Crown Resorts has confirmed that Swedish chef Björn Frantzén will open two Australian restaurants in 2027
For chefs, the most important details may not be the menus, but the teams assembled to deliver them.
A restaurant backed by one of the world’s most decorated fine-dining groups is coming to Barangaroo. The question for chefs here is who will staff it.
Crown Resorts has confirmed that Swedish chef Björn Frantzén and the Frantzén Group will open two restaurants in Australia, one in Sydney and another in Perth.
Én by Björn Frantzén is scheduled to open on level 26 of Crown Sydney in mid-2027, overlooking Sydney Harbour. Brasserie Astoria will open at Crown Perth in 2027.
Further details about both restaurants and their menus are expected over the coming months.
The credentials behind Én
Björn currently leads three restaurants holding three Michelin stars each: Frantzén in Stockholm, Zén in Singapore and FZN in Dubai.
According to the Frantzén Group, he is the only chef currently operating three three-Michelin-star restaurants simultaneously.
The original Frantzén opened in Stockholm in 2008 before closing temporarily and reopening at a new address in 2017. It became Sweden’s first restaurant to receive three Michelin stars the following year.
Zén opened in Singapore in 2018 and received its third star in 2021. FZN opened in Dubai in late 2024 and was awarded three stars in the 2025 Michelin Guide Dubai, taking the group’s total to nine.
Across the three restaurants, the cooking combines Nordic ideas with Japanese influences and French technique.
Brasserie Astoria is the group’s less formal format. The first opened in Stockholm in 2021 inside a former cinema dating from the 1870s. The concept has since expanded to Singapore and Marbella.
What Én joins at Crown Sydney
Én will join Nobu, Woodcut, a’Mare and Golden Century at Crown Sydney.
It will also restore a major fine-dining presence to level 26 following the closure of Oncore by Clare Smyth in February 2026.
That closure came less than two weeks after Quay served its final guests across the harbour on 15 February.
The two restaurants represented very different chapters in Sydney dining. Quay operated for decades and helped define Australian fine dining under Peter Gilmore. Oncore brought an international three-Michelin-starred chef into one of the city’s most prominent hotel dining rooms.
Their departures left two significant gaps at the top of Sydney’s restaurant market. Én will fill one of them with another international group carrying substantial global credentials.
For diners, that creates a major opening to watch. For chefs, it creates a different set of questions.
The recruitment begins before the doors open
A restaurant operating to the standards associated with the Frantzén Group will require more than a high-profile name and a strong produce network.
It will need a brigade capable of learning and consistently delivering the group’s systems, techniques and service expectations.
International restaurant groups often open new venues with a combination of experienced people from within the business and chefs recruited locally. Crown and the Frantzén Group have not yet announced how the Én kitchen will be structured or who will lead it.
That leaves two important questions for Australian chefs.
The first is how many senior positions will be filled locally.
An opening that gives Australian chefs access to section leadership, sous chef and senior management roles would create a significant development opportunity. A kitchen led predominantly by people transferred from overseas would offer a different pathway, with local chefs entering further down the structure.
The second question is where the local brigade will come from.
Sydney’s experienced chefs are already distributed across restaurants, hotels and hospitality groups competing for the same pool of talent. Building another kitchen at this level could create upward movement for some chefs while leaving other restaurants needing to replace people they have trained.
That movement may become one of the opening’s most immediate effects on the local industry.
A qualification that travels
For chefs considering their next step, experience inside the Frantzén Group would carry weight beyond Sydney.
Its restaurants operate across several international markets, and its three flagship fine-dining venues each hold Michelin’s highest rating. Working within that structure could expose Australian chefs to systems and standards that are recognised internationally.
The potential value, however, will depend on the opportunities made available locally.
A restaurant can bring international attention to a city without necessarily building meaningful pathways for the chefs already working there. Equally, an overseas group can establish a kitchen that develops local cooks, raises expectations and adds another serious training environment to the market.
Which version Én becomes will be determined by decisions that have not yet been made public.
Crown has said further details will be released ahead of the 2027 opening.
For chefs, the first announcement to watch may not be the menu.
It will be the team
