Broadbeach’s singing chef marries meals with music for one of a kind dining experience

David De Vito has built a reputation as ‘the singing chef’, having successfully married an eclectic vocal repertoire with his self-taught cooking skills across several foodservice ventures. His latest business, The Vault Bar and Tapas in the Gold Coast’s buzzy Broadbeach, features not only David himself entertaining customers with his power vocals, but also customers performing with him, as well as several of his staff – even his mother, who can often be seen taking orders and serving drinks, will occasionally sing a duet with him! We spoke to David to find out how he combined his love of music with food to create a one of a kind dining experience. 

DAVID DE VITO

“I was a classically trained musician from the age of five and my father was an opera singer, so I grew up surrounded by that kind of music,” David tells us. “I came up to the Gold Coast when I was 18 but I soon found there weren’t many work prospects for classical musos, so I really didn’t know what to do. I ended up in a restaurant washing dishes and while there I met a girl who was involved in foodservice, and together we started up a restaurant in a dilapidated storefront in the backstreets of Labrador.

“Before I knew it there was more money in my guitar case than there was in the till!”

“The relationship didn’t last that long and I was eventually left there on my own looking after the place. Business was really quiet so I didn’t have much more money and no clue what to do. While I was busy doing nothing and going broke, I started practising classical guitar in the restaurant – but then the aircon broke down and I couldn’t afford to get it repaired, so I went from practising inside to practising outside on the footpath because it was too hot in there.

“Next thing I knew, people walking past were putting money in my guitar case, and before I knew it there was more money in the guitar case than there was in the till! I was dressed as a chef and I would say to people walking past, ‘you should come in and eat sometime because the food’s  better than the music’ – which was an outright lie but I needed the money!

“And after a while word started to get around and I began to get bookings – this was pre-internet so it was word of mouth, people started talking about this place where the chef comes out and sings and makes great pasta and Napoli sauce – because having grown up in an Italian household, that was all I knew how to cook!

“Fast forward a few years, the business took off and it got to a point where you needed to book three months in advance to get a table – when social media came along it just went viral. We were called Ciao Pizzeria, and from that original restaurant I bought a bigger one and then started learning about food from the cooks we brought in. I’m entirely self-taught, but I’m very inquisitive and so I learnt from asking lots of questions and then through trial and error.

“I’m entirely self-taught, but I’m very inquisitive and so I learnt from asking lots of questions and trial and error”

“Once I’d achieved a certain profile, someone at Channel 10 picked up on what I was doing and I was invited to be their singing chef on a lifestyle show, so I had a residency on Channel 10 every morning for two seasons. About a decade after that, Channel 7 was doing Australia’s Got Talent and they sought me out to appear on that, and I made it through to the grand finals. That was fantastic – it got me exposure, I got signed and then I did two world tours. It was a whirlwind experience, a Cinderella story really.”

David's performance of Nessun Dorma on Australia's Got Talent

After his second world tour, David came back to the Gold Coast and opened a restaurant in Southport. He was there for seven years, sold that business and for the past two years has been at the Vault at Broadbeach where he and his staff entertain customers from Wednesdsay to Sunday each week.

‘Eclectic’ may be the best way to describe both David’s musical influences and his cuisine style. His music ranges from full-blown operatic to pop ballads and rock anthems, and he’s able to move from one style to another without compromising the consistency of his approach. A multi-instrumentalist, he plays guitar and keyboards as well as singing.

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As for his cooking – David describes it as “a fusion of all the cuisines I’ve experienced, from my humble beginnings 30 years ago to cooking and singing around the world. A lot of influences from France, Spain, Asia – I think my culinary flavour profile is a lot like my singing, which is big and bold, so big flavours, but honest cooking.”

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As its name suggests, the Vault Bar and Tapas is not a large space – it seats around 60, with most of the tables out front in a dedicated space on the pavement. Yet David has made the most of the space, installing a high quality sound system and creating a relaxed yet celebratory vibe which brings in the customers. On the night our party visited the venue, two of his bartenders sang, and his mum dueted with him on the Barbra Streisand classic Evergreen.

David says the staff are not chosen for their musical talents, but that the whole entertainment package has “come together organically”, adding: “Some of them have never sung before, and they’ve asked me for some tuition – I’ve worked with them and they’ve found their voice. My mum has always sung, but she doesn’t sing much at home – she’s got a beautiful voice but she’s quite shy about using it, so you were lucky to catch her on a night when she was performing.”

His repertoire is varied, and he doesn’t plan his setlist in advance – rather he tailors what he sings based on each night’s customer demographics. “I enjoy the classical, but I mainly sing what I think our customers would like to hear – if we have mainly people in their forties or fifties, I’ll do songs from the eighties and nineties; if they’re older I’ll do stuff from the fifties and sixties.

“The menu is actually inspired by all the places I visited when I was performing around the world”

“We’ve also continued our tradition from the last restaurant which is to have opera night every Thursday – I’ll do strictly operatic and musical theatre songs, and that seems to be working well. On Wednesdays we’re starting up a competition called ‘Gold Coast’s Got Talent’ where we’ll be offering cash prize money for the best singers, doing heats and giving some local singers the chance for exposure.”

On the food side, the core menu is supplemented by weekly specials highlighting which fruit and vegetables are currently in season. “We’ve got some beautiful wagyu eye fillet steak at the moment so we’re doing some carpaccio,” David tells us. “The menu is actually inspired by all the places I visited when I was performing around the world – for example the Cajun calamari is inspired by my visit to the US, the chorizo prawns which we’re about to change to chorizo, baby octopus and potato are from when I visited Spain, the beef cheeks dish are a fusion of Asian, French and Italian cookery, and the lamb shoulder features Moroccan spices.  And because we’re a bar, we pair the dishes with wines, craft beers and our signature cocktails.” 

“When it’s 65 degrees in the kitchen, I don’t want to be in there – I’d rather be out front singing”

So which does David prefer, cooking or music? He says “I can only correlate it to having children – I have two kids and I love them both, each in their own way. When it’s 65 degrees in the kitchen, I don’t want to be in there – I’d rather be out front singing. But there are other times, like when you’re out front performing and there are people walking past coughing and passing on their flu bugs, that you think, I’d really rather be in the kitchen! So I would say that in summer I’d prefer to be singing and in winter I’d prefer to be cooking, but I’m so lucky that I have the choice of both! 

“I’ve also had the experience in the past of having to sing to a stadium of 50,000 people with a sore throat, and there’s nothing worse than that kind of pressure – the space has been booked, the tickets have been sold, there’s a TV crew there and you have to go on and perform regardless of how you’re feeling, you can’t say you’re sick and are taking the night off because so many other livelihoods are depending on you. So that is incredibly stressful. Whereas when you own a venue like mine you have a lot more freedom – if I don’t feel like it, I can lay off on the operatic stuff or mainly just play guitar and concentrate on my food.”

“It was always in the back of mind to create a space where locals could feel at home”

David is very happy with what he’s achieved at The Vault over the past two years. “It was always in the back of mind to create a space where locals could feel at home. I have people say to me all the time, ‘This place reminds me of that TV show show Cheers’ – the theme song of that went, ‘sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name’ and that’s what I’ve tried to build here. Broadbeach is very much a community, and when people are visiting from out of town, we want them to feel like they’re part of a community for the night, and enjoy some good food and drink and music.”