We’ve all had a food hyper-fixation before – that one thing you keep going back to on repeat. A certain dinner recipe, a snack from that bakery down the road. For me, it’s a Thai chicken noodle salad that I’ve bought so many times, I should probably be embarrassed (I’m not).

For Oprah Winfrey? It’s Bill Granger’s legendary ricotta hotcakes from the late chef’s cafe, bills.

Winfrey is currently Down Under for her Oprah in Conversation speaking tour and not once, but twice, the talk-show queen has made a beeline for the Bondi cafe.

“I walked four miles for these ricotta hot cakes from @billsaustralia – and they were worth every step!” she declared in an Instagram post. 

 

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Fluffy, ricotta-loaded and finished with that cult honeycomb butter, it’s hardly surprising that this dish of ours impressed Ms Winfrey. 

It’s not the first time a Bill Granger recipe has captured international attention, either. Long before smashed avo became shorthand for Australian cafe culture, when bills first opened in Darlinghurst back in 1993, Granger was quietly putting the laid-back Aussie brunch on the global map. 

The ricotta hotcakes, in particular, went on to become one of the cafe’s most famous dishes – replicated endlessly, but never quite matched.

Credit: Supplied

So how did Oprah come to discover one of Sydney’s most beloved plates? Enter Hugh Jackman. Australia’s unofficial tourism ambassador apparently tipped her off to one of Sydney’s most quintessential rituals: the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk, followed by brunch at bills in Bondi. 

The very good news for you is this: we have the exact recipe for those famous ricotta hotcakes, so you can recreate Oprah’s brunch moment at home – no four-mile (6.4km, for those abiding by the metric system) walk required.

And Oprah? If you ever find yourself craving a truly elite Thai chicken noodle salad, I know a place.

Related story: 9 recipes by Bill Granger that changed the brunch scene forever