The 2016 Gault&Millau Australia Restaurant Guides for Sydney and Melbourne were launched last night, and were accompanied by the presentation of a series of industry awards.
For the third edition of the guide, over 600 restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne were reviewed according to Gault&Millau’s international standards and were awarded between one and five hats.
Gault&Millau Australia’s chief judge, Mark Dorrell said “Since launching in Australia in 2014 we have grown our distribution by 100 percent — proving that Australia wanted another opinion. We have the right mix of produce, culinary talent and creativity to make Australia one of the world’s best dining destinations.”
The guides were launched at ‘Night in Paris’ themed event at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and saw a number of industry awards presented, including Restaurant of the Year, which went to Shannon Bennett’s Vue de monde (Melbourne) and Martin Benn and Vicki Wild’s Sepia (Sydney).
It’s been a stellar year for Sepia, which also took out the 84th spot on the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, earned to top spot in AFR Australia’s Top 100 Restaurants list, was named Best Fine Dining Restaurant at the Time Out Sydney awards, and earned three hats in the SMH Good Food Guide.
The other big winners at last night’s event were:
Riedel Sommelier of the Year Award:
- Sally Humble, Lm (Melbourne)
- Simon Curkovic, Marque (Sydney)
Perrier Jout New Restaurant of the Year Award:
- Lm (Melbourne)
- Bennelong (Sydney)
PorkStar Professional of the Year Award:
- Lawrence Ip, Cosi Ristorante (Melbourne)
- Vanessa Duckworth, Four in Hand (Sydney)
The Yellow Rose Award:
- Donovan’s (Melbourne)
- Beppi’s (Sydney)
The American Express ‘Potentialist’ Award:
- Hugh Allen, Vue de monde (Melbourne)
- Lauren Eldridge, Marque (Sydney)
V-ZUG Chef of the Year Award:
- Ben Shewry, Attica (Melbourne)
- Daniel Puskas and James Parry, sixpenny (Sydney – joint winners)
Lavazza Restaurant of the Year Award:
- Vue de monde (Melbourne)
- Sepia (Sydney)
