Update: for the 2011 SMH Good Food Guide Awards results, click here
I just came back from the SMH’s Good Food Guide 2010 awards. Great night, but more on that later. Just thought you would enjoy reading about the results, who won what, etc… so here it goes:
3 Chef’s Hats winners:
Bilson’s, est., Marque, Pier, Quay, Tetsuya’s
2 Chef’s Hats winners:
Aria, Assiette, Becasse, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, Bistro Ortolan, Buon Ricordo, Claude’s (shock horror!), Guillaume at Bennelong, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, Lucio’s, Pilu at Freshwater, Restaurant Balzac, Rockpool, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sean’s Panaroma, Universal
1 Chef’s Hats Winners:
Altitude, Astral, Azuma, The Bather’s Pavilion Restaurant, Bird Cow Fish, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode, Blancharu, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Fish Face, Flying Fish, Forty One, Four in Hand Dining Room, Foveaux Restaurant + Bar, Galileo, Jonah’s, L’etoile, Longrain, Oscillate Wildly, Otto Ristorante, Pendolino, Restaurant Arras, Sailors Thai Restaurant, Sepia, Yoshii
Regional
2 Chef’s Hats Winners:
Darley’s (Katoomba), Rock (Pokolbin)
1 Chef’s Hat Winner:
Bacchus (Newcastle), Bamboo (Casuarina Beach), Bells at Killcare (Killcare Heights), Bistro Molines (Mount View), Caveau (Wollongong), Fins (South Kingscliff), Journeyman (Bowral), Katers (Sutton Forest), Lochiel House (Kurrajong Heights), Lolli Redini (Orange), Neila (Cowra), No. 2 Oak Street (Bellingen), The Old George & Dragon (East Maitland), Ottoman Cuisine (Barton), Pacific Dining Room (Byron Bay), Restaurant Como (Blaxland), Restaurant II (Newcastle), Satiate (Bangalow), sourcedining (Albury), Tonic (Milthorpe), Vulcans (Blackheath), Waters Edge (Parkes), Zest (Nelson Bay)
Awards
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year
Quay, Circular Quay
Chef of the Year
Mark Best of Marque, Surry Hills
Best New Restaurant
Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney
Best Regional Restaurant
Darley’s Katoomba
The Star City Award for Professional Excellence
Peter Bowyer of Sailor’s Thai
They SMH Silver Service Award
Rachel McNabb of Restaurant Como, Blaxland
Silver Anniversary Stayer Award
Beppi’s, East Maitland
Sommelier of the Year
Franck Moreau of Merivale
Brown Brothers Wine List of the Year
Pilu at Freshwater
Small Wine List of the Year
Bistrode, Surry Hills
Regional Wine List of the Year
Union Bank, Orange
The Josephine Pignolet Best Young Chef
Mitchell Orr of Sepia
Vittoria Legend Award
Mr John (John Hemmes) of Merrivale
Sydney Fish Markets Best Seafood Restaurant
Pier, Rose Bay
Good Food Guide Sustainability Award
Billy Kwong, Surry Hills
Editor’s Picks
Favourite Wine Bar – Ash St Cellar
Favourite Global Menu – Universal
Favourite Asian – Ju-Rin
Favourite Global Gem – Din Tai Fung
Favourite Bargain – Friday Lunch at Marque
Favourite Extravagance – Anything from Adriano Zumbo’s Cafe Chocolat (and pattisserie)
Favourite Cafe – Cafe Deus
Favourite Sushi – Yoshii
6 comments
I buy the guide every year; it's so handy! How was the awards party?
i heard the catering was terrible. oh the irony.
The awards party was cool. It was held at Carriageworks @ Eveleigh, right opposite to where the markets are usually held. It was really great to see all the big name chefs, coming up and having a chat. There was a good buzz going around, and they had all the previous editors of the Guide up there. The catering, hmmm, it was ok. Nothing spectacular. My favourite was the smoked salmon with beetroot jelly, which looked great, just my kind of aesthetic. It was a fun cocktail party. Everyone gasped when Claude's was included in the 2 hat category, and Tony Bilson cracked us up by saying that the he is really proud of where Sydney's restaurants are these days and that there was not a single bad restaurant among the hat winners. I think he was serious.
Bilsons and Tetsuya’s losing a hat is a disgrace. More about the SMH trying to come up with a story I suspect than anything about food. Just because Terry Durack seems to like cheaper food does NOT mean something like Tetsuya’s or Bilson is not an extraordinary experience – which they are. Already read the headlines ‘After losing a hat last year, old timers Bilson’s and Tetsuya’s have lifted their game’. Reality is just because reviewers get bored with something does not mean it has changed. I eat out in London a bit and both those guys are Michelin 3 star. Says more about the SMH’s changing readership and staffing than anything about quality.