{"id":344331,"date":"2025-12-13T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/344331\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T01:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:16:09","slug":"the-honest-legacy-of-bill-granger-and-the-unfairness-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/344331\/","title":{"rendered":"The honest legacy of Bill Granger and the unfairness of time\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Granger was the first to put avocado on toast on a caf\u00e9 menu \u2014 he defined modern Australian food before he died, writes\u00a0Michael Cohen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I LIVE NEAR a Bill\u2019s restaurant. I eat there. I like it. The food doesn\u2019t swagger or show off. It arrives clean, bright, and generous \u2014 the kind of breakfast you could introduce to your mother. And every time I sit down to those reliably perfect scrambled eggs or that familiar plate of avocado toast, I feel a quiet sense of continuity with the Sydney I know.<\/p>\n

I first ate at the original Bill\u2019s in Darlinghurst in the \u201990s, when the caf\u00e9 scene was still earnest and unsure of itself. Breakfast back then was practical, predictable, a little beige. Bill Granger had a different vision. He believed breakfast could be simple but joyful, humble but luminous. He opened spaces filled with soft light and an uncomplicated sense of welcome, where food didn\u2019t need to be explained to be good.<\/p>\n

\"Tasting<\/a><\/p>\n

And of course, it was Bill who first put avocado on toast on a caf\u00e9 menu in 1990. The idea seems obvious now \u2014 too obvious \u2014 but that\u2019s only because he did it first. At the time, it felt new in a way that didn\u2019t call attention to itself. He didn\u2019t chase trends or announce a movement. He just served something that felt right, and the rest of the world quietly rearranged itself around the idea.<\/p>\n

His influence worked like that: gentle, generous, steady. Bill never performed the tortured-chef persona or hid behind culinary theatrics. He offered honesty, decency, and food that wanted to make your morning better rather than impress you with its ambition. His work shaped the way we eat in Australia far more deeply than most people realise.<\/p>\n

And then he died \u2014 in 2023, of cancer, at just 54.<\/p>\n

The unfairness of that sits heavily every time I think of it. He wasn\u2019t someone whose story felt close to ending. He was still creating, still teaching, still feeding people in that quietly luminous way of his. And crucially \u2013\u00a0because this matters \u2013\u00a0he wasn\u2019t a chaotic figure or a self-destructive genius type. There was no drama. He was simply a married man, a devoted father, a kind person doing decent work. Yet, in the universe\u2019s familiar indifference, he was taken anyway.<\/p>\n

His death also lands strangely against the backdrop of the time we\u2019re living in. I\u2019m part of a generation newly aware that death itself might one day be cured. ChatGPT suggests that within a few generations humans may defeat ageing altogether. We occupy a razor-thin moment in history: infinite generations before us never imagined such a possibility, and infinite after us may simply inherit it.<\/p>\n

\"Breaking<\/a><\/p>\n

But we are the first to look at death and glimpse a world without it.<\/p>\n

Bill belonged to that same small generation \u2014 aware of the possibility of immortality, yet born just early enough to miss it. He made his contribution, a lasting one, and then was taken before he could see how long the world will remember him. In another era, he might have lived forever. Instead, his life ended in the middle of its meaning.<\/p>\n

I still eat at Bill\u2019s near my home. I think about what Australian food culture would look like without him, how grey our breakfasts might still be. One decent man shifted the national palate not by swagger but by sincerity. Many of us have started our days feeling a little more human because of something he created.<\/p>\n

His food was never my absolute favourite \u2014 and somehow that makes its honesty stand out even more. It was healthy, fair-priced, unpretentious, and quietly Australian in the best sense. I feel grateful not just for the meals, but for the man who made simplicity taste like clarity.<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, Bill. If there is a place where time finally shows mercy, I hope you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Michael Cohen<\/a>\u00a0is a Sydney-based Jewish Australian writer who previously contributed extensively to international newspapers, offering both articles and conceptual material. He now focuses on human rights issues.<\/p>\n

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