Dennis Tierney

Food and travel were part of Dennis Tierney’s life long before he entered a professional kitchen. The son of a French chef and an Australian photographer and park ranger, he spent part of his childhood traveling through Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe before growing up on a semi-self-sufficient farm in the hills behind Byron Bay. “Being exposed to so many different flavours and cultures at such a young age had a huge influence on the way I cook today,” he says. Dennis began his apprenticeship at Fins in Byron Bay before moving to Sydney, where he worked at restaurants including Aria, Bilsons and Bel Mondo. Then, in 2007, he arrived at Capella Lodge. What was meant to be another step in his career became something more lasting. “Lord Howe got under my skin pretty quickly.”

Dennis has left the island more than once, cooking aboard superyachts in the Mediterranean and continuing to learn in kitchens including Quay and Bennelong in Sydney and Gaggan in Bangkok. He also spent five years as head chef at Arajilla on Lord Howe before returning to Capella as executive chef in 2022. By then, he knew not only the lodge but the rhythms of the island itself. He fishes its waters, forages for sea greens, saltbush, mushrooms and other seasonal finds, and walks the kitchen garden to see what is ready before deciding where a menu might go. “A lot of the menu starts with the question, ‘What do we have today?’ rather than ‘What can we order?’” he says. That closeness to place is at the heart of his cooking, and of The Stranded Chef, the cookbook whose playful title has become increasingly apt. After nearly two decades of leaving and returning, Dennis says he has become “quite happily stranded.”