Ioannis Benardos began a career in hospitality at the age of eighteen in Double Bay’s Ritz Carlton Hotel. After the hotel’s cessation Ioannis moved companies to the Four Seasons hotel where he stayed while completing his commercial pilots license and until leaving for London to take a position in front of house at Claridge’s, Mayfair.
Emmanuel Benardos was born on the island of Kythera, Greece in 1895. He was orphaned at the age of ten and brought up by an uncle in the tiny village of Christoforiannika.
In 1913 he boarded a ship in Athens for the 6 week journey to the fledgling nation of Australia on the search for a better life. After stints in country towns in western N.S.W. he arrived in Moss Vale in 1925 and opened The Central Cafe. Bringing with him European hospitality and food not seen before in country town Australia.
