotel Sydney. Taking up the opportunity to join the ICC Sydney team in 2016, Rakesh was appointed as Chef de Cuisine and later was promoted to the position of Executive Sous Chef—a role he held for eighteen months before stepping up as Acting Executive Chef and later the Executive Chef role that he holds today.
Rakesh believes that seasonal produce should be the hero of every dish and his culinary solutions using local produce are brought to life not only through his own talents but through his effective collaboration and development of his diverse and innovative culinary team