It’s been a busy 12 months since Queenslander Matt Sinclair came runner-up on MasterChef Australia last year.
The popular and easygoing cook opened a food truck in Brisbane over summer, and now has a new restaurant in Noosa that’s just opened.
Together with three friends, Matt has opened Sum Yung Guys – an 80-seater venue serving modern Asian cuisine.
In the past Matt, 28, and his wife Jess worked alongside each other in restaurants but they were keen to ensure some distance with the new venture.
“Jess has just been a support system and she takes care of my schedule and makes sure everything is on track,” he says.
“We all made a joint agreement between the boys that there would be no partners in the building. We want to be able to go home to our partners and not have squabbles about what happened through service!”
Matt adds he and Jess are also hoping to welcome a baby in the future.
“If it was to happen that would be unreal, but there’s another baby in the pipeline at the moment in the form of a restaurant,” Matt says.
“So that’s consuming a lot of our time and rightly so.”
But he’s got one big tick of approval for the new restaurant – MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan.
“Gary was up here a few weeks ago and I got his opinion on the restaurant and he loved it and the space,” Matt says.
“That was a good confidence boost.”
