In November 2017, Fraser and Shannon, both just 27, opened the doors to Lillius, their first restaurant venture. That was six months after driving past the defunct Khyber Tandoor restaurant, spying a for lease sign and jamming on the brakes. It proved a fateful stop – the place was everything they were after; a city fringe location and an empty shell to stamp their mark on Auckland’s restaurant scene.

Fraser knew the Uptown area well, having grown up close by in Mt Eden. “I love the area, it’s still the city, but not quite and doesn’t have the big rents Ponsonby commands. At the time it was hard to find a location that provided a blank canvas.”

The couple had plenty of ideas for the fit-out, turning the space into a stylish and intimate fine dining restaurant that sits 38 for dinner. Fraser says the restaurant’s style expresses who they are. “We believe people should feel at home and comfortable, as if they were sitting in someone’s lounge. We serve food that is challenging but also delicious. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to change the direction the wheel goes.”

Fraser is no ordinary chef. He has a strong sense of doing it his way, reflected in Lillius’s unique menu. Reopening in level 2 saw some changes, with both an à la carte menu and a four-course set menu that is decided by Fraser on the day. There is plenty of flexibility for dietary requirements.

Opening their own restaurant was an opportunity for Fraser to fully express his ideas and creativity as a chef and for Shannon, a chef herself, to switch roles and run the front of house and manage the restaurant’s wine list.

Tackling food waste has been an important issue for Fraser and Shannon. They decided to use whole animals and vegetables to reduce as much waste as possible. Fraser uses the example of leeks: “instead of throwing the leek roots away, we fry them and use them as a garnish. Even our old sourdough is turned into soya sauce, miso or beer”. Any organic waste that can’t be used goes into compost for their garden at home, where Fraser grows the heritage vegetables he uses in dishes. 

Fraser’s passion is making ingredients and dishes from scratch. His philosophy is based on the simple adage that good things take time. Instead of buying black garlic at $170kg, he takes three months to grow his own. His signature sourdough is a three-day process.

“You can make bread in a day and it’s good, but bread that takes three days to make is really good.”

Using a natural yeast Fraser cultivated five years ago, the sourdough is paired with handmade butter. In the Uptown neighbourhood, Lillius’s sourdough and butter has gained a popular following. Prior to lockdown they were baking it twice a day and selling it fresh from the restaurant door.

Lillius’s point of difference lies in offering food people can’t cook at home – many of the dishes take days to make. Experimenting is at the heart of Fraser’s cooking. Once an ingredient or dish is gone, he moves onto the next.

“We don’t go back, that’s why the menu changes so often. I get bored very easily, so I like to change it up. I experiment with dishes all the time.”

Fraser’s inspiration for cooking and gardening came from his grandparents. He recalls a childhood where he spent his formative years baking with his grandmother, a talented home cook, and tending vegetables with his grandfather, an accomplished gardener. 

He credits working under skilful chefs since he was 16 as an excellent way to have honed his craft. Michael Meredith was one who generously shared what owning and running a restaurant entailed. Shannon retrained as a front of house manager at another fine dining establishment, The Grove (where she and Fraser first met) and learnt the skills of wine matching.

“Friends advised me to go with my gut when creating the Lillius wine list, so that’s what I did,” she says. This proved a successful strategy; Lillius was named a finalist in Metro’s 2019 Best Wine List, along with nods for Best Dish, Best Service and Best Fine Dining Restaurant. Lillius won a coveted 2 hats at the 2019 Cuisine Good Food Awards.

“It has never been our goal to win awards,” says Shannon. “We set out to do what we love and work for ourselves.” But she acknowledges that appearing in Metro’s Top 50 and winning Cuisine’s 2 hats has been helpful, because “it brings people that might not have heard of us before”.

Fraser says the landlord was very good to them during lockdown and they plan to stay at 19 Khyber Pass Road for the foreseeable future. Fraser says “we have a great local community and regular loyal customers that support us”.

And if you want to eat the best handmade sourdough and butter available in Uptown, check out Lillius on Toast, the couple’s invention to get through level 3 that was so successful, they have continued to make bread and toppings for takeaway.