Well, PDC and I sit here with proud smiles as I report on the excitement of The Age Good Food Guide Awards.
A few new awards and a couple of shocks...
2009 Awards
Restaurant of the Year - Attica (a fantastic result, well done!)
Best New Restaurant - Bistro Guillaume
Chef of the Year - Frank Camorra, MoVida
Young Chef of the Year - (two winners this year) Justin Wise, The Press Club and Christopher Donnellan, The Lake House
Service Excellence Award - Martin Fairhurst, The Lake House
Professional Excellence Award - Will Studd, -Cheese Campaigner (nice title!)
Outstanding Achievement Award - Con Christopoulos
Dish of the Year - Smoked trout broth, Attica (not too far removed from the pork broth that I loved there)
Country Restaurant of the Year - Royal Mail Hotel, Dunkeld
**Best New Country Restaurant - Tea Rooms of Yarck
**Winery Restaurant of the Year - Giant Steps (in the Yarra Valley)
Wine List of the Year - Circa, the Prince (again, congrats!)
Best Short Wine List - Ten Minutes by Tractor
**Bacchus (Don Levy Fitzpatrick) Award - Bar Lourinha
Website of the Year - Three, One, Two
Wine Service Award - Rocco Esposito, Wardens in Beechworh
**Interior Design - Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons (my friend was right, it is really amazing)
2008 Multiple hats of interest…
Three Hats
Jacques Reymond and Vue de Monde is back sharing the top pinnacle
Two Hats
Verge (back up again) MoVida (up from '07), Bistro Guillaume (a new entrant from across the boarder), Royal Mail Hotel (country section)
Up and Down
The Press Club - fallen a little from two hats, Chef and New Restaurant of the year in '08 to one hat... ouch
Well, I heard whispers that it was all about demotions this year, these places lost their only hat -
The Argo, Da Noi (nice dig!), Delizia Cucina, Fenix (watch for Ray next year), France Soir (ouch!), The Graham, Hotel Lincoin, Idea..., Maisonette, Maris, Middle Brighton Baths, Mirka (I told you it wasn't all that), Punch Lane (a sad loss), Shiranui
Controversy and surprises…
Taxi Dining room - did I miss it or did they lose two hats?? :O
Becco - 'The Boys' have had it good for a while, and now the playing field is levelled ;)
France Soir - hatless after such a long service to Melbourne
**New awards this year
Thoughts on the results??? Please join in...
12.30am Opps correction... Sorry to the Taxi team, as corrected by Niki, Taxi still has their two hats. Perhaps it was Shaun Micallefs speed to announce the winners or the bottle of Tuscan red in front of me, but I missed it and their hat status remains unchanged. Cheers and sorry!! Jack
I had to switch off. I think you have to be there. Best new carpet, sorry design...There are some big surprises places that should be recognised but aren't simply because they are quite possibly out of fashion. There are still a few deserving being knocked down a notch or two. Ben and Attica deserved it.
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