Young Chef of the Year Ollie Hansford leaves Gauge for Stokehouse City, Melbourne

Just two months after being awarded the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016 Young Chef of the Year award, Ollie Hansford is moving on.

The British-born head chef at Gauge in South Brisbane was approached by the Van Haandel Group with an "offer too good to refuse", and is leaving Brisbane to head up Stokehouse City in Melbourne.

"It wasn't an easy decision," Hansford says. "Brisbane was the first place we came to from the UK [in 2013] and it's become our home. It wasn't in my sights at all to leave Gauge or Brisbane and it's been the subject of many arguments between myself and my girlfriend, who didn't want to move to Melbourne because of the weather. It's definitely a sad move but we're young, we have no mortgage or kids and in the end I couldn't turn it down."

Hansford expects to move within the next four or five weeks.

Despite the change of locale, there will no doubt be a sense of deja vu for the chef, with a return to the Van Haandel Group (he was formerly sous chef at Brisbane's Stokehouse Q). Hansford will be working with his former head chef, Richard Ousby, who was recently promoted to group executive chef with the departure of Oliver Gould, also a former Young Chef of the Year, who is heading to Perth.

Ousby will split his time between Melbourne and Brisbane.

Hansford says he will make some changes to the Stokehouse City menu, using the opportunity to impart his own style.

"The food is fairly classical and easygoing at the moment and I'm looking forward to doing more of the sort of food I did at Gauge," says Hansford, who trained in Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK.

"We also want to break up the traditional menu – to remove the boundaries so if you feel like having just a main, or a main and sides, or a 12- to 15-course menu you can."

Gauge executive chef Cormac Bradfield will take a more hands-on position in the kitchen until a replacement is found.