Gordon Ramsay-trained chef Elizabeth O’Brien takes over at refurbished Crystalbrook Resort restaurant

SHE honed her skills at the local RSL and worked alongside Gordon Ramsay in London – now Elizabeth O’Brien has taken the reins at Crystalbrook Byron as executive head chef.

Born and bred in Byron Bay, the 41-year-old joined the Suffolk Park resort in early 2025 after several years in Victoria as she wanted to be closer to family.

She is now working alongside her sister, restaurant manager Catherine O’Brien, at the recently refurbished Forest restaurant.

Now she has stepped into the top job after Tiffany Jones returned to her home state of South Australia to take up a role at Crystalbrook Sam in Adelaide ahead of its opening later this year.

“I never thought that I’d move back but now that I’m here I’m really excited,” O’Brien said.

“I have accumulated enough knowledge where I thought I could come home and do some cool things.”

With a love of cooking from an early age, O’Brien left school at 16 to work in the kitchen at Byron Bay Services Club.

 

“My pop Ken Farrell was the president and I begged and begged him for a job,” she said.

After a couple of years there, she moved to Cairns and worked at restaurants such as Pesci’s on the Water and Salt House before relocating to Sydney, where she did a stint at steak restaurant Chophouse.

She then moved to London, where she worked with Gordon Ramsay at restaurants including Heddon Street Kitchen.

“That was definitely make or break,” she said. “It was pretty intense – I’m not going to lie. It’s a different ballgame when you work over in London, especially in a restaurant with that calibre of chef. You feel the pressure from the managers and staff. It was definitely a huge learning curve for me.”

When she returned, she moved to Melbourne, most recently working at De Bortoli and Jayden Ong Winery in the Yarra Valley.

She is now relishing her role at Forest, which has a focus on sustainability and using local and native ingredients.

 

The new menu includes dishes such as a twice-baked Nimbin Monti Nardi cheese soufflé, grilled Ballina king prawns, and the Wategos bonfire dessert, which was inspired by a Splice ice-cream and consists of coconut ice cream, lime sorbet, meringue and Lord Byron Distillery rum that is set alight at the table to caramelise the meringue on the outside.

Another dessert, the white chocolate crèmeux, features local honeycomb, wattleseed sponge and honey pearls.

“We have bee hives here on the property and we’ll soon be using our own honey for that dish,” she said. “I have nine beehives on my property at Goonellabah and there’s a lot of local producers I wanted to use.

“Lobsters come from Bay Lobster, which is 45 minutes away, and I have planted a native tamarind tree in the rainforest here so next season we can use our own tamarind.”