Jun 22, 2026 – 5.00amIn December 2016, Buddha Lo made the dish that forever changed his career. He was doing an unpaid internship at Eleven Madison Park, then one of the world’s hottest restaurants, while on a break from running Matteo’s in North Fitzroy, Melbourne. “The head chef gave me a piece of fish and said: ‘Give me a dish’,” says Lo, adding that he had been feeling under the weather. “All of a sudden, I had this second wind.”The poached halibut with a fennel, crabmeat and ruby red grapefruit salad earned him an immediate job offer. Lo, then aged 24, initially turned it down. He had spent two years working in London and had only recently returned to Melbourne, and his girlfriend Rebekah Pedler (now his wife). After Pedler, also a chef, visited New York the following year, she suggested he grab that opportunity after all. “I emailed them and within an hour, they said: ‘Let’s get your paperwork’,” he says.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Jessica GardnerUnited States correspondentJessica Gardner is The Australian Financial Review’s United States correspondent. She was previously deputy editor - news.Fetching latest articles