Australia’s top restaurants named

The Australian Good Food and Travel Guide (AGFG) has just announced its Chef Hat award winners for 2018. AGFC was the country’s first national food guide and has celebrated over 40 years of reporting about Australia’s best restaurants. 2018 sees 390 restaurants awarded Chef Hats around the country, down 18 from 2017. 

You can view the listings by number of Chef’s Hats awarded, and you can also narrow your search to specific states. Although each state has at least a couple of restaurants, it’s not surprising that New South Wales and Victoria dominate the rankings. The two top restaurants, Quay and Attica, each received 19 Chef Hats. Quay, located in Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal, is headed by chef Peter Gilmore, author of two cookbooks, Quay: Food Inspired by Nature and Organum. Melbourne’s Attica is helmed by Ben Shewry, who wrote Origin.

Other notable entries with chef/authors include restaurant Brae in Birregurra, owned and led by Dan Hunter; Sydney’s Momofuku Seiobo, opened by globetrotting chef David Chang; Melbourne’s Vue de Monde, led by Shannon Bennett who has written several travel and cookbooks; Sepia Restaurant in Sydney, helmed by Martin Benn; and Tetsuya’s, also located in Sydney and owned/operated by Tetsuya Wakuda. 

We haven’t seen a book yet from Jock Zonfrillo, owner/operator of Adelaide’s Orana, which received 17 Chef Hats and was listed among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. It seems the time would be ripe for Zonfrillo to write a cookbook, as it dovetails neatly with his mission to preserve the food heritage of Indigenous peoples.  Absent from the list, as is the case with many such lists, are women and people of color. 

Hat tip to EYB Member debkellie for alerting us to this announcement.