- Restaurant: Three Blue Ducks
- Role: Chef & Co-Owner
- Hats: 1 (Three Blue Ducks – Bronte)
Mark LaBrooy started his cooking career straight after high school when he landed an apprenticeship under Klaus Huber, the executive chef for Bennelong and the Opera House restaurants.
Opting out of fine dining, he was invited to run café Morso on Jones Bay Wharf and became a registered buyer at the Sydney Fish Markets, where he selected fresh fish for services daily (right up his alley).
After completing his apprenticeship, Mark went on to work at Tetsuyas. After opting out of fine dining, Mark was invited to run café Morso on Jones Bay Wharf and became a registered buyer at the Sydney Fish Markets, where he selected fresh fish for services daily.
In 2004, Mark spread his wings to go travelling to enjoy snowboarding and cooking in Chalets in winter and then surfing the French, Portuguese, Spanish and Moroccan coastlines during the summer. In 2008, Mark settled down in Zurich where he took the role at the fine dining restaurant, Josef, and quickly climbed the ranks to Sous Chef.
During what was meant to be a brief visit back to Sydney, Mark and his mates started discussing the idea of opening a cafe… taking a chance the boys snapped up a lease at a vacant chicken shop in Bronte, this was when Three Blue Ducks was born. Three Blue Ducks immediately became a local favourite and in 2014 The Ducks opened Three Blue Ducks on The Farm in Byron Bay which won the Gourmet Traveller’s Best Regional Restaurant award. Later in 2016, Three Blue Ducks Rosebery opened with co-owner Andy Allen, which was awarded a hat in the 2018 Good Food Guide.
Mark is passionate about subsistence hunting, so when Mark isn’t on the pass, he hunts wild animals considered pests, such as deer, rabbits, kangaroos and goats, and spearfishes for Spanish mackerel, tuna, snapper, mahi-mahi, squid, cuttlefish, lobster and sea urchin – everything he hunts, he eats. Mark also enjoys riding road motorcycles, surfing and cycling.
