The Winners: 2018 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Awards

2018 Restaurant of the Year: Orana, Adelaide

As a stranger to Australian culture, Jock Zonfrillo foraged for inspiration where too few chefs had looked. He visited scores of Indigenous communities, from the Kimberley to Nauiyu at Daly River in the Northern Territory, to ask questions of elders about harvesting and cooking techniques and foodways and to get a taste of the land. Connecting all has been years in the making. At Orana, Zonfrillo’s intimate Adelaide restaurant, a philosophy took form in dishes where lesser-seen native ingredients and more familiar fare found a happy (and very tasty) meeting place. Davidson plum on Spencer Gulf prawns, say, or Port Lincoln tuna belly with smoked gubinge and ruby saltbush berries. While he looks to Indigenous communities for guidance and knowledge, Zonfrillo is also determined to give back. His Orana Foundation is conducting research with the University of Adelaide (thanks to a $1.25 million South Australian government grant) to build a native food database, help cultivate commercial production of ingredients, and create new food industries for Indigenous communities.

2018 Chef of the Year: Mat Lindsay, Ester, Sydney

Mat Lindsay will not particularly enjoy winning this award. At least not the part where he has to get up and accept it and talk to people. Ester, the restaurant he opened in Sydney in 2013, is his stage, and it’s here that he has won a loyal following of regulars. The cooking at Ester could be said to reflect Lindsay’s personal humility in its more restrained moments (oysters popped in the wood-fired oven and dressed with horseradish; a dessert of young-coconut sorbet and sake that’s almost haiku-like in its concision), but it also shows exuberance and generosity, whether it’s in the smoked oil and egg butter that distinguish his beef tartare or the lush texture of the signature blood sausage “sanga”. Little wonder that he is considered such an inspiration by his fellow chefs, whose votes drive this award. And little wonder Ester plays to a packed house, day in, day out.

2018 New Restaurant of the Year: Fred’s, Sydney

On paper, it sounds easy. Just take a chef from one of the world’s best-liked restaurants, bring her to Australia, connect her with the finest bespoke producers, set her up in a stunning kitchen of her own in a lovely, comfortable room, backed by superb front-of-house staff and a dizzingly good cellar. Of course, for chef Danielle Alvarez and the team from Merivale it’s been years of hard slog (Alvarez moved here from the US for the job in July 2014). But then that’s exactly what makes Fred’s so magical: it all feels not just effortless, but like it was meant to be, a team effort unified under a leader with rare command of her craft. An exciting, satisfying night out with style to burn, and more than enough substance to back it.

Finalists: Cirrus Dining, Sydney; Saint Peter, Sydney

2018 Regional Restaurant of the Year: Igni, Geelong

Yep, you’re going to have to go to Geelong. Because that’s where the most exciting food in Australia is being cooked right now. Local ingredients, global outlook, cooking with fire, classic Australian wines plus smart picks from Sicily and the Loire, a little sake in the mix… everybody’s doing it, so how is it that Aaron Turner, Jo Smith and Drew Hamilton’s version still feels so fresh and essential? Bespoke service, the immediacy of Turner’s cooking and a unique vibe all conspire to make Igni the Next Big Thing in Australian destination restaurants. Make the pilgrimage.

Finalists: Fleet, Brunswick Heads; Brae, Birregurra

2018 Best New Talent: Josh Niland, Saint Peter, Sydney

Proving that hard work and humility, dedication to craft, respect for ingredients and innovative technique can all co-exist (along with waste-consciousness, and a savvy social-media presence), Josh Niland cuts a hell of a figure in the trade – when he’s not too busy, that is, cutting fillets from fresh Yamba anchovies with surgical precision, ageing familiar fish to rare succulence and making rock stars of bycatch species. Oh, and he still isn’t 30.

Finalists: Charlie Carrington, Atlas Dining, Melbourne; Danielle Alvarez, Fred’s, Sydney

2018 Maître D’ of the Year: Chris Young, Café di Stasio, Melbourne

Watch Chris Young at work at Café Di Stasio and you may conclude that those at the top of the service game possess a natural ability, an affinity for the work’s true rhythm. Sure, he’s quick and intuitive enough to make what he’s reacting to almost invisible and he can make things appear and disappear from a table seemingly at will, but Young’s real talent is a witty charm, one that makes you feel comfortable, noticed, even appreciated. The guy’s no saint – he can fire off a stinging quip with the best of them – but even the sharpest of those are still delivered generously, like you’re in on the joke. Intuition again.

Finalists: Kylie Javier Ashton, Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney; Greta Wohlstadt, Orana, Adelaide

2018 Sommelier of the Year: Caitlyn Rees, Fred’s, Sydney

Multiple lists. Hundreds of bottles. The most sought-after tables in Sydney (if not the nation). Caitlyn Rees has a lot on her plate. So why does she seem so relaxed? The productivity whizzes might call it “being in the flow”: she not only knows her cellar inside out, she likes nothing better than to open it up for the pleasure of her guests. Rees clearly loves her job, which in turn makes it all the more fun to watch her at work. Now, that’s what we call win-win.

Finalists: Gavin Cremming, Stokehouse, Melbourne; Patrick White, Hardys Verandah Restaurant, Crafers

2018 Wine List of the Year: Kisumé, Melbourne

There are three wine lists at Kisumé. Each is very good – but together they’re irresistible, the kind of wine experience you want to sink into and savour. The wine team is headed by some of the best in the business: general manager Phillip Rich, formerly of the Prince Wine Store, and group sommelier Jonathan Ross, formerly of Eleven Madison Park in New York. It helps that their boss, Chris Lucas, also has a passion for wine, particularly Burgundy, a passion that is infused throughout the wine list here. All three of them.

Finalists: Hardys Verandah Restaurant, Crafers; Cirrus Dining, Sydney

2018 Bar of the Year: Bar Rochford, Canberra

Canberra? You read right. If your memory of nightlife in the nation’s capital involves the sight of tumbleweeds and the sound of crickets chirping, it’s time to update your stereotypes. This version of Canberra cool involves a watering hole that segues fluidly between restaurant-quality food, wine that puts many a Melbourne or Sydney contemporary to shame, a roaring fire in winter, beautiful Deco arches to let in the light in summer and great beats and good times year round.

Finalists: Seymour’s Cocktails and Oysters, Brisbane; Big Poppa’s, Sydney

2018 Outstanding Contribution to Hospitality: Ronni Kahn, OzHarvest

Restaurants don’t exist in a bubble, and putting food on the plate is just one part of the story. And through her work with OzHarvest, food-waste activist Ronni Kahn has proved that chefs and restaurateurs can help drive change and lead by example in their communities. To date, OzHarvest has made 60 million meals from food that would otherwise have gone wanting. How’s that for serious numbers? Smart, savvy and unrelenting, Kahn is an inspiration to us all.