25 May 2023

The Pike family are pleased to announce the appointment of Louis Ritchie as Head Chef &Restaurant Manager at SLATE Restaurant, taking responsibility for both Kitchen and Front of House operations.

Clare Valley local, Louis joins the Pike team after 8 years working at Seed Clare Valley, Holding the Head Chef role for 3 years.

“Louis’s passion, energy and well-rounded knowledge of both Kitchen and Front of House operations put him in a fantastic position to drive the experience at SLATE Restaurant forward” says Jamie Pike, Pikes Wines Managing Director. “He has played a key role in the development and delivery of an exceptional customer experience at Seed over many years and given the freedom and support from the broader Pikes team, we are very excited to see what he can deliver at SLATE.”

“I’m really excited by the opportunity” says Louis. “The amount of amazing estate grown produce here is incredible, and really resonates with my approach to cooking, which is all about creating food that allows fresh local produce to shine without complications.”

“The venue itself also has lots of potential, and we’ll be exploring what options we have to create more amazing experiences at SLATE Restaurant.”

About the new menu, Louis says “It will be always evolving. As well as estate grown fruit and vegetables, expect to see a lot of locally grown, ethically raised protein that we will butcher in house to make use of the whole animal.”

“The Pikes Beer Garden menu will be fun, exciting, unpretentious and just downright delicious,” adds Louis.

“It’s been a rocky path since we opened the doors in late 2018” Jamie says. “We had only just bedded in the launch of the venue and were starting to see some positive results by the time that COVID and then the regional staff shortages had an enormous impact. Despite these challenges, our family remains staunch in our commitment to offer one of the best food and wine tourism experiences in Australia and I know from experiencing his food, Louis has the capability to help us deliver on that.”

To support his appointment a new role of Front of House Supervisor, reporting to Louis and managing the day-to-day operations of service, is currently being advertised.