One of Australia’s most famous exports, he’s enjoyed success around the globe with his books and TV series, which exude the relaxed, luminous metropolitan values of Sydney culture. Having won success as a restaurateur in Sydney with his neat group of “bills” eateries – attracting especially high praise for his brunch menu – he exported his approach beyond Sydney and is helping create a reputation for Australian food in famous culinary cities such as Tokyo and London.

Back in Sydney from London, where he’s now based, to promote his latest cook book and co-host the Crave Sydney International Food Festival marquee event with MasterChef finalist, Hayden Quin, Granger explains why he’s taking Aussie food culture around the globe.

“Bondi has the energy of an urban beach and I love that,” he says. “It represents everything that’s great about Sydney and I can think of no better place to go out to breakfast. I do it every time I’m home.”

But not everyone has been a believer that brunch culture can be a good fit in bustling cities such as London and Tokyo. “Everywhere I go in the world I say I want to do breakfast and everyone said, ‘it’s not going to work’. I went to Japan and they said ‘the Japanese won’t go out for breakfast’ but they are and they’ve even queued around the block for it, and we’re starting to see brunch take off in London as well.”

The cause for this scepticism, Granger points out, is that Australia’s reputation abroad for its food is poor and only now changing. In Japan, for example, “there was a feeling [about Australian food] like it’s about mass produced, cheap food, but when I brought my Japanese business partner and chef to Sydney they couldn’t believe Sydney was so sophisticated and there were so many great restaurants; they were really blown away.”

Granger’s beachheads in Tokyo and London are his way of trying to dispel these misconceptions. He’s looking to get across the notion that Australian food is sophisticated. “Especially in the UK, people don’t have a really strong idea of Australian food. They think of it as being fusion and associate it with a lot of cheap wines.”

But what’s actually at the heart of Sydney’s food industry that’s creating restaurateurs like Granger? “It’s really interesting; we simply don’t have these big chain restaurants and there are loads of great independents,” he says. “Compared to many big cities – standards wise – the lower level is high, so I think locals are naturally foodies as a result.”

The local element is a key ingredient to the success of Granger’s restaurants. Having worked hard to give his eateries a local community feel, he feels they’ve been well accepted by their respective suburbs.

Having originally studied art rather before becoming a restaurateur, he recognises the value of attention to aesthetics and ambiance.

“Being a restaurateur is about understanding the whole experience when someone walks in the door,” he says. “You’re not just buying a meal, it’s like being in a theatre, you’re buying an experience, and studying art really helped me create those experiences.”

With his newest effort in London, he’s chosen Westbourne Grove near Notting Hill – a suburb known for its food culture, close to London’s famous Portobello Market. Having moved to London nearly two years ago to get settled and take in the lay of the land, Granger is just about to open there.

“I think you have to live in a place to really understand the market; we really wanted to understand the city and find the right property,” he says. “To an outsider a property might look great, but when you are living in a place, you understand the subtleties of areas.”

And Granger recognises that entering a competitive restaurant culture like London's will be no small challenge, but having opened his fourth restaurant in Japan – which has more three-Michelin-starred restaurants than any other country – he has grounds for optimism. Having lived in Japan, he worked with a local business partner to establish a presence there in the form of ‘bills beach house’ restaurant.

After testing the Japanese market with a series of pop-up restaurants and press events over the course of a year, he reached the point where it “felt right” to launch a restaurant. The key, he says, was building the reputation of Australian food by holding true to the authenticity of the Australian lifestyle.

“We originally started outside of Tokyo, about an hour from the centre, on the beach in Kamakura, so it’s like being in Bondi - there are even surfers. The beach house is an amazing space,” he says The Japanese locals clearly agree, queuing around the block for a seat, sometimes waiting up to six hours. With ever-increasing demand at his city restaurants, bills, he’s enjoying a rich vein of success.

“The Japanese market is incredibly sophisticated and we’ve been grateful to see such success.”

At just 42, Granger’s thirst to take Aussie culture around the globe remains strong, but he still finds time for the important things in life: he cooks for his family every day and writes a column for a Sunday newspaper.

“There is a good balance,” he says. “The media work is great fun, too. It’s great to get out there and to be able to speak about what I love doing and the restaurants. I see myself more as a restaurateur rather than a chef and, while I’ve cooked in my restaurants in the early days, now my role is designing the menus and planning the mood and atmosphere of the restaurants. I get a great buzz from what I do.”

So far as his current efforts to get started in London are concerned, the same values as ever hold true.

“The fact that I am Australian is what makes me different, and I think that Australian attitude to eating and the sunny casualness is what I’m trying to capture in what I do,” he says. “We’re not trying to create a cosy gastro pub for a pie and a beer on a cosy Sunday afternoon, it’s a light bright Australian café and that’s why it stands out. I think you’ve got to keep that. You keep your uniqueness, but also understand the local market. It’s not an easy balance.”