Chef Jabir Moses walks us through a single day at ONA, from the restaurant’s first month of opening
05:30
Up before everyone else. Quick prayer, then just sitting with a coffee for a few minutes before the day takes over. Probably the only quiet I get until tonight.
06:15
Kids are still knocked out. I peek in before I head out; don’t want to wake them, but I like seeing them for a second before the door closes behind me.
07:00
Get to ONA. First thing I do is walk the kitchen, quality control check across the board, making sure hot kitchen and pastry are all set up and ready to go. Then it’s about the team checking in, getting a read on everyone, making sure they’re motivated and switched on for the day ahead. 13 people, three sections, and it only works if everyone’s clear on what today looks like.
08:00
Breakfast kicks off. This is where you find out if yesterday’s briefing actually landed or not.
10:00
This is the real crunch. Breakfast hits its peak, and the tickets don’t stop coming; every station is under pressure, every plate still has to go out right. No room to think about anything except what’s in front of me. Tickets, taste, keep moving.
12:00
Lunch rolls straight into breakfast, basically no gap. Back on the pass, checking every plate before it leaves. In an all-day spot like ours, someone might’ve had breakfast here and comes back for lunch, so it has to taste like the same kitchen made both.
13:30
Lunch peak. This is the stretch where you can tell if the kitchen’s actually solid or just holding on. Reading tickets, reading who’s struggling before they say anything.
15:00
First real breather of the day, and honestly this is when my brain actually turns on for the creative stuff. Playing with flavour pairings, working through why something on the menu works, sometimes it’s refining a dish on the menu, or working on new dishes for the future.
16:00
Admin gets crammed in wherever there’s room in this window. Recipe workbook, SOPs, supplier calls. Some days I get a proper hour for it, some days it’s fifteen minutes before something else pulls me away. Either way, it has to get done.
16:30
Time with the team sometimes is showing someone a technique, sometimes just sitting with someone who’s ready for more responsibility. Honestly, this is the part that actually matters long term: a kitchen that can run without me standing over it.
18:00
Evenings are quieter for us, so this is when I go through prep lists with the team of what’s needed for tomorrow, what got missed today, briefing everyone on how to manage prep so we’re not scrambling in the morning.
19:00
Deep clean and reorganising. Walking through every section, resetting stations, sorting out anything that’s drifted out of place during the day. This is where the kitchen actually gets set up to win tomorrow, not just survive it.
20:00
Final walk-through with the closing team, make sure everything’s set up for tomorrow’s opening, then out the door.
20:45
Home. Bedtime with the kids is our usual routine and rituals, especially with my eldest son, who needs that consistency to settle. Exhausting, but it’s my favourite part of the day.
21:30
Dinner with my wife, simple catch-up, how the day went, and recollections of what had happened through the day or simple chit-chat.
22:15
We settle down and try to catch up on whatever series we’re on. Some nights we actually watch it, some nights I’m out before the episode ends.
23:00
Lights out. Get maybe six, six and a half hours before it all starts again. Food, family, the kitchen – the same three things every day, just shuffled around depending on what the day needs from me
