The fourth course of Rockpool Bar & Grill’s five-course beef tasting menu is, to me, the winner. It’s a heart-shaped wedge of full-blood David Blackmore MB9+ wagyu rump cap, seared to blushing perfection and served with a selection of South American-style accompaniments – a fried arepa, beans, piquant aji and hogao sauces – that reflect executive chef Santiago Aristizabal’s Colombian heritage. It’s actually the sixth way I’ve been served cow during this meal – the first course began with two different snacks made of Blackmore’s famous Mishima beef, and course four included a duo of scotch fillet and spinalis from Tasmania’s Cape Grim. Yet somehow I’m not all meated out. These days I, along with what feels like most of the country, can’t get enough of good, old-fashioned meat.

Meat truly is having a moment. According to Meat & Livestock Australia’s 2025 Community Sentiment Research report, 24 per cent of Australians report eating more red meat than 12 months ago. Twenty-two per cent also say they are eating less, but this marks the first time in the survey’s 15-year history that the “increasers” have outnumbered the “reducers”. The Australian Bureau of statistics data backs this up: its newest data says that Australians increased their meat consumption in 2023-2024 by 2.3 per cent over the previous year. We remain the world’s leaders – by a long shot – of both sheep and cow meat consumption.

Restaurants are noticing the trend as well. Neil Perry famously said in a recent interview that at his flagship restaurant Margaret, which sits at number two on the increasingly influential World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list, “We can’t make a steak expensive enough for people to stop buying it.” Aristizabal says Rockpool customers are excited to try lesser-known cuts and styles of beef such as Denver and skirt, and its parent group, Hunter St. Hospitality, is so meat-invested that they’ve opened venues plating up nothing else: 24 York in Sydney and 7 Alfred in Melbourne. “We serve just one main dish: steak frites. No chicken, no fish, no vegetarian option. And we’re averaging 3000 steaks a week,” he says. “I think that says a lot about how willing people are to lean into meat when it’s done well.”

Perhaps surprisingly, health seems to be a big factor. MLA’s research says a whopping 87 per cent of those increasing their red meat intake cited an interest in upping their iron and protein levels, as well as improving their health overall, as their primary motivators. “Protein” has undoubtedly become one of the most popular words in the health and fitness world: TikTok groans with content creators devising high-protein dupes for their favourite meals, and experts and influencers all highlight the macronutrient as playing a crucial role for women looking to maintain health and wellbeing during menopause.

On the flipside, it’s not a great time to be a vegetarian. In February 2025, plant-based Newtown restaurant Flora opened to great fanfare, with a menu that “celebrates inventive vegetarian cuisine”. Barely five months later, it announced it would “evolve” to serve meat as well, but just two months after that it shut up shop altogether. In New York, the menu at Eleven Madison Park famously went entirely vegan in 2021. Last year, chef Daniel Humm declared the restaurant would once again “embrace choice” and put duck, fish and red meat back onto plates.

What hasn’t changed, however, are the very real negative environmental and animal welfare challenges of mass meat farming. Australian startup Vow made a plucky effort to address the issue with the launch of a “cultured quail” they call “Forged”. A rather startling pale pink substance that can be fashioned into something that looks like foie gras, it’s made from real quail cells, ostensibly removing the need to farm whole animals. Several restaurants including Sydney’s Maiz, Lana and The Waratah have served Forged, though it’s not clear whether anyone is truly clamouring for a manufactured alternative to fresh quail meat. Perhaps tellingly, many of the restaurants serving it are using it in dishes that also include “real” meat like beef or duck. Elsewhere, “fake meat” companies like Beyond Burger and Impossible Foods have recorded slumps in sales.

Recently though, there’s been a big win for small-scale livestock farmers, as well as the consumers who want to eat the commonly ethically grown meat they produce. In late 2025, Victoria was the first state in Australia to pass groundbreaking reform that allows small- and medium-sized farmers – who tend to have high standards of animal welfare and landcare practices – to erect micro-abattoirs on their own properties without a planning permit. It’s a massive win over multinationals and exporters, who have been increasingly monopolising the large abattoirs and effectively shutting them off to smaller livestock producers. “If we hadn’t won this reform we wouldn’t have small-scale farmers left in Victoria,” says Dr Tammi Jonas, a farmer and agrarian activist. “I’m confident that within the next year or two the other states will follow suit.”

However we farm, serve and eat it, meat is making an epic comeback on plates all over Australia. “We have access to some of the best beef in the world, and people genuinely value it,” says Rockpool’s Aristizabal. “With the quality we’ve got here it’s hard to see that changing.”

The post Why beef is making a comeback on Australian plates   appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Long considered Japan’s national drink, sake in Tokyo is more than tradition — it’s a living, evolving craft that threads its way through the city’s past and present, offering travellers a deeper understanding of the culture. Sake has been made in and around Tokyo for centuries, stretching back to the Edo period between 1603 and1868 when the city was rapidly becoming Japan’s political and cultural heart. As the population grew, so did the demand for sake and breweries emerged in areas where the conditions were ideal: clean water, nearby rice fields and the kind of patience that is only appreciated outside the city.

Today, tucked between forested river valleys in Tokyo’s west and in compact city streets, lies a remarkable collection of breweries who have kept this speciality alive. Visiting them is one of the great undiscovered pleasures of a Tokyo trip.

The west Tokyo way

The most atmospheric sake experiences in Tokyo require a train ride, and the reward is well worth it. Head west along the Tama River and the city gradually gives way to greenery and clear, cold, fast-flowing water — the ideal brewing conditions. Sitting at the edge of the Okutama Mountains, is one of the oldest surviving sake producer, Ozawa Brewery, which has produced sake for more than 300 years.

With a technique passed down through generations where the sake is preserved within earthen-walled storehouses, visitors at Ozawa Shuzo can expect to have a truly unique experience. With an advance reservation, visitors can walk through working spaces that have hardly changed over centuries or settle in for a tasting in their riverside garden where soba is also served — a pairing as timeless as the brewery itself.

Back towards the Tama area, the story of sake continues, this time layered with architecture, hospitality and innovation. At Ishikawa Brewery, traditional kura buildings sit beneath towering keyaki trees, while onsite dining and accommodation invite a longer stay, blurring the line between tasting and immersion.  

Nearby, Tamura Shuzojo continues a 200-year brewing legacy under the stewardship of its 16th-generation brewer. Further north in Higashi murayama City sits Toshimaya Brewery, the oldest sake shop in Tokyo. Private tours here feel less like a scheduled activity and more like a private lesson with history.

Sake in the city

Back in the hum of Tokyo, there is a different conversation around sake happening — one that’s forward-thinking without forgetting what came before.

One of the most compelling examples is Konohanano Brewery in Asakusa, founded with the mission of training the next generation of craft-sake makers. Its focus is the unrefined style of sake, doburoku, which is rarely produced in the city. Its koji room — the space where rice is cultivated with mould to begin fermentation — enables a wide range of flavour profiles, proving traditional techniques are not simply being preserved, but evolving for a new generation.

Tokyo Port Brewing’s history isn’t to be missed. Originally founded as Wakamatsuya in the late Edo period and once frequented by some of Japan’s most celebrated historical figures, the brewery closed before reopening in 2011. Now, it’s curating a bold, modern approach to sake-making as well as liqueurs, doburoku and plum wine, in a compact four-storey building in central Tokyo. A reminder that even in one of the world’s most modern cities, some things are worth saving.

What sake reveals about Tokyo

Tokyo has always done so well in holding the past and the present in the same hand. In a city so often defined by its future-facing energy, sake offers a way to understand what came before. Its deep roots in Japanese ritual, seasonality and craft, make it a near-perfect lens for understanding a city that never stops evolving.

Guided tours and behind-the-scenes tastings are available for most breweries, with most requiring reservations. For travellers looking to experience Tokyo beyond the expected, sake offers a slower, richer way into the city.

For more information, visit gotokyo.org

The post Tokyo, poured differently: A sake-lover’s guide to the city’s hidden breweries appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Buffalo cream butter by Del Bocia

Alberto Borghi’s brand of premium, uncultured butter made with top-quality Australian dairy, Del Bocia, took home the Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce Show award for Champion Sheep, Goat, Buffalo or Camel Milk Product for its 100% grass-fed buffalo cream butter. Stir through pasta with parmigiano reggiano and plenty of pepper for a simple but indulgent sauce, or use like normal butter in applications that warrant extra richness (he even suggests topping with caviar). 

Swift 2016 Methode Traditionelle by Printhie Wines

After the ‘16 took home Best Sparkling at the Sydney Royal Wine Show and Best Sparkling in the NSW Wine Awards in 2025, this year it also claimed the Wine award of the District Exhibits arm of the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the Western District. A textbook cool-climate sparkling from the Orange region in Printhie’s esteemed range of Swift sparkling wines, it’s a typical Champagne-style blend of chardonnay and pinot noir that spent eight years on lees for a balanced richness.

Stockyard Black wagyu by Stockyard Beef

Stockyard Black is a long-fed, 100% wagyu product from Queensland producer Stockyard is a finalist for the prestigious President’s Medal, which will be awarded in May — you’ve probably seen their beef on the menu at some of the country’s best restaurants. The highest honour awarded by the Royal Agricultural Society, the President’s Medal goes beyond just taste or presentation, selecting a winner based on innovation, responsibility, and a long-term vision for Australian agriculture and food production. Other finalists in 2026 include Brokenwood Wines, Mandolé Orchard, Marionette liqueurs and the Norco co-op of dairies.

Honey yoghurt by Kenilworth Dairies

You might recognise Kenilworth Dairies’ products from a supermarket shelf near you; their products are popular, and for good reason, taking home plenty of medals at the Sydney Royal Easter Show including Champion Yoghurt or Cultured Milk Product for their honey yoghurt, with ribbons of local Sunshine Coast gold from Hum Honey. You can visit the dairy in the charming Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Kenilworth — it’s worth it to try their ice-cream alone.

Sunset late harvest extra virgin olive oil by Wilson Family Olives

Established at the Sydney Royal Easter Show back in 1900, the District Exhibits competition showcases New South Wales regions with elaborate and artistic displays of produce, with individual category winners selected from what’s on show. Based in Narromine and running a deeply sustainable program of production, the Wilson family claimed the Olive Oil title for the Western District.

See all of the 2026 winners from the Sydney Royal Easter Show and other Royal Agricultural Society of NSW competitions.

The post Five Sydney Royal Easter Show winners you can cook with at home appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Vivid Fire Kitchen

While it’s been based at The Goods Line in recent years, Vivid Fire Kitchen is relocating to the waterfront Barangaroo Reserve in 2026. The free-to-enter foodie zone will welcome more than 60 leading culinary voices over its 23 nights, with open-fire cooking demonstrations, intimate talks and tastings, plus pop-up stalls from favourite fire-cooked eateries.

Live music and DJs will soundtrack every evening, as Vivid installations including River of Fire, Molecule of Light and Mycelium Network bring the festival’s signature glow.

The Fire Pit

Offering up-close access to top chefs cooking over fire and coals, The Fire Pit is a new offering for Vivid Fire Kitchen. Guests can wander among the chefs at work over four distinct fire cooking methods, and purchase their menu items created exclusively for Vivid. Participating names include Mark Best, Ben Devlin from Pipit, David Moyle, Mindy Woods and Jean‑Paul El Tom of Baba’s Place and Corner 75.

“The Fire Pit is an opportunity to explore why cooking over flame is so special — it’s elemental, expressive and deeply connected to place,” said Mark Best. “Creating something unique for Vivid Fire Kitchen allows me to respond to the energy of the festival and the landscape that surrounds it, telling a story through flavour, heat and timing. To do that alongside so many chefs in the program, each bringing their own voice, culture and perspective, is what makes this experience truly compelling.”

Food For Thought

Influential Australian voices in food will gather nightly for talks spanning culture, creativity, sustainability and the future of food. Chefs, authors, restaurateurs, celebrity cooks and digital storytellers including Mike Bennie, Adriano Zumbo, Julie Goodwin, Costa Georgiadis, Karima Hazim, Anthony Huckstep and Tim Ross will cover themes like NSW produce, First Nations knowledge, and dedicated drinks panels. The nightly Food For Thought line-up is available on the Vivid website.

Food stalls

Local restaurants including Firepop, in-demand Greek taverna Olympic Meats and KOI Dessert Bar will be grilling, smoking, charring and burning their way through delicious menus, alongside past Vivid Fire Kitchen favourites like Filipino skewers Hoy Pinoy, Mr Spanish Churros, Burn City Smokers and Gelato Messina.

At a glance: Vivid Fire Kitchen

When: 22 May–13 June, 6pm–11pm daily
Where: Barangaroo Reserve
Cost: Free entry, demonstrations, talks and entertainment
More information: Online

Editor’s picks: More 2026 Vivid Food highlights

A Shared Table With Yoyam Ottolenghi

Fan favourite Yotam Ottolenghi will return to Sydney for Vivid to host a series of long table lunches and dinners celebrating New South Wales produce in his signature style. “I’m coming back [at] such a dynamic moment in the city’s cultural calendar,” said the chef. “More than anything, it’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the outstanding produce and beverages of New South Wales and to share the kind of food that I love and that also tells the story of the region’s creativity and generosity.”

The only remaining tickets available are for Saturday 30 May lunch, from $340pp.

Regional Dinner Series

Celebrating all stretches of New South Wales, the Regional Dinner Series will see top chefs from regional restaurants collaborate with leading Sydney chefs and venues on one-night-only dinners heroing the produce of their home region. Bundjalung woman Mindy Woods of Byron Bay’s Karkalla will join Sydney Opera House culinary director Danielle Alvarez at their Culture in Motion events (22 and 23 May, from $275pp), Troy Rhoades-Brown from the Hunter Valley’s Muse Restaurant will join Gourmet Traveller‘s 2025 Chef of the Year Nik Hill at his restaurant Porcine (3 June, from $140pp), and Ben Devlin will share his favourites from The Tweed at Lennox Hastie’s Firedoor (25 and 26 May, from $295pp). See more of the Regional Dinner Series events.

Wet, Cold + Delicious, The Tuna Dinner

Following a glass of Ruinart in Shell House’s Clocktower Bar, join fishmonger Narito Ishii for a traditional maguro shoten (tuna cutting) experience assisted by sushi chef Toshihiko Oe of Sushi Oe, celebrating Southern bluefin tuna season. Seafood expert John Susman will host the event, which will include a five-course dinner downstairs in the Dining Room featuring bluefin tuna, with matched wines. The event is on 3 June, and tickets are available from $295pp.

Salt & Pepper Squiz

Comedian Jennifer Wong will debut her new show, inspired by her book Chopsticks or Fork?: Recipes and Stories from Australia’s Regional Chinese Restaurants. Combining stand-up and food stories, she’ll take a look at Australia’s food culture in her signature pun-laden style, while Mary’s serves a perfectly paired menu of Chinese-Australian bar snacks. Salt & Pepper Squiz will premiere at Vivid Sydney on 11 June, and tickets are available from $69.

Aster: The Golden Age

For one of the best Vivid viewpoints in Sydney, Aster Bar at the InterContinental Sydney is serving a Hollywood glamour-themed tasting menu. Following Champagne and canapes, your night includes a main course with a paired cocktail or New South Wales wine, and a cocktail and visit from the caviar trolley to finish. The Golden Age special menu is available every night of Vivid, and tickets are available from $199pp.

See the entire Vivid Food line-up for 2026 on the Vivid Sydney website.

The post A new home for Vivid Fire Kitchen, Ottolenghi returns and more: what’s on the 2026 Vivid Food program appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Do you have any Easter traditions? Or will you be starting any with your new baby?
Up until this year, I’ve been making hot cross buns, which means I’m pretty much non-existent to the outside world for a week, trading the days for all-night hot cross bun kitchen raves to ensure the fiends get their fluffy buns of joy for Easter. 

With the new addition to the family, I now have an excuse to buy Easter eggs again (chocolate is less of a novelty when you’re a pastry chef).

What are you making and serving (using Australian eggs) this Easter?
This Easter I’ll be whipping up a bit of a dessert play on devilled eggs. I think it’s a fun way to fancy up all the hollow eggs, filling them with tart passionfruit, a hint of fennel seed and some fluffy meringue to mellow the flavours out.

What’s the biggest mistake home bakers make when it comes to using eggs?
Not understanding the role of eggs in a recipe, for instance over-whipping or under-whipping eggs, or knocking too much air out when incorporating dry ingredients which results in too much denseness.

What’s the ultimate Easter egg: chocolate, or the real deal?
It’s a close call, as I love chocolate, but eggs are so versatile, especially when creating sweet treats. My hot cross buns, which I devour too many of, wouldn’t be possible without eggs to enrich the dough – and it wouldn’t be Easter without them!

A classic baking dilemma is ending up with just yolks or just whites; what’s your go-to for using up both?
Leftover yolks go into a custard tart, and leftover whites go into a whiskey sour — which you’ll need while you nervously wait for the tart to set!

Previous

The secret to an effortless Easter lunch? Start with eggs

Brought to you by Australian Eggs

60 of our best fish recipes for Good Friday, Easter and beyond

The best Flour and Stone desserts for Easter

Easter desserts that aren’t hot cross buns

Next

The post What top pastry chef Andy Bowden is making this Easter appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

In 2026, we’re cooking our way through firm favourites and new classics, from Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s fourth book that celebrates the seasons to a dreamy collection of coastal Italian recipes to a weeknight cooking bible full of easy wins.

Whether for gifting or keeping, don’t even think about buying a cookbook without first consulting the GT autumn wish list. Below are the best cookbooks for the cooler seasons and beyond, according to the GT team.

You might also like 32 food-related gifts for the gourmand in your life

The 2026 cookbook edit

• Best cookbooks for the cooler seasons
• Best new-release cookbooks
• Best cookbooks to gift
• GT’s favourite cookbooks of all time

Previous

Travel

11 lightweight carry-on bags that earn their place in the overhead locker

Shopping

The carry-on formula frequent flyers use to travel better

Native ad body.

Sponsored by %%sponsor_name%%

Shopping

After years of travel, these are the luxury essentials we still pack

Next

Best cookbooks for the cooler seasons

Italian Food, Stefano Manfredi

---

As the weather cools, I instinctively turn to the warmth of hearty Italian food — from broccoli, anchovy and chilli orecchiette to warming sausage minestrone to slow-braised duck ragù on pillowy gnocchi. My guide through this craving has always been Stefano Manfredi’s Italian Food: a hefty, region-by-region compendium that captures the soul of Italy’s culinary traditions. It’s taught me time-honoured classics, the beauty of seasonality and the diversity woven through each family table.

– Maxwell Adey, Senior Food Editor

$380 at Amazon

Appetite, Nigel Slater

---

Appetite by Nigel Slater is a perfect fit for the colder months. He’s a British national treasure and a witty writer, as well as an excellent cook. What makes this book especially winter-friendly is that it was published in 2000, several years before Slater graduated to much healthier cooking, so it’s full of lovely buttery comfort food, my favourite being an enormous rectangular mushroom and thyme pie.

– Ceri David, Deputy Editor

$39.99 at Amazon

frOM $58.99 at Dymocks

Saturday Night Pasta, Elizabeth Hewson

---

For me, making pasta from scratch is therapeutic, and Elizabeth Hewson’s Saturday Night Pasta was a key player in keeping me sane during pandemic lockdowns. Each week, I’d thumb through the recipes, picking one that suited my mood — pappardelle with Bloody Mary lamb ragù for a slow weekend session; broccoli and feta orecchiette for a midweek boost; or chicken meatballs with cavatelli in tomato and lemon broth when I was in need of serious comfort. Now, as the days get shorter and the temperature cools, I am reaching for it once again and selecting new recipes, making it my mission to cook every dish.

– Cordelia Williamson, former Digital Editor

$48.66 at Amazon

$36.99 at Dymocks

$42.75 at Booktopia

A Year of Simple Family Food, Julia Busuttil Nishimura

---

While I pick this recipe repertoire for winter, Busuttil Nishimura’s generous second book is a year-round companion. It’s seen me through varied seasons of my own life: I distinctly remember making her piadina dough, a soothing distraction during a difficult personal time; while the lamb ragù is the recipe I’ll be batch cooking ahead of my maternity leave stint.

– Jordan Kretchmer, News Editor

$39.99 at Amazon

$39.99 at Dymocks

$39.99 at QBD BOOKS

Ottolenghi Simple, Yotam Ottolenghi

---

While I pick this recipe repertoire for winter, Busuttil Nishimura’s generous second book is a year-round companion. It’s seen me through varied seasons of my own life: I distinctly remember making her piadina dough, a soothing distraction during a difficult personal time; while the lamb ragù is the recipe I’ll be batch cooking ahead of my maternity leave stint.

– Jordan Kretchmer, News Editor

$47.65 at Amazon

$59.99 $40 at myer

$60 at dymocks

Falling Cloudberries, Tessa Kiros

---

This is a beautifully diverse cookbook filled with heartfelt family stories and multicultural influences. Tessa Kiros blends recipes with memory, drawing from Finland, Greece, South Africa, and beyond. Her Finnish meatballs with allspice, sour cream and lingonberries make for the perfect comfort dish.

– Lana Telford, Editorial Coordinator

$45 at Amazon

$69.99 at QBD Books

Best new-release cookbooks

Good Cooking Every Day, Julia Busuttil Nishimura

---

Busuttil Nishimura’s reputation precedes her. When her fourth book landed on our desk, we knew to expect everyday recipes to inspire and delight. Working our way through, we also discovered a celebration of the seasons. From winter’s excess of greens (potato and silverbeet al forno) to summer’s zucchini flowers (stracci with zucchini and their flowers), mid-week meals get a delicious upgrade.

$44.99 at Amazon

$44.99 at Dymocks

Chae, Jung Eun Chae

---

Melbourne chef Jung Eun Chae believes patience is a virtue. You’ll need it when faced with the 8000-person waitlist to dine at Chae, the micro-restaurant she runs from home. And you’ll need it to master the ferments in this slow Korean cookbook. The rewards are worth waiting for.

$60 at Amazon

$60 at Dymocks

On Sundays, Dave Verheul

---

From Monday through to Saturday, Verheul sets the standard at his excellent Melbourne wine bar, Embla. On a Sunday, the New Zealand-born chef relaxes into a long lunch. Organised into seasons, this is a blow-by-blow account of what and how the chef cooks when he entertains at home.

$55 at Amazon

$55 $42.75 at booktopia

Love Crumbs, Nadine Ingram

---

A birthday, a heartbreak, a rite of passage; these are the reasons we bake. For Flour & Stone’s Nadine Ingram, cake is also a love language. In this “meaningful memoir of cake”, as she describes it, Ingram documents the recipes she has developed to bring sweetness into people’s lives.

$54.99 at Amazon

$54.99 $42.75 at booktopia

Italian Coastal, Amber Guinness

---

Dreams of moving to Italy will be bolstered by this swoon-worthy book. In her follow up to A House Party in Tuscany, the focus shifts from farmhouse to the Tyrrhenian Sea. And it’s a marvellous place to summer.

$59.99 at Amazon

$59.99 $46.75 at Angus & robertson

A Fish For All Seasons, Sydney Fish Market

---

Consider this your sustainable seafood roadmap. The Sydney Fish Market is on a mission to put under-utilised seafood species on our menus. It starts here with a stunning sea urchin taglioni and a barbecued redclaw with brown butter among the 100-strong recipe collection.

$55.75 at booktopia

Easy Wins, Anna Jones

---

When simple ingredients come together as more than the sum of their parts, it’s an easy win. In this weeknight cooking bible, best-selling British author Anna Jones zeros in on 12 hero ingredients across a dozen chapters. The result? 125 recipes to cook on repeat.

$55 at Amazon

$55 at qbd books

Eat NYC, Yasmin Newman

---

Proving New York isn’t just a city, it’s a mindset, Newman gets us into a Manhattan mood with this recipe compilation. An everything bagel, pizza by the slice, a Reuben worthy of When Harry Met Sally are among the highlights.

$55.07 at Amazon

$65 $48.99 AT bOOKTOPIA

$65 at Aura hOME

Ho Jiak, Junda Khoo

---

The chef and owner behind the Ho Jiak empire shares his origins story in recipe format. From his amah’s (grandmother’s) congee to the juicy Hainan chicken he learnt from his favourite street vendor in Malaysia, this volume is a tasty tribute to the influences that shaped him.

$55 at Amazon

$55 $42.75 at booktopia

Best cookbooks to gift, according to GT editors

Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, Anthony Bourdain

---

A manual of French cuisine by the original bad-boy chef, this is an entertaining and practical today as when it first hit shelves two decades ago. Based around the menu at the Manhattan brasserie where Bourdain made his name is the 1990s, it’s a kitchen essential.

$66.03 at Amazon

Something from Nothing, Alison Roman

---

Time poor and heavily into efficiency, New Yorker Alison Roman’s cooking style revolves around a well-stocked pantry. Fill it with hard-working ingredients, and you’ll be ready to conjure up flexible, off-the-cuff meals for any occasion, whether to feed yourself on a busy weeknight or to host an impressive, last-minute dinner party.

$49.99 at Amazon

Linger, Hetty Lui McKinnon

---

Hetty Lui McKinnon has always been fond of a salad. Far from a side dish or a hurried after-thought, hers are the centrepiece, to be savoured. For this, her sixth cookbook (the previous five have been bestsellers) she welcomes friends into her home to share salads, desserts and stories, inviting them to linger – hence the name for this clever collection of recipes.

$44.99 at Amazon

Padella, Tim Siadatan

---

A London institution since setting up shop in 2016, Padella still attracts legendary queues, despite an apparently simple concept: fresh, hand-rolled pasta with delicious sauces and fillings. Now we can all try it out for ourselves, “to create pasta at home that would make an Italian mamma smile,” as it says in the book.

$49.99 at Amazon

$49.99 at dymocks

Vietnam: The Cookbook, Anaïs Ca Dao Van Manen

---

Encompassing a staggering 450 recipes, this hefty tome is the definitive guide to Vietnamese cooking, going well beyond the phở and bánh mì that have become a fixture of everyday dining in Australia. Including history of the region, vibrant photography, and a whole chapter on preparing your own pantry staples, this is one for the committed home chef.

$74.95 at Amazon

$74.95 at dymocks

GT’s favourite cookbooks of all time

Arabesque, Claudia Roden

---

It’s almost impossible to choose a favourite cookbook. Over the years, I’ve pored over hundreds of them — losing hours immersed in their pages and studying the styled images. But the first book I couldn’t put down, and the one I set out to cook from cover to cover (though I’m not there yet), was Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. As a late teen, I was captivated by the vibrant cuisines of Morocco, Lebanon, and Turkey; their perfect balance of sweet and sour, aromatic and fresh. Many of my earliest dinner parties were planned from this book. Claudia’s recipes laid the foundation for my understanding of flavour and were instrumental in shaping my formative years in the kitchen.

– Maxwell Adey, Senior Food Editor

$60.31 at Amazon

$69.99 at QBD Books

Bill’s Basics, Bill Granger

---

The late Bill Granger‘s Bill Basics was the first cookbook I “borrowed” from my mum when I needed to become an adult and start cooking. I inherited it with dog-eared and food-splattered pages, and I’ve made my own marks over the years since. His baked orrechiette with sausage, cavolo nero and ricotta has become a comfort food favourite, as has the lemongrass and ginger chicken curry served with vermicelli.

– Cordelia Williamson, former Digital Editor

$83.49 at Amazon

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat

---

As much a fantastical science-edged tome as it is a storybook and cookbook, Nosrat’s debut delivers not just a set of recipes but a simple and elegant philosophy for all home cooks. Find out about the role of salt (osmosis!), bake the perfect focaccia, peruse illustrations of the elements in Caesar salad and so much more. A modern day cook’s must-have.

– Jordan Kretchmer, News Editor

$75 at Amazon

$75 at qbd books

$75 $73.35 at booktopia

Ester, Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse

---

I have an emotional attachment to this book; it symbolises the lazy, long weekends and good times spent feasting with great friends. There was one weekend in particular when this cookbook was the central theme. Standout recipes include the shallot and Sichuan pepper tarte Tatin and my ultimate favourite, the Bullet tart with its malted tart shell blanketed in a thick and glossy liquorice ganache. Bullet fanciers will understand.

– Jacqui Triggs, Creative Director

$59.99 at Amazon

$59.99 at dymocks

The Cook’s Companion, Stephanie Alexander

---

This is my go-to when I need to bake a cake or cook a traditional casserole. The way the cookbook is broken down into ingredient chapters is very user-friendly.

– Sam Yates, Senior Designer

$130 at Amazon

$130 at dymocks

Food from Many Greek Kitchens, Tessa Kiros

---

Tessa Kiros’ Food from Many Greek Kitchens is a classic that I keep coming back to for its beautiful culinary journey of Greece. I use it every New Year’s Eve for its foolproof vassilopita cake. Her briam (mixed roast veggies), bamies (baked okra) and fasolakia yachni (stewed green beans in tomato) are almost as good as my Mum’s – and that’s saying something. The best collection of Greek home-style cooking recipes.

– Suzanna Chriss, Senior Sub Editor

$175.28 at Amazon

Read More

• 13 gourmet pantry essentials GT editors can’t live without
• 32 food-related gifts for the gourmand in your life
• Black Friday is serving serious cookware deals – here are the sets worth your time

The post Editors’ picks: The cookbooks to gift, cook with and cherish this autumn appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Tokyo

“Tokyo is essential for immersion into the restaurant and culinary scene,” says Caryn Ng, who has been to Japan 14 times and written books about its food culture, including A Day in Tokyo. Isetan department store’s food hall is a compulsory visit: its Shinjuku flagship offers everything from sushi to exquisite Japanese sweets. Another essential Tokyo activity? Slurping ramen. “I’ve had some truly good ones in nondescript ramen shops, but the finesse of Ginza Hachigou lingers in my mind.”

Koichi Minamishima, sushi master behind Melbourne’s Minamishima restaurant, recommends the Kichijoji neighbourhood for ramen and “other places that still retain their traditional atmosphere”. Nearby is his favourite sushi restaurant, Sushi Marufuku.

Yu Ozone runs Sydney’s Comeco Foods, a vegan and gluten-free café shaped by her allergies. Travelling through Japan with dietary restrictions is tricky: many Japanese staples, from tempura batter to soy sauce, contain gluten. But for anyone dodging wheat, Tokyo “tends to offer more variety” than other cities. She’s created an Instagram account, @japanglutenfreeguide and her Tokyo picks include Esoragoto Udon, “a cosy spot that offers delicious gluten-free udon made from rice flour … paired beautifully with their dashi broth”.

Tokyo is also famous for its cocktail scene. Jac Landmark from Perth’s Bar Love interned at Bar High Five in 2023 and spent off-duty hours at “incredible” venues recognised by The World’s 50 Best Bars list (The SG Club, The Bellwood), but the “most memorable” joints were random places they stumbled by, like Champion Bar. So what’s their number one spot? Their old workplace. “I miss Bar High Five with all my heart, I’d fly there right now if I could. [Owner] Ueno Hidetsugu is a master of his craft,” they say. “Other bars I’d love to go back and see are Tokyo Confidential and Bar Benfiddich.”

Former Tokyo resident Kantaro Okada prefers bar-hopping within one neighbourhood. “I go to Sangenjaya. There’s an area called Sankaku Chitai,” he says. Here, he sips sake and orders grilled fish and snacks from small bars just footsteps apart. Given his involvement in many Melbourne cafés (279, Le Bajo Milkbar) and his Coffee Weekend festival, caffeine also fuels his Tokyo visits. He’s a fan of Leaves Coffee (the roaster is part of “The Avengers of the coffee community in Japan” he’s bringing out for his festival) and also enjoys Koffee Mameya.

Dan Yee from Sydney’s Artificer Coffee has visited Japan “more than 15 times” and recalls his unforgettable experience at Café de L’Ambre, which was opened in 1948 by the late Ichiro Sekiguchi. It was, he says, “a privilege to be served by Sekiguchi-san, close to 100 years old at the time.” Sekiguchi lived to 104 (reportedly roasting coffee until his final days) and has been succeeded by nephew Fujihiko Hayashi.

Yee’s first coffee stop in Tokyo is usually Switch Coffee, run by friend Masahiro Onishi. “Find Masa and he’ll tell you where to eat and drink,” he says. “I’ve probably drunk more wine than coffee at his roastery, to be honest.” For a good pour, try Un Jour, “a place I go to every trip,” Yee says. One birthday visit lasted eight hours. Owner Ryotaro Miyauchi has even let Yee raid his wine stash several times.

Osaka

Known as Japan’s Kitchen, this city is famous for specialties like okonomiyaki. Yee believes these savoury cabbage pancakes are particularly good with natural wines at Pasania. This establishment is run by siblings Yoshio and Chie Nakagawa, third-generation owners of the restaurant. Another essential stop? Bar UK. “It was an absolute highlight of my trip,” says Landmark. Charismatic owner Eiji Arakawa is a 70-year-old cocktail historian who opened the bar to share his whisky collection with everyone. “He’s so friendly, takes selfies with every customer he hits it off with and will passionately talk about his collection – or his cats,” they say.

Kyoto

“There’s an ethereal beauty to Kyoto and a focus on tradition that fills my soul,” says Ng, who always makes a beeline for the local tempura, made with Kyoyasai – heirloom Kyoto vegetables. The city also has a long history of Buddhist vegetarian food: this temple cuisine even influenced the pop-ups that acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant Noma ran in Japan. “Kyoto has a more refined and creative vegan scene [than other parts of Japan],” says Ozone. It’s not just rarefied temple tasting menus, either. She’s a fan of Uno Yukiko Ramen and its “wonderful” vegan and gluten-free bowls. Also worth seeking out? Kyoto’s shrines. “I got very lucky when visiting Senbon Torii around sunset and had practically no one else there,” says Landmark. “The view of the sunset over the city was something I’ll always remember.”

Nagano

Emiko Davies, author of Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking, keeps returning to Chino in Nagano. “While Nagano is known for its mountains and snowfields, Chino is just a simple little village,” she says. “That’s exactly why I love it.” She learnt to make tofu in one of its shops and has met many food artisans while researching her cookbook, The Japanese Pantry. One local producer even creates pine needle and birch tea from forestry industry offcuts. “Every person I talked to spoke of Nagano’s landscape as being vital to what they do.” Ng is also taken by the area. “Nagano and her surrounding small towns have my heart,” she says.

Shodoshima

This island has been producing soy sauce for four centuries, and Davies planned her recent trip around one producer: Yamaroku. “Here, Yasuo Yamamoto, a fifth-generation soy sauce brewer, makes barrel-aged soy sauce (kioke shoyu). He uses cedar barrels that are over 150 years old,” she says. “We got to see these barrels and then taste the aged soy sauce, which was served with mochi that we grilled ourselves.” Meanwhile, ice-cream flavoured with the condiment was, Davies reports, delicious.

Nagoya

Locals in Nagoya famously voted their town as “Japan’s most boring city”. Granted, it doesn’t share Tokyo or Kyoto’s international cachet, but Nagoya’s food culture is incredible. Many dishes are intensely flavoured with red miso and local specialties include hitsumabushi, where eel is served four ways, with diners customising the last serving.

Minamishima started his career here and is fond of the traditional shotengai (arcades) in Osu. “[There are] lots of small, local soul-food restaurants, some long-established, and some more recent,” he says. Nagoya inspires nostalgic cravings for local dishes, such as miso katsu (deep-fried pork cutlets with miso sauce) – for this, he goes to Yabaton. Then there’s 140-year-old Atsuta Houraiken. “This is a very famous grilled eel restaurant close to the Osu area, serving hitsumabushi.” Next on his Nagoya wish list? Michelin-starred restaurant Sushi Shunbi Nishikawa.

Shizuoka

For hot springs, there’s the onsen town of Atami. “It’s a tourist destination among Japanese, but lesser-known among Aussies,” says Fuminori Bun Fukuda, who runs Sydney’s Cafe Monaka and Menya Monaka. “There’s heaps of great seafood here as this whole section of Shizuoka (Atami down to Shimoda) is a fisherman’s coastline. This coastline is my home.” Fukuda’s actual home town is Ito, where you’ll find Ramen Izan. “This is my friend’s ramen place where the entire ramen recipe we have at Menya Monaka is replicated from,” he says. Also worth trying is Ramen Young – it’s why Okada went to Shizuoka for the first time. “There’s this image of how ramen shops should be. But at Young, it’s very casual and modern,” he says. This noodle joint sells clothing, hosts gigs and is known for its bright lemon-spiked ramen. “The location is amazing.”

Fukuoka

“Fukuoka City has everything – great food, art, fashion, historical sightseeing spots,” says Saori Tsuya from Kazuki’s restaurant in Melbourne. There’s Dazaifu Tenmangu, which has been a “shrine of learning, culture and the arts for more than a millennium. I went there a few times as a child.” Pick up an amulet for luck or sample the umegae mochi (red-bean rice cakes). Beyond the city, take a traditional cruise down Yanagawa River. The area is known for restaurants specialising in unagi (eels). “I still want to try Motoyoshiya’s unagi with their 300-year-old tare [sauce],” she says.

Tsuya is from Yame, outside Fukuoka City. “It’s famous for high-quality green tea,” she says. Try long-established sellers (like Konomien) or venture into the mountains to visit Chiyonoen, an organic family-run farm. “I love that I can see the people who actually grow the tea.”

The post The best places to visit in Japan according to chefs and food experts appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Sydney-born Abé (who started his culinary career at Aria and was most recently chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay) is sharing menus at Bonheur that nod to his roots. Carefully detailed dishes include Isle of Skye scallop with carrot, clementine and yuzu kosho; 125-day dry-aged English sirloin with potato terrine, smoked marrow and sauce Bordelaise; and a signature dessert with layers of pecan, coffee and vanilla parfait with cocoa nib ice cream and Pedro Ximénez gel.

As well as an up-close chef’s table experience for six, the venue comprises an underground dining room adorned with works by London-based artist Rajan Seth and warm, textural details like leather, velvet and horsehair wallpaper. Michelin inspectors loved the venue’s spacious redesign, technical prowess on show on the menu and Art Deco-inspired cocktail bar.

Back before Bonheur was awarded its stellar achievement, we spoke to Abé about what it takes to run a top restaurant in London, and the differences between elite dining scenes in Australia and England.

How are you feeling, since opening Bonheur in November?
It’s been very full on but extremely rewarding. I’m very proud of how the team has come together, given the fact we have a very new team.

Your career began at Aria in Sydney under Matt Moran, and by 22 you were at London’s Claridge’s, being mentored by Gordon Ramsay. He’s now your business partner in Bonheur. How do your leadership styles compare?
I’m not saying I’m similar to Gordon, but I definitely think I’m firm, but fair. I’ve got that Australian element in me, in that I love a laugh and a joke, but at the same time I’m very disciplined.

What are the main culinary differences you’ve noticed, playing in the British big leagues?
What I’ve seen more and more over the years in the UK is a higher influence of cuisines from all the other parts of the world. Growing up in Australia, it’s a very multicultural society with quite a heavy Asian influence. The Asian influence has taken a bit longer to make its way across to Europe. For a long time British food got a bad rap in Australia – soggy meat and three veg etc. What’s your perspective? I remember everyone always joked about the meat not being very good – that it was always a bit bluey-green. Having come over here, it’s a lot more advanced than people think.

But we all know Australia’s the best, right?
Australia has so many different climates within a country that can produce so many different fruits, vegetables, breeds of meat, amazing seafood. It’s different here, [but] I’ll tell you now, the scallops in Australia come nowhere near the scallops we get off the coast of Scotland. Scottish shellfish is second to none. There are fish that are unique to these waters. And the grass-fed meat that we get here, which I use in the restaurant, from those beautiful green pastures, is some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten in my life.

By the time this is published, you’ll know if Bonheur has been awarded a Michelin star. That must be stressful.
When you win certain accolades it gives you an understanding of where you are at within the industry, and it gives the guests an understanding, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind. We’re just doing what we’re doing.

The post Australian chef Matt Abé’s new London restaurant Bonheur has been awarded two Michelin stars appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

We scoured Tasting Australia’s 2026 program of over 150 events, and these are our picks.

Food events

Hitting Australia for the first time, Sweden-based chef collective Punk Royale will host an unforgettable takeover of Hindley Street venue 99 Gang Social, serving up 20 courses of “culinary chaos” in a high-energy, no-fuss setting (Friday 15 May, $649), and then wrapping up Tasting Australia for 2026 with a closing party in Town Square offering six food stations and paired drinks (Sunday 17 May, $185). New in 2026, the Club Series will see top chefs pop up at Adelaide’s cultural clubs, with the likes of Ozge Kalvo, Jason Roberts and Callum Hann at the Hellenic Club (Saturday 16 May, $110) or Tom Campbell, Denny Braden and Daniel Puskas at the Slovenian Club (Friday 8 May, $110).

“It’s a five-part series where we’re highlighting incredible places that are full of soul,” said Pollard. “We’re working with the communities there — the chefs, the cooks, the nonnas — but also adding a layer of chef talent to interpret the club in their own way.” 

Out of town, one-off dining experiences include an underground tour, tasting and shared lunch at Saltram Wines in the Barossa (various dates, $99), a celebration of Limestone Coast seafood at Port MacDonnell’s heritage-listed Customs House (Sunday 17 May, $185) and a fire-cooked feast by local chefs Jake Kellie (Arkhe) and Sam Christopher (2KW) at the McLaren Vale Hotel (Friday 8 May, $150). See more of Tasting Australia’s food events.

Drinks events

Covering South Australian and international winemakers and distillers, the 2026 drinks program is packed with the Drinks Academy offering deep insight into iconic Australian makers like House of Arras and Grosset, Aperitivo Hour sessions hosted by top venues like Melbourne’s O.My or Sydney’s Corner 75, and Matchmakers sessions with speed dating-style tastings.

The 2025 World’s 50 Best Bars winner Bar Leone (Hong Kong) will pop up at new Adelaide bar Honeydripper for a night of Roman-inspired cocktail tastings in collaboration with local favourites Never Never Distillery Co and Bizzarro (Saturday 9 May, $120), and there’s an Urban Wine Walk (Saturday 16 May, $82) through the West End.

Known for his no-nonsense online wine descriptions, sommelier and winemaker André Hueston Mack (The French Laundry, Per Se) will host multiple tastings including a deep dive into the world of American wine (Saturday 9 May, $95) and a comparative tasting of 10 varieties from South Australian and international makers (Friday 8 May, $100). The final Saturday night will see Big Grape Energy (16 May, $95) take over Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga with wine and beer tastings and dance floor energy. See the full lineup of drinks events.

Train, plane and road journeys

A culinary journey unlike any other in Australia, Tasting Australia by Train: The Ghan will see guests depart Darwin for Adelaide on a four-day endless feast on the iconic rail route (6-9 May, $7,395pp). Unforgettable experiences on the itinerary include dinner prepared by Michelin-starred Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho and Mark Best by a creek bed in Simpsons Gap, an onboard Bollinger masterclass while winding through the outback, and lunch by Jo Barrett and Shannon Fleming in Coober Pedy.

“Our most memorable experiences often combine travel, culinary experiences in places and together in unexpected ways. The 2026 festival program reflects these moments and reminds us that life is best experienced with curiosity, indulgence and a spirit of adventure,” said Justine Lally, executive general manager marketing at festival partner Journey Beyond.

The one-day itinerary of Tasting Australia Airlines (Saturday 16 May, $1245) includes a flight from Adelaide to Port Lincoln, a visit aboard a historic tuna vessel for ocean-fresh sashimi and Teakle Wines tasting, lunch at the Coffin Bay Yacht Club prepared by Ben Devlin (Pipit) and Jimmy Toone (Fall From Grace), and a visit to Yarnbala for snacks by Mindy Woods with paired drinks.

Tasting Australia by Road day trips (all $450) cover key regions near Adelaide: the Adelaide Hills (Saturday 16 May), Barossa Valley (Saturday 9 May), Fleurieu Peninsula (Sunday 17 May) and McLaren Vale (Friday 8 May). All transport is included, plus snacks, a substantial lunch and paired drinks.

“We’re focusing on taking guests into spaces that they wouldn’t normally be able to access. For instance, we’ll be doing barrel tastings at Ochota Barrels, and then walking up the very steep pinot noir hill for a drink up there,” said Pollard of his Adelaide Hills event with Amber Ochota.

Town Square and Good Neighbour

As always, Town Square will be a free-to-enter and family-friendly space in Adelaide’s Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga, with pop-up food and drinks, Masterclass tasting sessions from $50, and plenty of opportunities to learn about wine, beer and more. Presented by Mitolo Family Farms, Good Neighbour is the festival’s ever-changing take on a local wine bar hosting top talent for one-off events, taking over one end of Town Square.

“At Good Neighbour, connection — which is a huge part of the festival — comes in to play in the form of having the kitchen and the bar within the same dining structure as the guests, so they get to feel the energy of the space, and get that up-close access to talent,” said Pollard. As such, Good Neighbour will host the likes of Cheong Liew OAM with Jason Roberts (Friday 15 May, $150), Lee Ho Fook’s Victor Liong with Trinh Richards from the Fleurieu Peninsula’s The Little Rickshaw (Saturday 16 May, $150) and even a Mother’s Day lunch by Simone Watts (Barragunda Dining), Quang Nguyen (Ong, Noi, Shmochi) and Alexis Besseau (La Louisiane) on Sunday 10 May ($150).

See the full Tasting Australia presented by Journey Beyond program for 2026 and get tickets online now.

The post Tasting Australia’s 2026 program has a luxury train trip, wild Swedish pop-up and top chef collaborations appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

While pad Thai, green curry and tom yum soup remain perennial favourites, Australian diners are increasingly adventurous. Seeking out regional Thai specialties that showcase the country’s diverse culinary landscape. Here are five trending Thai dishes to try in 2026. Plus where to find the most authentic expressions at Thai SELECT-certified restaurants across Australia.

Five trending Thai dishes

1. Kuay teow ruea (Thai boat noodles)

Born on Bangkok’s historic canals, boat noodles pack intense flavour into compact bowls. The deeply savoury broth combines slow-cooked pork or beef stock with pork or beef blood for velvety richness, aromatic spices and fermented sauces. Served with your choice of rice noodles and fresh herbs, these bite-sized portions were designed for vendors’ floating kitchens. The result is abold dish that invites you back for multiple servings.

2. Pad kaprao (holy basil stir-fry)

Thailand’s ultimate comfort food dish, pad kaprao features minced meat stir-fried with fiery birdseye chillies, garlic and pungent holy basil leaves. Traditionally topped with a crispy fried egg, this beloved dish balances savoury, spicy and aromatic flavours over jasmine rice. Pad kaprao is a staple from street stalls to upscale restaurants, offering different spice levels and protein choices from pork to seafood.

3. Gai tod Hat Yai (Thai fried chicken)

This southern Thai specialty showcases the region’s Muslim culinary heritage through its aromatic spice blend of cumin, coriander, turmeric and white pepper. Deep-fried until golden and crackling, the chicken is crowned with crispy fried shallots and traditionally served with sticky rice. What began in street stalls in the regional city of Hat Yai has become a national comfort food, offering a more complex, aromatic alternative to standard fried chicken.

4. Khao soi (Northern Thai curry noodles)

This Northern Thai specialty layers soft egg noodles in a rich coconut curry broth. It’s topped with crispy fried noodles for textural contrast. Typically served with chicken or beef, khao soi delivers the quintessential Thai balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy. All enhanced by pickled mustard greens, shallots and lime. This Northern Region icon offers depth and complexity that rivals Malaysia’s laksa.

5. Pad kee mao (drunken noodles)

Despite containing no alcohol, drunken noodles earn their name as the ultimate hangover remedy. Wide rice noodles are wok-tossed with generous fresh chillies, Thai holy basil, and your choice of protein in a sauce balancing soy, fish sauce and sweetness. It delivers immediate heat tempered by fragrant herbs and vegetables, creating the bold, dynamic flavours that define Thai street food culture.

Finding authentic Thai flavours in Australia

Australia boasts an impressive array of Thai restaurants, with high-quality Thai cuisine available across major cities and regional areas. However, identifying truly authentic Thai dishes can be challenging. To guide diners toward genuine Thai flavours, Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce established the Thai SELECT certification program. This official mark of authenticity recognises Thai restaurants worldwide across multiple tiers – from Thai SELECT Casual to one, two and three-star ratings – based on cuisine authenticity, ambiance, service excellence and adherence to traditional Thai cooking methods. Look for the Thai Select seal to ensure you’re experiencing Thailand’s diverse regional cuisines as they’re meant to be enjoyed.

The post Beyond pad Thai: 5 trending Thai dishes to try appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

The rise of inclusive intimacy 

Call it inclusive intimacy – creating events and spaces that feel both rarefied and welcoming. Unlike traditional exclusivity, which hinges on who’s kept out, this new mindset values who’s brought in. It’s modern luxury, redefined not by scarcity, but by the richness of connection. Venues, too, are pivoting in their approach. They no longer simply accommodate guests; they help hosts curate moments where every person feels essential to the evening. 

A new standard for harbour-side entertaining 

Pyrmont’s newest harbourfront private event space, Suite Two, reflects this shift. Elevated above the water in one of the city’s most energetic precincts, it’s built around a thoughtful premise: create a canvas sophisticated enough for considered entertaining, yet adaptable enough to shape itself to the occasion. 

The architecture speaks to this duality. Layered interiors meet custom lighting and floor-to-ceiling harbour views. The flexible floor plan moves effortlessly from intimate seated dinners to party-style cocktail gatherings. It’s the kind of event space that doesn’t dictate a mood but responds to your occasion — whether that’s a long lunch washed in natural light or an evening soirée framed by the glittering skyline. 

Styled, but make it versatile 

What sets Suite Two apart is its ability to be more than just one thing. For brands, it serves as polished stage for launches and showcases. For private celebrations, it’s softened into something warmer such as a refined dining room where head chef Danny Russo’s tailored menus and Sala’s attentive service add their own dimension of luxe. 

This versatility matters. Today we want spaces that feel special without feeling formal; impressive but not intimidating. We want hosts who understand that true luxury isn’t about excess, it’s about precision, care and the confidence to let a moment breathe. 

The new blueprint of hosting well 

As party season approaches, the blueprint of hosting well has shifted. The question isn’t how many people can fill a room, but how meaningfully you can bring them together. The answer lies in design that supports the moment, service that anticipates without intruding, and an understanding that the most memorable events feel effortless, even when they’re carefully orchestrated. 

The post  The rise of the private party appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Christmastime is chaotic as it is – and that’s before we’ve factored in our culinary efforts – so to save you the time this year, we’ve curated a list of the best restaurants to dine at on Christmas Day in 2025.   

Outsource the festive stress and treat yourselves to a Christmas feast prepared by someone else’s hands.  

Of course, many of the hospitality hotspots are closed over the holiday period, so we’ve done our due diligence to pull together a wrap of the top restaurants open on Christmas Day in Australia.  

From harbourside Sydney restaurants to charming brasseries in Brisbane and regional dining rooms in Melbourne, these restaurants across Australia offer celebratory banquets for all palates.  

Remember, restaurant bookings tend to go quickly this time of year, so it’s best to secure a table for you and your loved ones as soon as possible. 

Without further ado, here are the top restaurants open on Christmas Day in 2025.  

What’s open Christmas Day in Sydney

Infinity by Mark Best

CBD

Celebrate Christmas above the city this year with an indulgent four-course lunch or dinner by star chef, Mark Best. This might look like his signature sea urchin crumpets and a Yamba prawn cocktail, among other dishes. Enjoy a sparkling welcome drink while you take in the sights, and a festive gift to take home. 

Price: From $300 per person or $95 per child.  

Book now  

---

Bennelong

CIRCULAR QUAY

In the way of divine dining rooms and restaurant firsts, Bennelong in Sydney’s picturesque Circular Quay is welcoming guests to a special Christmas Day lunch service. Enjoy Champagne and an amuse-bouche on arrival before settling into a festive three-course feast crafted by celebrated chef Peter Gilmore and head chef, Rob Cockerill.  

Price: From $545 per person or $150 per child. 

Book now 

---

Quay

Circular Quay

Skip the stress of Christmas and nab one of the best seats in the house with a long lunch at one of Sydney’s most esteemed restaurants. Get greeted with Champagne on arrival and sit down to a luxurious five-course menu.

Price: $550 per person. 

Book now

---

Ammos 

BRIGHTON-LE-SANDS 

To say that Greek cuisine is having a resurgence in Australia is an understatement. Outsource the cooking and cleaning this Christmas and capitalise on the momentum with a Mediterranean-inspired set menu. Led by chef Peter Conistis, the menu features Ammos favourites, including lamb shoulder, slow-roasted pork loin and a Christmas-pudding inspired baklava.

Price: $275 per person or $100 per child. 

Book now  

Delta Rue  

CBD 

Situated in the heart of the city, this Vietnamese-French restaurant inside the Sofitel Wentworth is offering a leisurely lunch replete with seafood, cheese, Christmas terrine and plenty of festive proteins. Will it be the rolled turkey breast with cranberry sauce, or glazed rum ham for you? Or perhaps porchetta and slow-cooked lamb shoulder is your flavour of the day. Whatever your tastes, Delta Rue caters to it.  

Price: $249 per person or $99 per child. Includes a three-hour beverage package.  

Book now  

---

Flaminia  

CIRCULAR QUAY

Another handsome harbourside venue, Sydney’s Italian newcomer from lauded restaurateurs Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini will open its doors on Christmas Day to a four-course festive menu — with an Italian twist.

Price: $350 per person or $200 per child.    

Book now  

---

Cafe Sydney

Circular Quay

Looking for lunch with a view? Enjoy a five-course Christmas lunch featuring summer produce by executive chef, Sarahjane Brown. Think oysters, seafood, refined Christmas favourites and classic desserts from one of Sydney’s most recognised terraces.  

Prices: $345 per person or $105 per child.  

Book now  

---

Lee Ho Fook

CBD   

The popular Melbourne restaurant, which recently expanded to the Porter House precinct in Sydney, is reimagining tradition with a modern Cantonese twist this Christmas. Chef Victor Liong has curated a shared feast full of Lee Ho Fook’s signature elegance. Expect XO pippies and prawn noodles which you can upgrade to Southern Rock Lobster for an additional $88 per person.  

Price: $195 per person or $50 per child. 

Book now

What’s open Christmas Day in Melbourne

Reine & La Rue  

CBD

Located in the original stock exchange of Melbourne, the heritage-listed Hogwarts-esque dining room at Reine is enough to bring the festive cheer. And for the first time, it’s opening its doors on Christmas Day to celebrate French festive traditions. An exclusive one-day-only menu has been designed to mark the occasion, featuring dishes such as white truffle and Comté choux, alongside roasted scallop with Kaluga caviar beurre blanc and honey- glazed Loddon Estate duck.  

Price: $395 per person or $250 per child under 12.  

Book now 

---

ARU

CBD

At this modern Southeast Asian restaurant on Little Collins Street, Christmas lunch looks a little different. Expect seasonal plates with a distinctly Asian twist, from Asian fruits de mer platters, to crispy pork belly and wood-roasted pork scotch glazed with hoisin and five spice.   

Price: $295 per person  

Book now  

---

Chancery Lane  

CBD  

Housed in the historic Normanby Chambers building on Little Collins Street, Chancery Lane is the perfect setting for a moody, cosy lunch. Kick off the festivities with a glass of Champagne and savour European-inspired festive fare.  

Price: $185 per person or $65 per child under 12. $100 per person deposit required per seat to be deducted from final bill.  

Book now 

---

The Dining Room

RED HILL

Escape culinary duties and the buzz of Melbourne this Christmas with a rendezvous to Red Hill in Victoria. Slow down with a glass of Taittinger and sit down to a five-course menu by executive chef, Nick McGonigal – or share a relaxed three-course long-table lunch.  

Price: Long-table lunch for $250 per person or $100 per child; dining room $350 per person.  

Book now  

What’s open Christmas Day in Brisbane

The Brasserie at Naldham House  

CBD

The Brasserie at the stately Naldham House is serving up a three-course, Euro-leaning Christmas feast featuring Brasserie classics that will save you the clean up this festive season. Seatings are 11am, 11.15am, 11.30am and 11.45am.

Price: $250 per person.   

Book now 

---

Donna Chang

CBD

Donna Chang is breaking tradition this Christmas, offering indulgent Cantonese food bound to impress even the fussiest relative. The two-and-a-half hour, four-course banquet includes beverages and dishes such as steamed coral trout with ginger and shallot, steamed lobster bao buns and crispy quail with Sichuan spice.  

Price: $288 per person or $99 per child. Gluten-free, vegan, pescatarian and no seafood options available.  

Book now  

---

Decided to stay at home? Check out our best Christmas recipes, Christmas salads and festive Christmas dessert recipes.

The post Best restaurants open on Christmas Day 2025 around Australia appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

As its name suggests, a good konbini is convenient and accessible: a one-stop shop providing essential goods and services ranging from document printing to luggage-forwarding. Food and drink, naturally, are key offerings, especially once 24-hour trading started in 1975. This move was a game-changer, not just for locals who could buy snacks, groceries and alcohol around the clock, but also for tourists.

“Konbini are great during those first few days of a trip when you’re jet-lagged,” says Australian-Japanese author, Emiko Davies. “You can always find one, no matter what time of day or night.”

In 2024, an estimated 37 million visitors hit Japan. Two such visitors were Caryn Ng and Brendan Liew, the duo behind Melbourne Japanese cafe and pop-up Chotto and authors of Konbini (Smith Street Books, $50): a paean to convenience store culture told through stories, photography and recipes for konbini favourites.

“We’ve always wanted to do something on konbini because they’re such a big part of Japanese life,” says Liew who works at Warabi at W Melbourne. Their previous book, Tokyo Up Late included a single chapter on konbini, “but we felt that it could have been so much more and even encompass a whole book.”

Although every part of Japan has local konbini brands, three names dominate the market with Lawson (the American group opened in 1975 in Osaka), hometown hero FamilyMart (1973) and 7-Eleven collectively operating 50,000 of the country’s konbini. The cause and effect of this dominance is the development of complex integrated logistics, production and data analysis systems that keep konbini shelves and fridges stocked with the right products at the right time of day.

Whereas a sausage roll might languish all day in an Aussie servo’s pie warmer, Tokyo salarymen and career women lunch on vibrant salads and bento boxes made fresh at dedicated kitchen facilities and delivered fast. (Ever wondered why Japanese 7-Eleven workers are perpetually reloading stock?) The konbini has, subsequently, landed some unexpected gigs.

“We often eat breakfast at convenience stores because nothing in Japan opens before 10am,” says former Tokyo resident Adam Liaw. “As someone who’s frequently travelling to Japan with three children, konbini are incredibly convenient.

See also the Liaw family’s regular trips to the konbini for dessert. (The MasterChef alum has a soft spot for purin, Japan’s take on the crème caramel.)

Sophie Pope and Lachlan Colwill of Hobart’s Omotenashi share Liaw’s enthusiasm for convenience store sweets. Not even the most elaborate of kaiseki meals will deter the couple from post-dinner FamilyMart ice-creams.

“We slow-walk to the konbini giggling because we both know what’s on our mind,” admits Colwill. Yet for most eaters, it’s the mealtimes – and snack times – between brekky and supper when the konbini really shines. Fried chicken fans, especially, have much to crow about. Launched in 2006, FamilyMart’s boneless famichiki is widely hailed as the konbini fried chicken to beat, although 7-Eleven’s nanachiki and Lawson’s kaarage-kun have their admirers, including Japan’s space agency JAXA that serves a freeze-dried version of the latter to astronauts in space.

When it comes to sandwiches, however, the sandos at 7-Eleven loom large. While the katsu example might have fuelled Australia’s love of Japanese sandwiches and pillowy shokupan milk bread, egg salad is the genre’s current darling. Or at least to Dan Hong, anyway.

“An egg sando is the first thing I get when I hit Japan,” says Hong. “I literally have one every day.”

Feeling frisky? Hong suggests hacking your own crossbred konbini sanger by stuffing Lawson’s kaarage into a 7-Eleven egg sando. Similarly, Black Market Sake’s Matt Young remembers a tasting tour where vagabond chef Analiese Gregory made katsu sandwiches in the minibus using ingredients “foraged” during konbini pit stops.

The one konbini snack to rule them all, however, is onigiri: nori-wrapped rice balls. Fitting, as the introduction of onigiri to konbini in the late ’70s helped reposition the convenience store as “Japanese” rather than an imported western curio. Partial credit for this makeover goes to the 1978 invention of the ingenious, three-tear onigiri wrapper.

Both impressively and unsurprisingly, even convenience stores adhere to Japanese cuisine’s twin north stars of local and seasonal. Konbini food isn’t just governed by weather – simmered oden dishes appear over winter while seasonal fruit sandwiches star during summer – but also key holidays. In late January, you can marvel at the opulent ehomaki (oversized “lucky” sushi rolls eaten during Setsubun in February) being spruiked for pre-orders by Big Konbini. Look out too for meibutsu (regional specialties) as you move around Japan. These treasures range from local pickles to limited-edition sake and whisky – Mars Distillery’s Shinshu blend, say – that are only available in each producer’s home prefecture.

While the konbini is synonymous with modern-day Japan, it also holds sentimental value to Japanese nationals and long-time visitors. Before he was one of Australia’s pre-eminent sushi chefs, Toshihiko Oe of Sydney’s Sushi Oe worked part-time at 7-Eleven in the late ’80s. His hourly wage was 470 yen (around $5): enough, at the time, to buy a couple of sandwiches.

While attending high school in Kurashiki, Daisuke Hiramatsu of Perth’s Ginza Nana Alley made multiple visits to the konbini daily to gossip with buddies while snacking on pizza-man, yakisoba-pan and other steamed buns. During her first visit to Japan, Julia Busuttil Nishimura was tasked with biting into every onigiri that her vegetarian and pescatarian friends bought at the konbini to ensure that they were meat-free.

Contributions to Japanese life aside, the konbini is also something of a cultural ambassador abroad. Where Japanese konbini brands have gone in Asia, the onigiri has followed, albeit reengineered using localised, not-especially Japanese fillings. Think chicken rice (FamilyMart Taiwan) and creamed cheese with smoked ham (7-Eleven Singapore). Locally, the rise of konbini-inspired venues – not to mention listening bars and kissa-style cafés – suggests Australia is still crushing hard on Nipponese food culture.

As for the future of konbini, reinvention will continue to be part of the story. FamilyMart recently appointed streetwear pioneer Nigo of Bathing Ape and Kenzo fame as its new creative director. While Lawson’s partnership with Muji means shoppers can snag the retailer’s popular homewares at the same time as stocking up on snacks.

Yet for all this growth, the steady march of the convenience store hasn’t come at the cost of conscience. Staffing stores with remotely controlled “avatars” is providing employment opportunities for previously disenfranchised social groups while konbini’s big three continue to service and expand into remote areas of Japan. Most notable, however, was the way konbini responded during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Covid pandemic by providing hot meals and disaster aid: proof, surely, that traditional Japanese values remain important.

“Rather than a replacement for all that has been lost, konbinis are places that keep communities running,” writes Caryn Ng in Konbini.

For Lilly Trewartha of Hobart’s roving Izakaya Temporary pop-up, the konbini embodies many of the things that she loves about the country. “The konbini is more than just grab and go,” says Trewartha. “It’s everyday luxury. It’s thoughtful, efficient and always delicious, and an absolute must when visiting Japan.”

The post At your convenience: the past, present and potential of Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores. appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

These are the top events and experiences to make the most of this spring:

Sips + Snacks / Sips & Sticks

Every Monday – Saturday, 4–6pm

The Wine Bar at The International has refreshed its Sips & Snacks offering to include light and fresh bites, from scallop crudo with pink grapefruit to pan con tomate with anchovy. This spring, you can also head up to the rooftop Panorama Bar for Sips & Sticks – think $15 Margaritas and wagyu skewers grilled over charcoal. 

internationalsydney.com

Man Ray and Max Dupain exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art

6 August – 9 November

Victoria’s Heide Museum of Modern Art is bringing a landmark exhibition featuring the controversial photographs of American-born artist Man Ray and famed Australian photographer Max Dupain. It’s the first Australian exhibition to consider the two influential modern photographers’ works side by side, with the 200-plus photographs on display exploring the artists’ relationships with surrealism and experimentation.

Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased via the Heide Museum of Modern Art website.

Arbory Afloat: Olá Rio

29 August – late November

Afloat returns for its 10th season on the Yarra River this spring, with the floating venue taking a leaf out of Rio de Janeiro’s book. The entire space will be transformed with the Carioca spirit in mind, from the interiors and design to the food and drinks menu and the lively entertainment line-up. Expect snacky bites reminiscent of what you’d find beachside in Brazil, alongside fruity cocktails and samba-shaking fun.

Check out the full program at afloat.melbourne

Sunday Arvos Chef Series at Ace Hotel Sydney  

5 October – 8 February  

Swing by Ace Hotel Sydney’s laneway café, Good Chemistry, on the first Sunday of the month and you’ll find the space taken over by chef Isobel Whelan-Little and an impressive line-up of her friends, including Luke Powell (L.P’s Quality Meats), Jean-Paul El Tom (Baba’s Place) and Drew Huston (Pizza Oltra). Gear up for afternoons filled with pizza, snacks and tunes courtesy of DJs Levins and Charlie Chux.  

Free entry with RSVP from 3–7pm, with menu items available for purchase on the day. More info via the Ace Hotel Sydney website. 

Med Beats & Mezze at Baraki Bar

Friday – Sunday, October – December

Greek newcomer Akti is turning up the heat this summer with live DJ sets and a sun-drenched mezze menu made for lounging by the water. Expect oysters with ouzo mignonette, moussaka croquettes and fresh kingfish crudo with finger lime. Cap it all off with a pistachio and honey baklava served with yoghurt sorbet for a sweet finish.

Baraki Bar is walk-in only, so make sure to arrive at 6pm Friday and Saturday, and by 2pm on Sunday to avoid missing out.

Tippling Club’s residency at Canopy  

19 Nov – 22 Nov; 26 Nov – 29 Nov  

In an Australian first, award-winning Singapore restaurant Tippling Club will take up a fortnight-long residency at Adelaide’s Canopy Bar. Consistently ranked in Asia’s Top 50 Restaurants, the residency will offer a retrospective of Tippling’s signature dishes. In true Tippling style, guests can also enjoy a late-night menu paired with a curated edit of Tippling’s most iconic cocktails.  

Tickets for the private dining room cost $350 per person while the Tippling Club Snack dégustation tickets cost $80 per person. Both can be reserved via the Canopy Bar website.  

A priceless evening with Chae and Lennox Hastie

In a one-off for Mastercard cardholders, Victoria-based Jung Eun Chae from famed restaurant, Chae joined forces with fire master Lennox Hastie for a one-night-only evening at Firedoor. Guests were treated to a priceless five-course feast where the flavours of the hanok table and Korean barbecue traditions met Firedoor’s signature elemental cooking.

For more Priceless experiences, such as access to a tennis legend at the Australian Open followed by a premium omakase dinner in the Rod Laver Arena, visit priceless.com.

Pair’d Food & Wine Festival

20 – 23 November

A food and wine festival celebrating Margaret River’s finest wines, flavours and music will take over the region from 20–23 November. Get exclusive access to events set across some of Western Australia’s most breathtaking locations.

Check out the full program at their website.

The House of Suntory x Hiroshi Senju Collaboration

The House of Suntory has unveiled a collaboration between its iconic blended Japanese Whisky, Hibiki, and celebrated Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju. Hibiki 21 Years Old offers an elegant roundness harmonised with the deep complexity of honeycomb, sandalwood, and dried apricot, all complemented by the subtle complexity of Mizunara oak. The finish is long and graceful, tenderly unfolding with a delicate incense-like aroma.

Hibiki 21 Years Old Artist Collaboration with Hiroshi Senju is available to purchase at at Kent Street Cellars and retails for $1800

Coming up: What’s on in 2026

An Evening with Yotam Ottolenghi

9 February – 21 February 2026

London-based chef, author and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi is coming to Australia in 2026 for a series of live events sharing conversation, cooking and culture. He’ll share top picks of his signature interpretation of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, kitchen secrets he’s picked up from studying at Le Cordon Bleu and beyond, and stories of his travels across cultures and continents. Starting in Perth, Ottolenghi will visit Adelaide, Canberra, Bendigo, Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle, before a final appearance in Auckland on 21 February.

See tour dates and buy tickets online.

The post What’s on this spring: Top events and experiences happening around Australia appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

The evening showcased the creative prowess of the nation’s top chefs, with collaborative dishes that pushed culinary boundaries. Ben Williamson partnered with Paul Farag on an innovative main course, while Blaze Young crafted exceptional snacks that delighted guests. However, it was chef Lauren Eldridge (Paisano and Daughters) who presented a decadent pork fat crème caramel ‘with crunchy’ bits that became the evening’s standout dessert. Baked in individual tins and topped with crackling, Eldridge’s ingenious pork fat crème caramel perfectly embodied PorkStar’s mission to inspire creative uses of Australian pork.

How did you get into cooking?

I started working part-time in a small patisserie and loved it. From there I went on to join a catering company and start my apprenticeship while studying baking and pastry at TAFE. After the first year, I moved into restaurants, and I’ve never looked back. I love baking all sorts of pastries and desserts, but designing restaurant-style desserts is what I truly enjoy.

Did you always know you wanted to be a pastry chef?

No! I studied psychology at university for a few years before becoming a pastry chef. I realised that if I was going to build a career and spend the next 40 years working, I wanted it to be something that I truly loved, which was making desserts and pastries.

Let’s talk about the pork fat crème caramel – where did the idea come from?

Continental Deli, part of the Paisano and Daughters family, has served a ‘Flan in a Can’ for many years. It’s a crowd favourite. I wanted to serve something people could recognise and love, even with the point of difference from the pork.

Fat is a great way to carry flavour. It’s also an ingredient I’m familiar with. So I was able to substitute pork fat for some of the traditional fats in the crème caramel. The sweetness from the caramel topping and the creaminess from the dairy balanced out the pork flavour. The pork fat made the texture of the custard even more silky and smooth than normal.

Do you have plans to use any other traditionally savoury ingredients in your desserts? If so, what would it be?

I don’t use a lot of traditional savoury ingredients as the star in the way the pork fat was. But I think most desserts and pastry can be improved with a little bit of salt and acid, whether that’s lemon juice or a vinegar. For example, caramels made with sherry vinegar really help balance the sweetness and the bitterness.

You’ve recently-ish joined Paisano and Daughters. Beyond dessert and pastry, what’s your go-to dish at their establishments?

One of the many great things about working at Paisano and Daughters, is how many restaurant options I have to choose from. At Mister Grotto, I love the barbecue abalone served with a sauce made from its livers. My current favourite at Continental Deli, is the pork belly with black garlic glaze. At Osteria Mucca, it’s the gnudi with brown butter and sage.

The post On the pass: An interview with Paisano and Daughters’ head pastry chef Lauren Eldridge appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Tasmania has a range of impeccable restaurants to try, but what it’s best known for is its local, seasonal produce. With its small size and a focus on a ‘downshifted’ way of life, Tasmanian providores provide a unique offering of sustainably focused, small-batch produce. And because you’ll be visiting the makers directly, you’ll be able to hear more about their stories.   

Experience all that Tasmania has to offer with these fresh food specialities around the Apple Isle.  

Tasmanian food trail 

The Bruny Baker   

Bruny Island 

For any food-fuelled road trip, roadside stalls are the way to go. As Tasmania is brimming with local produce and talented providores, you’re likely to come across quite a few. However, the Bruny Bakers’ retro-style fridge display is not just a stop along the way; it’s a designated destination. Baked daily, the handmade, fresh sourdough from Sheepwash Bay is a not-to-be-missed fresh food experience.   

Palawa Kipli  

Piyura kitina (Risdon Cove) 

The Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) people have always lived amongst the natural resources of lutruwita (Tasmania). Tasmanian Aboriginal bushfood is not only vibrant and flavourful but also rooted in sustainability. Palawa culture prioritise the protection of their land, an embedded value and way of knowing. In doing so, they promise to take only what is needed, promoting sustainable land management practices. Taking a guided bushfood tour will give you a greater understanding of the Palawa system of culturally centred kipli (food).   

The Truffle Farm   

Deloraine 

Australia has only been harvesting truffles since 1999, with pioneer Tim Terry unearthing the first truffle on his Deloraine farm. Since finding that exquisite black truffle, the Terry family have transformed their farm into a hub for everything truffle related. The Truffle Farm runs truffle hunting tours year-round; however, peak season runs from June through to September.   

Freycinet Marine Farm  

Coles Bay 

While a dozen freshly shucked oysters is always a treat, you can experience oysters in a much more scenic (and hands-on) setting when visiting Tasmania. The true rite of passage for any Tasmanian adventurer is to stand waist-deep in the water and experience shucking your own oysters at Freycinet Marine Farm. Oyster Bay Tours will guide you through the process while educating you on why Tasmania is renowned for its seafood.   

Grandvewe Cheeses  

Birchs Bay 

Tasmania holds the title for Australia’s oldest cheese-making state, and with favourable conditions such as the cooler climate and rich, fertile land, it’s evident why. The conditions have drawn artisanal producers to the region, allowing you to taste the distinct difference of Tasmanian cheese at the idyllic Birchs Bay Grandvewe Cheese location.   

Littlewood Farm   

Coal Valley 

Perched in a small paddock in Richmond, Littlewood Farm offers visitors insights into farming. When visiting Littlewood Farm, you can expect everything from fresh-picked strawberries to gin, all while experiencing their agricultural knowledge first hand.   

The post A guide to Tasmania’s charming fresh food destinations  appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

It’s been a big year for seafood, with farmed Tasmanian salmon floated in parliament, an algal bloom affecting the industry off South Australia, and the countdown on to mandatory country-of-origin labelling on menus from July 2026. In the wake of this turbulence, sustainability, traceability and ethical sourcing has become a big consideration for restaurants, fish and chip shops and home cooks.

“Nowadays, people know the impacts that things like overfishing and climate change have, so they want to know more about what they’re eating,” says Peta Morton from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and GoodFish, whose online Sustainable Seafood Guide includes a traffic light-style classification. “We’re seeing chefs around the country pledge to avoid red-listed species, not just because their customers expect it, but because they want to serve food that aligns with their values.”

Cordelia, in Melbourne, champions lesser-seen species with guidance from GoodFish, as does Sydney’s Felons Seafood, where luderick swim under Manly Wharf – and are fried on the menu. Chef Evan Hayter at Margaret River’s de’sendent sources from local line-only fishers Southwest Wildecatch, whose haul might feature on the menu alongside Manjimup marron and Exmouth prawns. Beyond the wave-making approach of Saint Peter, leaders of the industry like Adelaide’s Fair Seafood (Australia’s first seafood supplier to provide 100 per cent fisher-to-consumer traceability) and the Mures family of “hook-to-plate” venues on Hobart’s waterfront are decades into their long-running missions to make sustainable seafood choices easy.

Beef tallow’s back

Just when we thought chips couldn’t get better, beef tallow is making a comeback thanks to the unmatched flavour imparted by the old-school by-product. In Brisbane, The 203 (showcase restaurant of integrated beef producer Stanbroke) serves tallow-fried chips or eggs as accompaniments to its premium steaks, while Sydney’s underground ode to the T-bone, Bistecca, sets the mood with a flickering tallow candle that invites diners to drag focaccia through its drippings. For at-home snackers, newly launched Byron Bay-made Sunseeker Snacks cooks its crisps in organic, grass-fed beef tallow for “a deep, savoury richness that other oils simply can’t match”. We predict more to come.

Wallet-friendly wonders

When spending money is in short supply, the hospitality industry suffers, so smart restaurateurs are adapting. Sydney’s Aria just added its Snack Bar menu of elevated morsels to the permanent roster, and the $69 Flow lunch at Wildflower in Perth is a budget-friendly way to taste its take on Noongar seasonality. Andrew McConnell’s Cutler moved from dégustation-only to à la carte, responding, he explains, to “the shift in what luxury means to diners now, and how guests prefer to dine in 2025 – where choice, flexibility, atmosphere, accessibility and integrity are the cornerstones of the offering”. With established eateries like Adelaide’s Fino Vino, Such and Such in the capital, and Entrecôte in Prahran sharing their take on happy hour, we look forward to seeing more clever ways that venues explore great-value offers that complement their core.

Caffeine creations

With flavoured foams, sodas, syrups and more showing up on menus, Australia’s internationally respected café culture has either discovered its sense of fun or jumped the shark. What started with iced strawberry matchas now sees almost any trending treat turned into a drink. Take Sydney café Tessuto, where you can dip a savoiardi in your tiramisù iced latte. Sun Devil in Tweed Heads has done away with the espresso machine entirely, instead offering cold brew (on coconut water, perhaps), matcha lattes, and signature drinks like the Devil’s Advocate: sea salt and vanilla-infused cold brew topped with a layer of pistachio cold foam. Asian coffee culture is another key influence, as seen in Korean-style takes on einspänner lattes (like at Chubby Cubby in Sydney’s Haymarket), or at Sonder in Brisbane, lattes made with black sesame hojicha – matcha’s roasted cousin, which is gaining popularity, and might even have its eye on the throne. For purists, new Melbourne café Matcha Kōbō mills matcha daily for traditional expressions (though specialty drinks like a citrus matcha Mont Blanc or honeycomb hojicha latte are also on the menu).

The Greek comeback

Hellenic cuisine is having another moment in the sun, from abundant, shared spreads in taverna-inspired settings to upmarket venues redefining what Greek food looks like in Australia. Newcomers such as Melbourne’s Aegli go beyond the spanakopita and saganaki, while Olympic Meats (in Sydney’s inner west) sends out sheftalia, sourdough pitas and cinnamon-sprinkled bougatsa at a lightning pace. Glitzy favourites like Brisbane’s Hellenika, Yiamas in Perth and Northern Rivers’ Taverna continue to attract crowds seeking a momentary Aegean escape, and Olympus Dining was Sydney’s most coveted booking when it opened in late 2024. Oscar Solomon, group development chef at The Apollo Group (Sydney’s Olympus Dining and The Apollo and Brisbane’s Greca), says: “Greek food is about generosity and accessibility, and the Greek style of eating – sharing – is a truly beautiful notion. In a cost-of-living crisis and a pretty tense geopolitical environment, there is undoubtedly a correlation there.” We foresee menus dedicated to Greek regions being the next development in this ongoing trend. And can we request more Aussie-made ouzo, please?

See also:

• Homer Rogue Taverna, NSW
• Avalon, WA
• Kafeneion, Vic

More amaro

A natural progression from recent drinks trends like vermouth, Martinis and ruby Negronis, amaro is the current toast of the bar scene. With medicinal origins in Italy (but now produced globally), the bittersweet, herbal liqueur works as an aperitif mixed simply with soda, a post-meal sip over ice or spun into cocktails that call for complexity. At The Parlour Amaro Bar in Beechworth, amari are built on aromatics like kombu, bergamot and coffee, while in Sydney, Raffaele Lombardi’s personal passion for the category has him stocking close to 50 amari at Conte Sydney, the new CBD expansion of Surry Hills’s Bar Conte.

See also:

• Herbs Taverne, NSW
• La Madonna Nera, WA
• Before + After, Qld

Dinner to dance floor

Echoing a boom in fine-diners that encourage post-dinner dancing in New York (where they’re termed “clubstaurants”), this movement is all about one-stop destinations for dialled-up nights out. A disco ball makes an appearance over the bar at Brisbane’s underground Hong Kong-inspired restaurant, Central, where DJs play past midnight on Saturdays, bridging the gap between share plates and cutting shapes.
You can also catch the groove in Sydney’s pumping Wunderlich Lane precinct, where the Southeast-Asian eatery Island Radio hosts resident DJs in the booth Thursday to Saturday, and even the cocktails are adorned with disco details. Meanwhile, at Melbourne’s Maison Bâtard, descend after dinner to Le Club in the basement for live music, DJs or burlesque.

Local fast food

At the less glamorous end of the trend spectrum, Australian fast-food joints are giving the Golden Arches and the Colonel himself a run for their money. Fishbowl, founded in Bondi, now has around 50 Australian stores and made a splash when it opened in New York in 2024, and Betty’s Burgers has made it from the laid-back Noosa strip to its first drive-through coming later this year. Preference in charcoal chicken brands (El Jannah, Chargrill Charlie’s, Frango etc) is fiercely debated nationwide, and Belles Hot Chicken, care of Morgan McGlone, is a late-night temptation in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

The bakery uprising

They may have been at the heart of communities for centuries, but 2025 has seen an evolution in bakeries. Brisbane’s Covid-era breakout star Agnes Bakery just relaunched down the road as Idle with room for dining in, an all-day menu, and a retail offering including house-made take-home picks. In Sydney, A.P Bread & Wine in a heritage sandstone cottage in Darlinghurst is A.P’s first foray into an after-dark format, switching from bakery/café to a neighbourhood restaurant and bar, turning leftover bread into pasta and pouring natural wines. In the era of the run club, A.P Bakery also rewards participants of a five-kilometre loop from its street-level Surry Hills outlet with a free, cream-filled choux for their efforts on select weekends. Melbourne’s Hector’s Deli recently scaled its operation with a new 350-square-metre bakery and production kitchen in Richmond, where, as well as crafting loaves for their queue-worthy sandwiches, they have capacity to experiment with doughnut flavours, new Viennoiserie, ferments, and more.

Hot hotel dining

Bye-bye buffets, hello big names and worthy concepts – Australian hotel restaurants have finally risen to global standards, with an eye on local diners just as much as those sleeping over. “In the past, we’ve seen hotels with amazing locations, where the rooms are beautiful, but when it comes to dining, it’s just not done well,” says star chef Giovanni Pilu. “Hotels have worked out that they can bring people in who know what they’re doing to lift their food and beverage offering – people like Sean Connolly, and Alessandro and Anna Pavoni are lifting the bar, and it’s working so well.”

Pilu is set to open Flaminia at the Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour in November. Similarly, Kiln at Ace Hotel Sydney recently welcomed Beau Clugston (the ex-Noma, Aussie chef-owner of Copenhagen’s Iluka) as chef-partner, where his first order of business was deftly applying native ingredients. Perhaps we’ll see more of the inverse, too; as per Lake House’s evolution from humble regional restaurant to coveted luxury escape, and the Nilands’ expansion from international dining acclaim to the boutique hotel world. Certainly, the relationship between both sides of hospitality feels stronger than ever.

See also:

• Marmelo, Hyde Melbourne Place, Vic
• Catseye Pool Club, The Sundays, Qld
• Haven, Mondrian Gold Coast, Qld

The post The Dining Report: The trends shaping Australian hospitality in 2025 appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

Alluringly dressing what might be considered a semi-shameful culinary kink in fine-dining drag: a potato gem, topped with crème fraîche and caviar, a morsel of fried chicken turned edgy with house-fermented chilli, a tiny crumpet piled with raw tuna or crab meat. You’d be a stronger person than me to resist those salty, sweet, fatty, tangy siren songs.

That snacks are increasingly offered per piece adds to the allure. This is a marked improvement on the small plate conundrum that takes place when starters arrive as a trio on a table of two or four, requiring extra negotiations with your server or your dining companions. It also allows you to pretend you’re exercising restraint by ordering just one blinged potato gem, even if said gem might set you back somewhere north of 10 bucks for a single mouthful and will inevitably tempt you into ordering a second. Or a third.

Which brings us to the false economy of it all. At a time when prices further down the list have entrées hovering around the $30 mark and mains often breaking the $60 barrier, those morsels and their sub-20-dollar price tags start looking like a prudent financial choice.

But if you’re truly hungry – as you often are, especially when you’re doing the late night, post-show thing – those tiny price tags quickly mount up. And because they’re snacks, designed to do what snacks do, you can blow through a fair number of them and still not feel entirely satiated, despite the size of the bill.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to snack-shame. I’m a big fan of punchy one- or two-bite morsels, particularly in the classic mode of tapas, cicchetti, the izakaya or street food in Bangkok, Istanbul, Addis Ababa or Mexico City. These all represent a style of food deliberately calibrated to satisfy an immediate on-the-go craving or to act as ballast to a couple of pre-dinner cocktails in a bar. They were never designed to usurp the “real” business of dining.

But as the line between restaurant and bar has become more porous, snacks seem to be increasingly breaking out of their traditional role, muscling in on the more substantial territory of a so-called complete meal. Sometimes a substantial portion of a menu is taken up by snacks masquerading as traditional entrées.

Sliced-to-order salami, house-made pickles, a couple of grilled asparagus spears served with a dab of fresh ricotta, pickled mussels, tongue skewers and single-bite slivers of cured raw fish are undoubtedly lovely things, but definitely more about flavour than bulk. This is not some kind of underhanded, price-gouging restaurant trick. Given the amount of labour and the price of ingredients, the current snack price tags are mostly fair.

The reason snacks have become increasingly common is simply that restaurants and bars are giving the people what they want: flexibility. Ever since the phrase “our menu has been designed to share” became ubiquitous and the notion of having your own plate of food came to be viewed as unfashionable, antisocial and selfish, the scaffolding of a meal changed from the entrée-main-dessert tripod to an elaborate series of small or large sharing plates.

This is great for those punters more on the flavour-not-bulk end of the spectrum but perhaps less so for those who like to feel full, and consequently have to duck in for a quick hamburger on the way home.

The fashion for flexibility has also meant that it is customers, rather than chefs, who are handed the work of balancing their own meal. With the mudslide of chaos that’s been engulfing us recently, pining for a simpler life is understandable (and a boon for our mental health). Fewer decisions is a good place to start, particularly when we go out to eat.

Being a professional eater, I’m seasoned at keeping an eye on meal balance. But for others looking for sustenance and solace after a hard day, it surely would be nothing but a force for good, if there was a little less flexibility in our dining culture, less need to make algebraic calculations to formulate a meal from an array of differently sized dishes.

A good place to start would be by taking snacks off the table and corralling them back to the bar or the street, where they truly and most successfully belong.

The post Snack attack: Have menus in Australian restaurants lost the plot? appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

It all started by accident, really. My first job in hospitality was frying fish and chips after school at age 14. From there, I kept cooking while studying engineering at university. It wasn’t until I left uni at 21 that I seriously considered where cooking could take me. I gave it my full attention, much to my parents’ dismay at the time, but thankfully, they’ve since come around.

You age pork at Agnes – what does this do for the flavour of the meat?

At the moment, we’re working with incredible loins from Tasmanian Duroc pigs. Once portioned, we place them in our temperature- and humidity-controlled aging room. From here moisture loss intensifies the flavour, allowing the character of the meat to really shine through. It’s not unlike the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed beef. The fat becomes more pronounced and it renders beautifully over fire.

Which Agnes dish do you most enjoy eating?

The hot-smoked pig’s head is a personal favourite. It’s not always on the menu, but we bring it back now and then. Each time, it seems to get better and better.

Tell us one thing that you like to pass on to young chefs.

When I was an apprentice, I had the good fortune to work under Tom Sarafian. He’s incredibly passionate and there’s a real emotion – almost a romanticism – in the way he speaks about food. It left a huge impression on me. It pushed me in directions I may not have otherwise explored. Now, I try to pass on that same sense of passion and emotion that Tom passed to me all those years ago.

Agnes, 22 Agnes Street, Fortitude Valley, QLD, 4006, (07) 3067 9087, anyday.com.au

For more on top-quality pork — including recipes, tips and nutrition facts — visit the Australia Pork website.

The post On the pass: An interview with Agnes chef Ryan Carlson appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

When it came to selecting talent for the series, it wasn’t just about celebrity status. “We had a lot of talent that we considered. They didn’t just go after the big names,” says Porowski. “They wanted to make sure there were food-centric stories to be told.” At the same time, the stars are certainly A-List: Florence Pugh, Justin Theroux, James Marsden, Issa Rae, Henry Golding and Awkwafina are all guests. In each episode, food is consumed but also put under a keen research lens, where each dish or ingredient acts as a culinary clue, unveiling more about the six different guests’ heritage and lineage. Each goes on a different journey to uncover more details about their family histories through food, from Theroux enjoying tortellini en brodo in Italy’s Bologna region; to Golding feasting on just-grilled fish with torched ginger in Borneo’s Sarawak.

The project goes well beyond the scope of a typical travel and food show, with the National Geographic team doing three to six months of research as well as thorough fact-checking for each storyline. “[Usually] I say a lot of things that aren’t necessarily fact-checked, and I get in trouble on Twitter afterwards, but with National Geographic, everything that I say has to be said with utmost certainty.” To this end, all information conveyed in the show – from family lineage to culinary origins of dishes – has to be vetted by three independent sources. “If you’re in Germany or if you’re in Italy, that’s public record. [But] if you’re in Borneo or Senegal, they don’t necessarily have the infrastructure or all of the public documents. So we have to find out from three different village elders, instead.”

Porowski and the team also explore how migration, colonisation, war, recessions, agriculture and cultural shifts can have an impact on the everyday things we eat. “Food can have an incredibly rich historical context that talks about occupation, colonisation and retention,” says Porowski.

While the historical throughline is the most integral to the show, there are plenty of surprising and tender moments dotted throughout the series. “If you have a beating heart, you can’t not get emotional,” says Porowski. And of course, many scenes will encourage viewers to explore their own history in a more delicious way. “Food is obviously emotional, and it’s sustenance, it’s connection and community and culture and all those things. But it also has this strong historical element, it’s like a book,” says Porowski.

No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski streams on Disney+ from February 24.

The post No Taste Like Home is a delicious new series by Queer Eye star Antoni Porowski appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

The dining room is overwhelming, modelled on a salon at Versailles. I recall ceiling frescoes, fireplaces the size of a bedsit and an elaborate ice sculpture of tangled vines and flowers shimmering on a plinth. The tables were so plush I am sure they were laid with four cloths. Each dish in my three-course lunch was ferried to my table by a choreographed phalanx of waiters, synchronously placing dishes and plates before me, whisking away cloches, turning on their heels with a whoosh. Their poise was military but they were so warm and twinkling that they almost (almost) soothed my imposter angst. Around me, the wealthy sprawled in a litter of shopping bags, affectingly bored but sure they belonged. The food was exquisite: peas gleaming in buttery chicken reduction, a piece of dazzlingly white fish, a lemon tart that scrubbed my brain clean with citric clarity.

I got what I wanted. I understand what three Michelin stars mean. But does it matter? Is it relevant for Australia?

“Michelin is a globally recognised benchmark,” says Peter Gilmore, executive chef at Sydney’s Quay, surely a candidate for three stars if Michelin ever did publish a guide in Australia. “I think it would be good for Australia to have an international baseline so visitors could easily understand the restaurant scene here.” But Australia’s history, relatively small population and expensive labour market mean we’ll never have a Le Meurice. “It might not be possible in Australia to have the same ratio of staff to customer that they have in Europe,” says Gilmore. “But we are certainly there with innovation and creativity. I’ve eaten recently in three-star restaurants in Europe. I think we are at that level in a few restaurants in Australia.”

He’s aware of Michelin inspectors dining at Quay. “We might hear that Tourism Australia has invited someone, there’s always rumours that maybe something is happening,” he says. What did the inspectors say? “They were very pleased,” he says. Michelin did not respond to requests for comment but it’s an open secret that territories provide financial support for the venerable guide to lend its cachet. News site The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported in 2018 that Korea paid 2 billion won ($2.3 million) for Michelin to rate its restaurants. In 2021, Thai newspaper The Nation reported that the Tourism Authority of Thailand would pay Michelin US$820,000 ($1.26 million) per year to publish and promote its guide to Thailand.

Significant Australian funding has gone into marketing food tourism, including $800,000 to host the World’s 50 Best awards in 2017. Tourism Australia is not ready to announce a deal with Michelin though periodic discussions have taken place. “Tourism Australia has a long history of promoting Australia’s food and drink experiences to the world ever since Paul Hogan first issued a warm invitation to international travellers with the offer to “throw a shrimp on the barbie” in the ’80s,” said a spokesperson. “As Australia’s culinary offering continues to evolve, we welcome any activity that shines a light on Australia’s thriving food and drink scene and will consider opportunities where we can within our existing marketing priorities and budgets.”

In the world of restaurant ratings, Michelin’s main competitor for international brand recognition is World’s 50 Best but Australian recognition on that list has ebbed and flowed. “That’s nothing to do with the quality of our restaurants, and a lot to do with the tyranny of distance,” says Alexandra Carlton, Oceania academy chair for World’s 50 Best. “It’s much harder to get bums on restaurant seats when you sit at the bottom of the world – largely isolated – than if you’re a Spain or a Singapore. So I welcome anything that will help draw diners to our shores, and the arrival of Michelin would be a great way to do that.”

In Phuket, Thai tour guide Piyarat “June” Na-Songkhla has witnessed the impact Michelin has on drawing food tourists. “Right now my best-selling tour is following the Michelin Guide,” she says. “All the tourists came from America.” Thailand has its own restaurant guide produced by Shell. “Shell is fine for Thai tourists but foreigners only know the Michelin Guide.” She predicts positive impacts if Michelin publishes in Australia. “Rich people in Thailand can fly to Hong Kong just to eat the best dim sum,” she says. “Eating is a good reason to fly and they trust the Michelin Guide.”

Australian-born Hong Kong-based chef Shane Osborn has a similar perspective. “If the Michelin Guide came to Australia, it would give chefs and restaurants equal recognition with many of the world’s top establishments,” he says. “The increase in business for those receiving stars, particularly in the two and three star level could be significant.”

He’s mindful of the personal impact on those working in restaurants though. “The winning of stars and retaining them every year is an incredible achievement but it does come at a price,” he says. “The self-inflicted pressure chefs put upon themselves is well documented. Some have even taken their own lives when demoted. I don’t blame Michelin for this. The pressure is created by us, the chefs and restaurateurs.” Osborn held two stars for nine years at his London restaurant Pied à Terre.

“I look back on those years with pride but also a sense of lost opportunity to really enjoy the success of such an accolade,” he says. “Working 16 hours at times, six days a week took its toll.” In 2011, he walked away in pursuit of better work-life balance. His Hong Kong restaurant Arcane has one star and that’s enough. “Michelin has never been a key goal of our business model here,” he says. “We put our staff and customers’ experience front and centre when deciding how to improve.”

Australian Michelin star chefs

Brett Graham
Originally from Newcastle, NSW, Brett Graham was awarded three Michelin stars (up from two) for The Ledbury in London’s Notting Hill at the 2024 Michelin ceremony.

Matt Abé
Since 2020, the Australian has been chef patron of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. He’s spent 16 years in the Ramsay stable; in Australia he worked at Aria in Sydney and Vue de Monde in Melbourne.

Curtis Stone
The Melbourne chef schooled up in London under Marco Pierre White, no stranger to Michelin stars himself. Stone’s Los Angeles restaurants Maude and Gwen each hold one star.

Shane Osborn
Born in Perth, Shane Osborn left his two-star London restaurant Pied à Terre in search of greater balance. He now owns Arcane in Hong Kong. “We are proud to hold one star which we have held since 2017,” he says. “Arcane serves modern European cuisine. Our menus change frequently and we offer daily specials. With one star under our belt we can maintain this level of menu fluidity and spontaneity while maintaining a high level of consistency. Two stars would affect that freedom.”

Dave Pynt
Another Perth chef, Dave Pynt holds one star at Burnt Ends, his Singapore barbecue hotspot.

Tetsuya Wakuda
Sydney superstar Tetsuya Wakuda holds two stars at his Singapore restaurant, Waku Ghin.

Joseph Lidgerwood
Tasmania’s Joseph Lidgerwood has held one star at Evett in Seoul since 2019. As the guide says, his “menu brims with inventive dishes reimagined by the chef that perfectly reflect the seasonal sensibilities of Korea.”

Related Content

Previous

Five must-visit Michelin-star restaurants in Italy, according to top chef Peter Gilmore

Australian chef Brett Graham earns three Michelin stars for his London restaurant, The Ledbury

The true cost of service: a look at the hidden costs in hospitality

This is how women do it: Leading women in restaurants

Next

The post The Michelin debate: Why there’s no Michelin Guide in Australia appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

It’s for those reasons and more Paul Bentley, chef and co-owner of Casa — Gourmet Traveller’s State Winner in its most recent restaurant guide for WA — opts out of Valentine’s Day every year.

“I’m not a fan of doing it. The people that come out on Valentine’s are trying to check a box. They’re not our regular clientele and they feel obliged to celebrate it. They don’t understand the venue, they’re rude to staff and have a bad time. We just open as usual. No set menu, no lobster cut in two in the shape of a heart, no pizzas in a shape of a heart (next door at Casa Pizzeria) either,” says Bentley.

Then he chuckles. “When I was working at a fine-dining, Michelin-starred restaurant in New York, Valentine’s went over two days. On the 13^th, it would be mistresses and girlfriends, and on the 14^th it would be wives. These men would come in and eat the same set menu two days in a row and our maître d’ would say, ‘Good evening, sir, we haven’t seen you in ages. So great to see you again, we hope you have a pleasant dining experience.’”

It makes sense that Bentley would want to avoid putting his staff in a similar position.

Ben Sears, who is the head chef at Public Wine Shop, has worked on Valentine’s Day every year of his 20-year career and was, “traumatised quite early.” Sears recalls a Valentine’s at a two-hatted restaurant in Melbourne.

“The first section I was put on by myself was in pastry. There used to be a trend of having a heart-shaped dessert on a Valentine’s menu. It sounds terribly naff now, but it was a different time. I was running the pastry section for the first time, about to work one of the busiest days I’ve ever worked, and I was told that dessert would be a roulade shaped into a heart garnished with red fruits. It was a fancy Swiss roll, really.

“I dove in with a heady cocktail of ignorance and exuberance and it just didn’t work. I produced something that looked like a very white, pasty bum with pimples. It took so long, and I was in the weeds. Almost 20 years later, I can still remember that demoralising feeling of pushing myself as hard as I could and watching 80 slices of a pimply, pasty bum [shaped] roulade being walked out into the dining room. Heartbreaking.”

On the other side of the pass, front-of-house veteran Emma* recalls an incident from her days working at a luxury hotel. Valentine’s Day, predictably, is a common day for engagements. While many public proposals are met with a joyous response, not everyone can be so lucky.

“This guy ordered a cake through the events team, which is a separate part of the hotel. Facilitating it would have been very involved. It was a chocolate and peanut cake with ‘Will you marry me?’ written on it. He went into anaphylactic shock because he forgot he had a peanut allergy. We ended up comping their bill and organised a free stay for them even though it was his fault. The paperwork was monumental.”

Emma never found out if the response to the proposal was a yes, but you would hope it was after the near-death experience. The things we do for love, hey?

Meanwhile, Nick Tesar, the creative director for Four Pillars Gin and the World Class Bartender of the Year 2022 has a great time working on Valentine’s Day. “Admittedly, I have had the luxury and protections of working in north-side wine bars in Melbourne.” For those who are unfamiliar, the north side of Melbourne is frequented by progressive, socially and politically conscious millennials who often outwardly shun commercial, capitalistic displays of manufactured affection.

“In the last five years, anti-Valentine’s Day tables have become a thing,” says Tesar. “They’re mostly female groups enjoying each other’s company, and they’re much more pleasant to serve. They’re more engaged with what you’re offering. Their energy is just excitable and empowered as opposed to the Valentine’s crowds who are going through the motions.”

It may come as no surprise, but the common theme between all these hospitality professionals is that they prefer to offer guests a great experience, which is difficult on nights like Valentine’s Day.

So, what can the average consumer do to avoid the clichés, disasters and pimply butt-looking desserts on February 14^th?

Sears leaves me with some sage words of advice. “Valentine’s might be the worst night of the year to eat out. Restaurants are overbooked and set menus are overpriced. Go out on the 15^th instead, you’ll have a much better time.”

And Bentley, despite the previous cynicism, concurs: “You don’t need a special day to hang out with someone you love and care about. You can do that any day of the week. The food is guaranteed to be better, too.”

*Emma’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

The post V-Day or mayday: Why Australia’s hospitality scene hates the Hallmark holiday appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

We are organising the family, going on hikes, eating in restaurants, visiting museums and catching up with friends. Reading is always put on the backburner. So, when are we supposed to chew through the stories we have brought along with us? The only logical time is while in transit, when everyone is focused on entertaining themselves. 

This summer’s reading list is a compilation of new releases from 2024. Some are best suited to modes of transport, others to the glorious void when everyone else is away. Lock yourself in with any one of these titles, and  we guarantee that your holiday reading will be complete.

What to read on the plane

Flying feels like being lost in time. Between the hours spend in the air and the different time zones, the best books t read in this environment should be equally propulsive and disorientating. Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot (Faber Factory, $25) reads like a fever-dream. ON the surface, it’s about an 18s and under women’s boxing match, told over the course of a weekend through the perspective of the right competitors. But underneath the muscular, unsentimental prose, it is a story of girlhood, expectations and growing up. Equal parts brutal and tender, it is easy to see how it was longlisted for the Book Prize 2024.

To feel lost in the trip, Jordan Prosser’s Big Time (UQP, $35) opens with a scene on a plane where the book’s main character, Julian, is flying back to Australia to record a second album with his band and is introduced to “F”, a drug that gives you a glimpse into your own future. The book is set in a richly imagined, not-too-distant dystopian, conservative Australia and is a smart satire of politics wrapped in rock ‘n’ roll.

And for the return leg, I’m New Here by Ian Russell-Hsieh (Simon & Schuster, $33) is an impeccably written, fast-paced exploration of a recently dumped Taiiwanese-British photographer, Sean, trying to find himself in his ancestral homeland. The writing style is movie-like and sucks you into Sean’s feelings of alienation, self-annihilation and confusion. Russell-Hsieh touches on themes of identity, masculinity and grief in refreshing ways, while cleverly using the device of the unreliable narrator. it’s a book you’re sure to finish in one sitting.

What to read on the train

Warra Warra Wai (Simon & Schuster, $35) is an important collaboration between Darren Rix, Craig Cormick and the Indigenous people they interviewed spanning the 4000km through Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Rix and Cormick weave these oral histories with European accounts, providing a deeper understanding of Country and it forces the reader to understand that places were not discovered by James Cook. Warra Warra Wai honestly addresses the complexity of Australian history and takes us on a poignant journey towards the truth.

To experience writing where space and reflection is required to fully appreciate the storytelling, Jazz Money’s new collection of poetry in Mark the Dawn (UQP, $25) intertwines history, legacy and the importance of community from a queer, Indigenous perspective. While it is tempting to race through Money’s prose, the real test is to sit with each poem and allow it to full affect you. Both gentle and visceral, Mark the Dawn is best enjoyed from a window seat.

If you prefer your landscapes to contain more drama, Hayley Scrivenor’s Girl Falling (MacMillan, $35) is a story of friendship, love and manipulation. Scrivenor expertly grips you with tension throughout the novel by jumping between the past and present to build convincing and layered characters that will leave you hungry for the truth.

What to read on a boat

Shaun Micallef’s Slivers, Shards and Skerricks (Affirm Press, $35) was built for boat travel. Written by one of Australia’s most recognisable comedians, it’s the kind of anthology that will make you laugh out loud, and contains short stories, musings and limericks. You’ll find anything from a story set in the Rocky universe, where he is plagued by an existential crisis, to a list of meandering thoughts on dining across America. Micallef proves that he is still as ridiculous as he is entertaining.

If you prefer a more serious read, the meticulously cited and deeply informed The Men Who Killed the News by former journalist, editor and media proprietor Erin Beecher (Scribner Australia, $37), is a bracing account of how the news stopped being the news. And Beecher would know, her formerly worked for the Murdochs before being sued by them. He outlines all the closed-door mechanics performed by media moguls over the past two centuries, which makes you feel like you’re reading a thrilled before you are reminded that this is out terrifying reality.

For something more inspiring, We Are the Stars (Summit Books, $37) by Gina Chick, the inaugural winner of the survival competition television series Alone Australia, is a surprise. This is more than a celebrity memoir, it’s a heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartwarming collection of life lessons from a woman who has lived both unconventionally and unapologetically. Chick outlines her life in chronological order, from her childhood, her years dancing (literally) through Sydney’s ’90s subculture clubs, love, cancer, grief and the practice of rewilding. It all makes you realise that it was no accident she conquered the Tasmanian winter wilderness over 67 days.

What to read anywhere else

Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s highly anticipated follow-up to Fleishman Is in Trouble, Long Island Compromise (Hachette, $25) is a tale of intergenerational wealth and the issues that come with it. Brodesser-Akner is a master of conjuring the psyche of a neurotic American mind, and here she does it several times over, predominately through the perspectives of the (adult) Fletcher children in the wake of the grandmother’s death. The story is anchored in the kidnapping of the family’s patriarch in the ’80s, and charts the effects of it on the gamily, how they choose to live their lives, the decisions they make, and their reliance on the protections they think wealth affords them.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (HarperCollins, $33) is a translated work, inspired by the real-life case of the “Konkatsu (marriage-hunting) Killer” in Japan. While it is a story of a journalist on a mission for the inside story from a serial killer, Butter is also a caustic commentary of what it means to be a women in Japan. Food is used as a device to illustrated desire and control and the descriptions of it, especially of cold Echiré butter on tice, will leave you ravenous.

For fans of Sally Rooney, Intermezzo (Faber & Faber, $35) brings a change of gear from her earlier work. Her latest novel focuses on the relationship between two brothers, and by extension, their romantic relationships. While the content is familiar territory (the interconnected lives of a small group of Irish people), the characters Rooney has created are more three-dimensional than ever, the scenarios more complicated and ethically ambiguous. Instead of focusing on the thoughtless decisions of youth, Intermezzo is a study on what it means to age ungracefully.

The post GT’s summer reading guide for 2025 appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

From high-octane new hotel builds (hello Melbourne’s Hannah Street Hotel and Lake Como’s Edition) to cooling off the summer heat resort-style at The Sira in Lombok or Mondrian on the Gold Coast or if recreating a White Lotus dream scene is on the agenda, the ritzy new Aman Nai Lert Bangkok. These are the high-end openings we’ll be checking into this new year.

As for swish new restaurant openings to look forward to, Sydney CBD will see the Bentley Group’s cool plaza-style grill, Lucas Restaurants’ is set to open a French Bistro in Canberra, and Josh and Julie Niland are bringing supernova seafood to The Sundays boutique hotel restaurant on Hamilton Island.

1

The team behind Sydney newcomer The Eve will turn their sights on Melbourne’s inner city next, opening the 188-room Hannah Street Hotel. Expect an urban oasis with a neighbourhood bar, restaurant and rooftop bar, plus a lush poolside area.

2

Hobart will get extra decadent, delirious and delicious when Dark Mofo returns in June. Scaled back in 2024, the mid-winter festival is back in full force.

3

A new contemporary grill from The Bentley Group is headed to Sydney’s CBD. “We’ve been trying to secure the site at 11 Barrack Street ever since the closure of Seta, as we believe it has the bones to become one of Sydney’s great restaurants,” says co-owner Nick Hildebrandt. The space will house a huge 100-seat main dining room and a bar with seating for 40. Outdoor seating will spill into Barrack Street’s pedestrian zone, giving it a piazza-like feel.

4

Australia’s capital will welcome a second offering from restaurateur Chris Lucas. Hot off opening Melbourne’s Maison Bâtard and Canberra’s Mediterranean-inspired Carlotta in 2024, Lucas Restaurants’ yet-to-be-named French bistro will take over the old Botswana Butchery site mid-year.

5

Melbourne’s Conferre Group (known for cult primo pasta spot Tipo 00) will expand into Sydney with a modern Italian restaurant in Double Bay.

6

Farm-to-table dining isn’t going anywhere, but chef and farmer Simone Watts will up the stakes when she opens Barragunda Dining on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. A seed-to-service circular ethos will prevail through regeneratively reared and grown cattle, orchards, and vegetables.

7

Recharging will be the name of the game when Six Senses makes its Australian debut in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges. The luxury hotel group (and IHG’s flagship brand) will restore Burnham Beeches, a heritage art deco mansion and 22-hectare estate to create a regenerative escape.

8

South Australian winery Bird In Hand is sowing new seeds in Tasmania, overseeing the hospitality offering at The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Expect a wine-tasting room, restaurant and kiosk, following in the acclaimed footsteps of Bird in Hand’s LVN Restaurant in South Australia.

9

Josh and Julie Niland are bringing their whole-fish ethos to Hamilton Island in the form of an elevated, family-friendly seafood diner. Located along Catseye Beach at new boutique hotel, The Sundays, the yet-to-be-named restaurant is set to open in April 2025.

10

In Sydney’s inner east, Jean-Paul El Tom of Baba’s Place and Sixpenny’s Daniel Puskas will join forces to explore Hungarian heritage through food. The exciting culinary collaboration is earmarked for a Randwick opening.

11

Expanding accommodation options on WA’s pristine Wadjemup (Rottnest Island), The Lodge Wadjemup will house 109 serene guest rooms. Explore white-sand bays and spy quokkas from the lighthouse-adjacent stay.

12

McLaren Vale’s Salopian Inn has had a kitchen garden since it opened in 2014, but 2025 will see it bloom into abundance, with a lush new garden that wraps around the entire venue.

13

Anyday Hospitality (Agnes, Same Same et al.) continues to up the ante in Brisbane, taking over the heritage Coal Board Building in the CBD. Phase one will see a Middle Eastern restaurant spread over an outdoor terrace, with a brasserie to follow later. Meanwhile, Agnes Bakery will move to neighbouring New Farm under a new name, Idle.

14

This year, chef Paul Wilson (ex-Geranium in Copenhagen) will arrive at Wildflower at COMO The Treasury. This comes as Perth’s State Buildings – and by extension the prestigious hotel – turns 10, setting the tone for a year of celebrations.

15

The Gold Coast will follow in the footsteps of Cannes, Ibiza, Mexico City and Seoul when it welcomes the country’s first Mondrian. Expect high-octane glamour at the two-tower hotel in Burleigh Heads.

16

Alba Hot Springs on the Mornington Peninsula is introducing accommodation. The Sanctuary comprises villas and studios, all carefully integrated into the native bushland site. Peninsula views, Aesop amenities, a complimentary minibar stocked with wines from Ten Minutes by Tractor, and a custom pillow menu will dial up the serenity.

17

Members clubs may be 2025’s most exclusive ticket. The Pillars is a new members-only club targeting tech industries (with catering by The Bentley Group) opening in Sydney’s CBD; 67 Pall Mall is a wine-focused member’s club in Melbourne; Perth’s already-opened Lawson Flats continues to garner memberships; while Soho House courts Sydney; and Singapore’s Mandala Club is expanding its footprint across Asia-Pacific.

18

The long-awaited new Sydney Fish Markets will transform the foreshore of Blackwattle Bay this year. Operators will include Luke Nguyen with Doltone Hospitality Group, Cow and the Moon gelateria, and another outpost of Ho Jiak, which will join a slate of leading fishmongers, florists and cafés at the waterfront promenade in Sydney’s Pyrmont.

19

Alpine and cold weather adventures are on the up. According to luxury travel specialists Virtuoso, affluent Australians are seeking out more cold-weather destinations to escape the rising temperatures and avoid crowds. In Europe, Norway ranked in the top five destinations on the rise for the first time. In the USA, One&Only Moonlight Basin Montana will be the luxury brand’s first alpine resort. Meanwhile, Antarctica remains a perennial bucket list destination.

20

Venturing beyond Bali is the choice of discerning travellers, who still want to explore Indonesia but go beyond the buzz. Already loved by surfers and outdoor enthusiasts, Lombok has welcomed The Sira, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa with 446 suites and 14 pool villas, fusing local furnishings with modern amenities.

21

In New York, Old Mates Pub is an expansive three-level venue, complete with a quintessential Aussie beer garden overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge – and rumoured to be backed by some A-list Aussie celebs. Featuring frosty cold ones on tap, nostalgic Aussie decor, and lively music, it’s set to be the perfect hangout for Aussies abroad and locals alike. With authentic bites, cheeky Aussie spirit, and incredible views, it’s
a true slice of Australia in NYC.

22

The White Lotus effect will have all eyes on Thailand in 2025 and there’s a raft of high-end hotels to watch. While the show is filmed at the Four Seasons Koh Samui, Bangkok is the place to be for ritzy new openings. Find tranquillity at Aman Nai Lert Bangkok or dial up the glamour at the new Ritz-Carlton Bangkok. The Standard will also open two locations, with Pattaya and Phuket both on the radar.

23

In spring the Lake Como Edition will introduce a lively new edge to Lake Como’s historic Italian luxury. Expect 145 guest rooms, two penthouse suites, a buzzing lobby bar, and a floating pool, all housed in a 19th-century building located on the western lake shore.

24

Japan continues to be a hot destination for food lovers and culture vultures alike. After an extensive refurbishment, the iconic Park Hyatt Tokyo (also known as the hotel from Lost In Translation) will reopen. In Kyoto, Capella will pay homage to the town’s rich artisan heritage while bringing all the finesse and refinement the prestige brand is renowned for.

25

Luxury cruising will sail onwards and upwards, with Europe still being the destination du jour for Australian travellers according to Travel Associates. Almost half of all cruises booked for 2025 are European sailings, with the Mediterranean making up 26 per cent of total bookings, followed by Northern Europe and Scandinavia at 14 per cent.

The post 25 restaurants, hotels and events to get excited about in 2025 appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

For the uninitiated, PorkStar is a celebration of cooking’s most versatile meat, bolstered by not-for-profit industry body Australian Pork. The program, which connects chefs to education tools and events, has supported the careers of local chefs on their way to becoming household names including Luke Nguyen, Colin Fassnidge, Giovanni Pilu and Darren Robertson. “When we first commenced the program there was very little pork on menus,” says PorkStar’s Kylie Roberts.

Pork now sits on two out of three menus across the country. The program has helped elevate nose-to-tail cooking as a sustainable standard and brought lesser known cuts and charcuterie back into restaurants with gusto. From the rise of rillettes to pork tomahawk, PorkStar has trotted steadily at the forefront. “We are eternally grateful to all the porcine warriors who have turned pork into a menu must-have. We are most thankful to the dining public too, who have shared in the journey, And, of course, we raise our hats to the Australian pig producers. They have tirelessly made continuous improvements to achieve the world’s highest standards and to meet the most discerning requirement of our chefs.”

Here’s to the next 20 years.

Read more about PorkStar at porkstar.com.au

The post PorkStar celebrates 20 years of operation in 2024 appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

These are some of the best New Year’s Eve events in Australia to say goodbye to 2024, and ring in 2025.

Best New Year’s Eve events in Sydney

Cafe Sydney

Circular Quay

A New Year’s Eve at Cafe Sydney is a bucket-list event that is so worth ticking off this year. Enjoy a specially designed, six-course menu paired with top Australian wines from this perfect vantage point.

Tickets start at $1450, cafesydney.com

Quay

Circular Quay

Iconic is an overused word, but it’s worthy in this context. A seemingly immovable presence in the pantheon of Australia’s great restaurants, Peter Gilmore’s Quay boasts excellent, creative menus and perfect wine pairings backdropped by second-to-none views of Sydney Harbour. For NYE, a seat at the table comes with canapés on arrival, a glass of Champagne on arrival, a seven-course menu and premium matching wines. It doesn’t get much better than this, truly.

Tickets start at $2100 per person, quay.com.au

Martinez

Circular Quay

Martinez is offering a four-hour food and drinks package, including canapés, grazing stations, and a selection of sparkling wine, beer, and spirits. A live jazz band will be on deck to help set the jubilant New Year mood, and the bar will be fully stocked for those after something a little stronger.

Tickets are $349 per person, martinez.sydney

Dear Sainte Éloise

Potts Point

Ring in 2025 with a summery, festive set menu at Potts Point favourite, Dear Sainte Éloise. Think specially curated plates like peach and tomato with rocket and Comte, as well as Murray cod with wild mushroom and Champagne sauce. Paired with bubbles (and the chance to pre-order a very special bottle of Michel Gonet Blanc de Blancs Vindey-Montgueux), this experience is perfect for those keen to enjoy a removed-from-the-crowed NYE.

Bookings available for late lunch, pre-party dinner or the final hours of 2024. Set menu must be ordered for $130 per person. dearsainteeloise.com

Whalebridge

Circular Quay

Is there a more iconic setting to ring in the new year than Sydney’s Circular Quay? Set right next to the water with an unobstructed view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Whalebridge is offering two tiers of tickets for a harbourside. All tickets include free-flowing Champagne, and a specially curated NYE menu featuring Fruits de Mer (think Skull Island prawns and scallops aplenty) with mains like coral trout and Wagyu eye fillet.

Tickets start at $1100 for Tier 2 Bistro seating, whalebridge.com.au

Hacienda

Circular Quay

Ring in 2025 with supersized antipasti charcuterie and cheese spreads and creative canapés at the newly reopened Hacienda in the heart of Circular Quay. A chef’s station will also be plating up seafood mains, and for those with a sweet tooth, the dessert grazing table is where you’ll want to be. All of this, coupled with cocktails and harbourside views makes for a very good evening.

Tickets start at $479 per person, haciendasydney.com/functions

Best New Year’s Eve events in Melbourne

The Rooftop at QT

Melbourne

Ring in the New Year from the sky-scraping tops of the QT building’s rooftop bar. Take the lift to the top floor and usher in 2025 surrounded by Melbourne’s glittering skyline. Enjoy bottomless drinks, a live band, canapés, freshly shucked oysters and a late-night dessert station.

Tickets start at $325 per person, qthotels.com

Johnny’s Green Room

Carlton

Rooftop parties are the perfect way to ring in the New Year, so where better than Johnny’s Green Room? Guests will receive a complimentary drink upon arrival, with drinks and snacks curated by Hope St Radio.

General admission tickets start at $60 per person, with limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis, johnnysgreenroom.com

Bar Carolina

South Yarra

Celebrate the New Year Italian-style with an evening full of snacks, prosecco and live music at Bar Carolina. On arrival, you’ll be welcomed with a crisp glass of bubbles before sitting down for a three-course set menu by head chef James Choi. Think rigatoni alla vodka, chargrilled porterhouse and chocolate tiramisu to cap everything off.

Tickets start a $150 per head for a four-course menu, barcarolina.com.au

Hotel Sorrento

Sorrento

Send off 2024 in laid-back style as NYE returns to Hotel Sorrento after seven consecutive sold-out years. Tickets include a cocktail on arrival and canapés throughout the night. Dress to impress in all-white and enjoy entertainment across all three levels of the venue.

VIP tickets still available for $349 per person, hotelsorrento.com.au

Best New Year’s Eve events in Brisbane

Yoko

Brisbane City

Join in on the festive fun at the Howard Smith Wharves and get a front-and-centre view of the fireworks at Yoko. Its sunset session includes a spritz on arrival and a generous banquet-style menu offering from 5–8pm, but for the late-night owls, the midnight session runs from 9pm and includes a Spritz on arrival, a banquet feast and a three-hour beverage package.

Midnight session tickets are $280 per person, yokodining.com.au

Fiume Rooftop Bar at the Crystalbrook Vincent

Fortitude Valley

Enjoy breathtaking cityscape and river views at Crystalbrook Vincent’s Fiume Rooftop Bar and send 2024 off in serious style. With a four-hour drinks package (including groovy signature cocktails, sparkling, beers and wine) as well as canapes and live cooking stations, as far as rooftops go, this is the one to beat for New Year’s Eve.

Tickets start at $259 per person, crystalbrookcollective.com

Supernormal

Brisbane City

Bid 2024 farewell at one of Brisbane’s biggest openings. Enjoy front-row seats to the fireworks along the glittering Brisbane River with views of the Story Bridge, and sip on Supernormal’s house Martini before indulging in a languid four-course menu.

Bookings are available now at brisbane.supernormal.net.au

Best New Year’s Eve events in Adelaide

Arkhé

Norwood

In Adelaide, Arkhé will host an exclusive six-course menu curated by executive chef Jake Kellie, with the bar serving up drinks all night, from handcrafted cocktails to a very special Champagne menu.

Tickets from $250 per person, arkhe.com.au

Sol Rooftop

Adelaide

From 8pm to 2am, say goodbye to 2024 at Sol Rooftop in Adelaide’s CBD. Including a four-hour drinks package, canapés and live music, leave queuing to see fireworks to those on the ground, because you’ll have exclusive access to the venue until 2am.

Tickets start at $249 per person, skycityadelaide.com.au

Best New Year’s Eve events in Perth

Hearth at the Ritz-Carlton

Perth

Get a taste of the very best that Western Australia has to offer with a specially curated, six-course menu to ring in the New Year. Featuring cured snapper, Southwest Marron and dry-aged Wagin duck, dinner at Hearth is a charming and calming way to mark the festive occasion.

Tickets start from $295 per person, drinks not included except a glass of Ruinart on arrival, hearthrestaurant.com

The Claremont Hotel

Claremont

With three levels of festivities to choose from, the Claremont Hotel has something for everyone this New Year’s Eve. Choose from low-key live musicians on the bottom floor, a silent rooftop disco or a DJ in the Grevillea Room, all while enjoying a three-and-a-half hour drinks package and, of course, canapés.

Tickets start at $148, theclaremont.com.au

The post Show 2024 the door with the best New Year’s Eve events across Australia appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

The annual festival is a celebration of eating and drinking in Australia’s food capital, and as always its upcoming rendition is set to deliver a bumper program of pop-ups, chef collaborations, long lunches and Fed Square bakery takeovers.

The Global Dining Series will call upon an all-star cast of culinary talent. Expect chef collabs with Sezanne’s (currently ranked number one in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants) Daniel Calvert to join forces with Brae’s Dan Hunter for two intimate services, while Vue de Monde’s Hugh Allen and Michelin-star chef Konstantin Filippou will up the fine dining factor. 

The renowned ‘World’s Longest Lunch’ which kicks off the festival each year, will be taking place in the Kings Domain on Friday 21 March. Guests will be seated at the 600-metre-long table, with Melbourne’s Curtis Stone headlining the event. While Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s desserts are the drawcards at the World’s Longest Brunch.

“This is the richest, broadest, deepest and flat-out tastiest food festival Australia has seen in years,” says Melbourne Food and Wine creative director Pat Nourse. “I’m so pumped for March, and whatever you’re into, be it things fancy or casual, epic or intimate, there’s a whole lot in this festival for you.”

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2025 highlights

World’s Longest Lunch

15 March

The World’s Longest Lunch has been a mainstay of the MFWF calendar since 1994, and the 2024 edition will see guests seated at a 600-metre-long communal table at Kings Domain. In 2025, the event will be led, direct from Los Angeles, by fan-favourite Curtis Stone.

St. John Bread and Wine in Melbourne (presented by Australia Pork and PorkStar)

24 March

In an Australian first pop-up, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver’s internationally acclaimed London restaurant St. John will take over CBD favourite French Saloon on 24 March. St. John head chef Farokh Talati and co-founder Gulliver will be plating up a four-course set menu celebrating nose-to-tail cooking, with plenty of extras for those ready to make an evening of it.

Tickets are selling fast, book yours here.

World’s Longest Brunch

The World’s Longest Brunch is a walk in the park. In 2025, it’s literally a walk in the park. Led by beloved author and food personality Julia Busuttil Nishimura in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, grab some friends and get ready for an on-the-go feast like no other. The adventure starts at Tecoma Pavillion for coffee and meanders all the way to Dog Flat Lawn (with plenty of stopping and snacking in between), where The Alto Structure provides a spread of everything sweet and savoury.

Baker’s Dozen

Baker’s Dozen has been supersized in 2025, with the two-day celebration of Melbourne’s obsession with cakes and baking bringing together some of the city’s finest pastry makers. Some drawcards include croissant savants Lune, Baker Bleu, Tarts Anon and Antara 128, plus an exclusive showcase from special guests AP Bakery from Sydney.

Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 March, 10am to 3pm.

Danielle Alvarez x Stokehouse Pasta & Bar

Sit down for an exclusive dinner inspired by chef Danielle Alvarez’s time at the California-favourite Chez Panisse. Drawing on Danielle’s time at the Berkeley restaurant, this collaboration celebrates fresh, seasonal ingredients through a beautiful bespoke three-course menu. Expect vibrant, ingredient-led dishes (Alvarez’s signature) that bring a playful nod to the legacy of Chez Panisse.

Progressive Dining Experience at the MCG

25 March

Curated by MCG executive chef Dylan Sanding, guests are invited to venture inside of the boundary lines and beyond, discovering exclusive members’ reserves, players’ change rooms and the MCG’s culinary centre. The experience includes a five-course meal, culminating with a rooftop chocolate garden, featuring creations by Australia’s only Belgian chocolate master, Ryan Stevenson.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, presented by La Trobe Financial, runs from 21-30 March, 2025. View the full program at melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Tickets for the 2025 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, presented by La Trobe Financial, go on sale 10am Thursday 28 November to the general public, with pre-sales from 10am Monday 25 November for Melbourne Food & Wine Festival subscribers.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival details

The post Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s 2025 program appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

As more allegations of abhorrent behaviour in Australia’s hospitality industry come to light, we felt it was timely to resurface this feature from last year, in which women from across the industry share their experiences, highlight the role diners play in fuelling sexism, and discuss what needs to change.

While it is disappointing this conversation has not progressed in the last 18 months, it is one we need to keep having. Systemic and cultural change is always slow. But it won’t happen at all unless we keep talking about it. 

The recent reporting by Good Food and Nine Newspapers, as well as the ABC, has shone a bright light on some deeply concerning allegations. But each and every one of us working in hospitality, or adjacent to it, knows this culture extends beyond those named so far. The more we continue this conversation and draw wider public attention to it, the further that light will shine and the greater the change will be. 

Shine a light. Speak up. We are listening. 

“In the kitchen, there were constant references to rape, and it was common for guys to push cucumbers between your legs as a joke while you worked.” – Almay Jordaan, chef-owner of Melbourne’s Neighbourhood Wine, Old Palm Liquor, and Bahama Gold.

“A lot of the comments I’d receive were both racist and sexist. They would fetishise me while standing a metre away from me.” – Stefanie Wee, founder of Last Call.

“There are restaurants in Melbourne with high-profile male head chefs whose behaviour has been so sickening people ended up in therapy because of it.” – Jacqui Challinor, executive chef at Nomad Group.

“There was a lot of locker room talk, and then there was the classic arse grabbing, sexualised jokes, people saying things about me that were extremely inappropriate, especially considering I was 15 years old.” – Shannon Martinez, chef-owner of Smith & Daughters and Smith & Deli.

This is just a snapshot of the harassment, abuse and misogyny that exists within Australia’s hospitality industry. A culture that has been allowed to take root, squeezing women out of the industry, preventing them from reaching positions of power.

The boys’ club of Australian kitchens is nothing new. Globally, kitchen machismo can be traced back to the 1860s when former army chef – and godfather of French cooking – Auguste Escoffier established the kitchen brigade system; a system of hierarchy where every cook is given a clear, singular motive. Yes chef!

This is a working environment where bravado thrives. Or put more bluntly by the late Anthony Bourdain, gives rise to the “institutionalised Meathead Culture” of the restaurant business.

At best, the system is set up to erode boundaries; it tells workers to toughen up, not to complain, and if they can’t handle the heat, they know where to go.

“It’s about getting hurt in a kitchen and not asking the chef for a bandage; often soldiering through because you don’t want to look weak. How many burns can you get? Can you take it?” explains Almay Jordaan, chef-owner of Melbourne’s Neighbourhood Wine, Old Palm Liquor and Bahama Gold. “Essentially, you’re not ‘one of the guys’, that’s where it all comes from.”

At worst, it’s a system where rape culture goes unchecked.

Unsafe workplaces

Jacqui Challinor was sexually assaulted while she was an apprentice chef. She was 22 and in service at the pass when a senior chef “grabbed my vagina, looked at me, and said, ‘Yeah, I grabbed your pussy. What are you going to do about it?'”

The next day, Challinor asked her head chef to move her to another kitchen, though she didn’t want to mention the incident. After he queried her further, she told him. “He was obviously outraged and said I needed to report this. I literally begged him not to as I didn’t want to cause a scene.” The matter was escalated; she sat in a boardroom full of senior males, and the case was later dismissed due to the abuser denying her claims.

“I just think, ‘how did that happen? How was there no support? How was there no follow up from my HR department to check in and see how I was?’ The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”

Challinor’s experiences aren’t isolated. In 2022, a national survey conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission found that 34 per cent of hospitality staff reported being sexually harassed. Female workers were more likely to be harassed, and three-quarters of harassers were men.

“In some of the bigger places where I worked, sometimes a ‘pretty’ girl would do stocktake or go to the dry stores in a different part of the building alone,” recalls Jordaan. “The guys would ask, ‘Oh, who’s going to follow her to have a quick fuck in the dry store?”

The male gaze: How diners feed into the problem

Sexism and sexual harassment aren’t isolated to the back-of-house, where harassment is concealed behind closed doors. Sexist microaggressions are rife throughout the front-of-house – and staff aren’t the only perpetrators.

Kelsey Tukiri is venue manager at Melbourne’s Poodle Bar and Bistro and Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca. Throughout her career at venues across the state, she found herself swapping out young female staff from their sections and standing in for them due to unruly male patrons. “A lot of the time, it’s older guests speaking down to them and treating them like they’re incompetent. Which is frustrating,” she says. “I have waitresses who are hospitality professionals and some who are studying architectural degrees. You think they can’t do something as simple as put an order through for your steak?”

Moira Tirtha was the sommelier at Mauritian wine bar Manzé. “Sometimes, I’d be the only one on the floor with two wine glasses and a spittoon in front of me waiting for a rep to show us their wine portfolio,” they say. “The rep would walk straight past me, go the kitchen and ask for the somm. How could it not be me?”

Jaime Brown is another front-of-house professional who has worked at some of Melbourne’s most respected restaurants and been subjected to the same behaviour. “I once had this table of two high-flying corporate men, who at no point acknowledged my presence or spoke directly to me. The entire evening, they kept taking bets as to who would take me home.” After asking their manager to swap sections, he effectively told them to suck it up, saying: ‘They’ve already racked up a bill that’s close to $5000, so maybe just cop it until they go.'”

Wee is a Singaporean with Chinese heritage. She remarks upon the experience of Women of Colour and the fetishisation she’s been subjected to. “One man came up to me while I was making coffee and said, ‘I like women of your type because they’re small.'”

Racist or discriminatory comments directed at migrants and/or Women of Colour about their bodies can be a particularly jarring experience. Especially when they have complicated relationships with their bodies due to culture, religion, stereotypes and negative bias.

Transformation: How women are changing kitchen culture

Jordaan worked for 15 years before she allowed herself to go on to a senior sous chef role, followed by a head chef role. “I came from the era where girls got stuck on the salad section because they’re good at organising things. I only got thrown on the grill [section] when I worked for a female chef who told me I was capable and could do it,” says Jordaan.

As Martinez sees it, the answer may lie in female leadership. “Female-led kitchens tend to approach things quite differently and can lack aggression. Women are more empathetic in general. We can still get work done and hustle, but we encourage it in a different way.

“I don’t discipline or pull people up in front of others; it has such a negative impact on the rest of the team as well. I really care about what’s going on in the lives of my staff as well and try to acknowledge that if someone’s not performing, there’s probably a good reason for it. We try to make sure that our staff are comfortable talking to us about things.”

“Feminine” styles of leadership have been closely linked with transformational leadership, whilst “masculine” styles of leadership are transactional, as reported in the Harvard Business Review as far back as 1990. It’s a proactive style that empowers those around them to dream big and go beyond their role, fosters open communication, and can lead to mutual trust or respect. Transactional leadership is a more reactive style that focuses on running a stricter, tighter ship with rewards and punishments as motivation.

“I have chefs telling me it’s the first time they’ve worked somewhere where emotions are addressed so openly, and we have a system where we check in with every single staff member on rotation once a month. It has a very good effect on staff retention. Because people want to work in a nice place,” says Jordaan.

Zoë Rubino is co-owner of Poodle Bar and Bistro and Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca. “I think it’s problematic how inflexible the restaurant industry is in allowing women to have families and return to work,” she says. “It treats young professional women who are trying to develop their skills and build long term careers as if they have a shelf life. If women are at an age where they could go on maternity leave, they are overlooked for promotion or development because it’s assumed that they won’t return to work.” Meanwhile, prolonged paternity leave is nearly unheard of in the hospitality industry.

Rubino, like Martinez and Jordaan, started her own venues so that she could call the shots.

The march forward: What needs to change?

“It would be really valuable if men spoke about it more… Whenever a man takes a stand [in these situations] it has a different weight to it because they’re standing up against their own,” says Martinez.

Rubino believes in creating opportunities for women to work in hospitality while facilitating their families. “I don’t expect restaurant groups to build a crèche for working mothers, but the industry needs to be more flexible. Hospitality is lagging behind corporate sectors in terms of job sharing or working part-time in leadership roles.”

She believes it also means taking a stand against tokenism and tackling the rockstar-esque poster boy image chefs are associated with. “It’s patronising that the food that women are celebrated for cooking is really nourishing and wholesome. Whereas the food that men are celebrated for cooking is really avant-garde.”

List of resources which can help people being abused in the industry:

• 1800 Respect
• Fair Work Commission
• State-based WHS regulatory
  

This article was updated in November 2024 with a note from the editor.

The post Sexism in service: The brutal realities of Australian kitchen culture appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

In the last couple of decades, the Australian olive oil industry has started to get beautifully boutique, not unlike the way Australian wine did in the 1980s. And similar to our wine industry, as a country we punch well above our weight – if not in quantity, certainly in quality. If you scan the list of winners from 2022’s New York World Olive Oil Competition – considered to be the most prestigious extra-virgin olive oil contest in the world – Australian oils came a very respectable 10th out of 28 countries. Not bad considering it only produces 0.5 per cent of the world’s oils. 

The majority of our output is dominated by one name – Cobram Estate, which is responsible for around 65 to 70 per cent of all Australian output. “They’re one of the world’s largest anywhere, because typically in Europe olive oil farms are family operations that collaborate with cooperatives,” says David Valmorbida, president of the Australian Olive Oil Association. “But then we have this emerging group of mid-sized growers – beautiful brands like [The Hunter Valley’s] Pukara Estate and Mount Zero. And then there are the boutique guys – the grassroots.” They all have their place – it’s widely agreed within the industry that the mass-market but consistently high-quality Cobram Estate has been a godsend in terms of raising the profile of Australian oils overall – but it’s the little guys where the really exciting stuff is happening.

Olives tend to like the same terroir and climate as grapes, so Australia’s main growing regions are around Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. One of these boutique producers is Goldi, a brand from a family-run farm in Kialla, in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. Headed up by Janine Fahey and her sister-in-law Dina Sminova, they produce two main single-variety oils: their “punchy” Coratina, an Italian olive, and milder Arbosana, which is native to Spain. 

Originally, the family sold their product to chefs but in 2021 they started getting so much demand from family and friends that they began selling directly to consumers. Like Rio Vista, Goldi presses its own oil (and occasionally helps its neighbours do the same) rather than sending it elsewhere for processing, which Fahey says is one of the benchmarks to look out for when selecting a quality local oil. “The sooner you press the better quality of the oil, especially when you can control the temperature,” says Fahey. 

She thinks Australians are increasingly recognising the quality of Australian brands. “Previously I think people thought quality only came from Europe,” she says. “And I think once they’d use any old rancid oil. But now people are so much more aware of flavour, and they’re interested in traceability and where their food comes from.” 

Of course, chefs have been interested in homegrown oils for a long time. Peter Gunn from Ides and March in Melbourne has been devoted to Australian olive oil for most of his cooking career, specifically Mount Zero from the Grampians region of Victoria. Today, Mount Zero olive oil forms the base of all his restaurants’ flavoured oils, including a waxflower oil that he serves with pickled pumpkin, and a mountain yuzu-infused oil that dresses an almond chocolate cake. “I always want to use a product that’s as fresh as possible,” he says – and with olives harvesting in late autumn and winter, a northern hemisphere oil is always going to be staler when Australian oils are at their peak. “That’s not to disrespect the foundations of olive oil, or where beautiful olives come from originally. It’s just about staying true to our locality.” 

Ibrahim Kasif, of Nomad offshoot Beau, concurs. He’s a Rio Vista fan, particularly its garlic- and turmeric-infused flavoured oils. “Coming from a Turkish background, olive oil is a big part of our culture, and at the forefront of every meal,” says Kasif. “Rio Vista’s oil is an example of the kind of oil my family has always loved – my aunties, uncles, grandparents. There’s high quality stuff going on there.” That’s not to say he won’t be using European or Middle Eastern olive oils at all at Beau – there’s a Cypriot sun-dried black olive oil that has no equivalent here that he can’t wait to get his hands on for salads and pulses. But Australian oils, he says, “go blow-for-blow with them.”

As one of the largest consumers of olive oil outside of the Mediterranean – Australians glug through around 50 million litres per year – our appetite for homegrown good oil shows no signs of slowing, especially as uncertainty hits the northern hemisphere market thanks in part to droughts and conflicts in Europe and as people recognise the benefits of buying their oils fresh and local. “People are saying, hey, we want high polyphenol levels, we want the antioxidants, we want the squalene, we want flavour profiles and quality,” says Asciutto. “I think it’s really exciting.”

What are the different varieties of olive oil?

More than 100 olive varieties are grown in Australia, each with a different flavour personality. We asked Australian-owned olive oil brand Rio Vista’s olive oil sommelier Sarah Asciutto to explain the most popular.

Koroneiki

A small-fruited Greek variety with lively notes of candy bananas and fresh oregano and thyme. Paul Farag uses it with his signature cuttlefish, ummak huriyya salad and couscous dish at Aalia in Sydney. “The tropical notes lift the cuttlefish,” says Asciutto.

Nevadillo

This hardy Spanish varietal is known for its high oil content and full-bodied flavour profile: tomato vine, fig leaves and summer fruits. “I think of it like a summer garden where you’ve brushed up against the tomato leaves,” says Asciutto. The team at Nomad Melbourne use it in their ice-cream sandwich. “It’s quite savoury so putting it on something sweet turns it on its head, while bringing out its other flavour notes like stone fruits and citrus.”

Hardy’s Mammoth

First grown by the Hardy’s wine family in South Australia, this plump green olive of unknown lineage is a uniquely Australian variety. Its oil is popular in desserts thanks to its passionfruit, guava and cardamom notes but it also comes alive when used to finish white-fleshed fish. Tom Tilbury at Adelaide’s Press Food and Wine uses it on his kingfish, peppers, fennel and fragrant herbs. Asciutto explains, “You’ve got the sweetness of the fish, and then the Hardy’s Mammoth adds this bright fruitiness.” 

Picual

One of the most popular varieties grown in Australia, this Spanish cultivar generally has tomato notes in its profile, says Asciutto, “It pairs well with tomato-based foods, beef stews and roast pork.” 

If you’re not buying individual varietals and want more all-purpose oils, Asciutto says, a good guide is to think of olive oil intensity like wine – milder flavours work with lighter, fresher food and vice versa. “Mild oils [which are generally on the fruity side] are great for baking, for making mayonnaise or for a delicate fish,” she says. “Classic oils, which have a bit more pepperiness, are great as a base to a pasta sauce or on a paella or for roasting vegetables.” Robust oils, which are strong and peppery, are for finishing – splashed over a steak or for dipping in bread. “They’re even good for something like prawns,” says Asciutto, “which have that strong flavour, to lift them up.”

Expert tip

The post A guide to the Australian olive oil industry appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.

No one suffers if you get to eat and drink exactly what and how much you want, then proceed to give what you’ve ordered your full attention or no attention at all. That you set your own pace, create your own experience, whether it’s bantering with the bartender (the bar is always my solo dining go-to), immersing yourself in a book or staring into space trying to figure out what herb is in the sauce or just lost in your own thoughts. Without getting too far into the self-care of it all, there is something meditative and undeniably empowering about eating alone.

The revelation that solo dining can be a choice rather than an occasional, uncomfortable necessity came to me in Italy. Some crossed wires with a friend (it was the pre-mobile dark ages) found me on my own in Sicily and, on my first solo night in Palermo, I chickened out of going out to eat alone. It was a little bit about my appallingly minimal Italian but mostly it came from fear of people judging me a lonesome loser, which was exactly what I ended up feeling like, drinking wine and eating bread and cheese by myself in a small hotel room in a city full of excellent places to eat.

Night two, propelled by contempt for my previous evening’s cowardice, I ventured out, armed with two books, a journal, a phrase book, a map of the city and a Walkman, all of which I stacked around me on the table I’d chosen in a darkened corner of the trattoria like a fort. I can’t remember what I ate but I do remember the well-dressed, middle-aged man who came in to dine on his own. Sitting at a table in the centre of the trattoria without any reading material but the menu or conversation apart from some brief chat with the waiter, he was completely, unapologetically, at ease. It was fascinating. He took his time with each of the four courses, not rushing, not fiddling, just calm and present in the moment in the company of his food, wine and thoughts. His self-possession represented a complete paradigm shift for me. I wanted what he had. It was the origin story for my own great love affair with solo dining. The first step? I removed everything from the table except for one book.

It took time to get completely comfortable with solo dining but I was lucky that my revelation came at a time when the stigma surrounding eating alone had begun to lose its grip. The increasing prevalence of restaurant bars and small-plate menus made it easier to explore the option. The phone arrived as a handy prop but, believe me, the more you do it, the less crutches you need.

Being male helped too. The solo dining experience for women can be fraught because there will always be those who believe a woman alone is actually craving company other than her own. But with booking statistics from OpenTable reporting that solo restaurant reservations in Australia had increased by 14 per cent in 2023, it seems hopeful that the practice is becoming more normalised and that any person sitting at the bar with a book, or on an outside table simply observing the street life is there because she chooses to be.

One of the things that I love about this increasing awareness of solitudinous dining is how many restaurants and bars are acknowledging and catering to it. It’s not just menus dedicating the opening section
of their menu to snacks either. Many places now offer half-serves of larger dishes and I’d like to think that the increasing numbers and variety of wine by the glass that I’ve been noticing is not just because people are opting to drink less. If you’re not forking out for a bottle of wine (no judgment if you are), you can splash out on the rarer, pricier stuff and discover flavours you’d never imagined possible.

One of the great discoveries I’ve made is how great going solo to a dégustation restaurant can be. Choosing to eat at one of these types of restaurants is not about having dinner or lunch; it’s an hours-long performance. On your own, it’s easier to observe the ebbs and flows of the way the menu has been assembled. You also notice the music, the careful choreography of the service, the instinct of a server as to whether you want to chat or not. The art of it.

I’ve had some of my best ideas, found solutions to some of my thornier problems, while treating myself to dinner alone. I love conversation but I enjoy what this indulgent form of silence and reflection brings
too. I’d even say it makes me better company.

The best places to dine out across Australia

Previous

The best restaurants in Queensland right now

The best restaurants in Adelaide right now

Our expert food reviewers’ guide to the best Melbourne restaurants

Our expert reviewers’ picks for the best Sydney restaurants right now

The best Canberra restaurants to visit in 2026

The best restaurants in Perth right now

The best restaurants in Tasmania right now

Next

The post Table for one: how to perfect the art of solo dining appeared first on Gourmet Traveller.