Food News

****Silks’ braised abalone with webbing from duck’s feet: $1380 per kilogram ****To spend as much money on food as fast as you can, head to Crown’s high-end Cantonese restaurant Silks and order a portion of the braised abalone with webbing from duck’s feet. At $138 per 100 grams (or $1380 per kilogram), this is a […]

****Alistair Wise, Hobart **“You’re an idiot,” was Gordon Ramsay’s typically subtle response when word got out that Alistair Wise, the founding pastry chef at Ramsay’s eponymous New York restaurant, was returning to Tasmania to start his own venture. The first year of Ramsay’s foray into Manhattan was something of a rollercoaster, with a less-than-glowing review […]

**Mad Cow, Sydney **You can read the full review for all the details but, for those with appetites bigger than their attention spans, here’s the word: high-stakes steaks in a room with a look that owes more to The Love Boat than Peter Luger. The disposition and clothing of the staff, and the volume and […]

Edible flowers Flowers on food sounds like a throwback to the bad old days of glass bowls and square plates. But today’s blooms are discreet and dazzling flourishes rather than blousy nosegays and, crucially, they’re edible if not outright tasty. Already big in Spain, here they pop up everywhere from elderflowers on desserts at Claude’s […]

****The smokehouse, Anise, Brisbane ****Hickory-smoked to order, this amuse bouche, a triple smokehouse treat, ticks all the right boxes. The exact make-up varies but the current line-up features a Pacific oyster, a couple of tender slivers of wagyu and a tranche of ocean trout served with a slice of lemon. Chef Jonathan Bryant’s kitchen is […]

I’m looking for a restaurant to go to for dinner in Melbourne. Something with a great reputation, good food and reasonable prices. By EmilyW Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller features editor and restaurant critic, writes: You’re in for a treat: good food at reasonable prices is what Melbourne’s all about, so you’re somewhat spoiled for choice […]

The best on the best: we asked nine of the nation’s best chefs to spill the beans on their favourite suppliers, products and diversions for our April Best of the Best issue. Here are the insider picks, some well known, some off the beaten track. *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne * Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney * Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove * David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne * Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney * Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove * David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

Melbourne’s Ben Shewry, Gourmet’s Best New Talent award-winner, brings a taste of his quirky, dynamic dishes to the table with this autumn selection.

Being charged for bread in restaurants makes me crazy. Shouldn’t bread be free? What’s the story? By lilninja Gourmet Traveller features editor and restaurant critic, Pat Nourse, writes: “The best restaurants, as a rule, tend to offer bread and water, if not a little more, as soon as you take your table as a simple courtesy […]

Matt Moran takes it to the ‘burbs in The Chopping Block, this year’s hottest new local food TV show.

With a collection of his famously savage reviews newly published, AA Gill talks restaurant criticism, wafting aromas and camel snot.

Winery restaurants are not normally the best places to find a great wine list...

It’s no big deal to meet a bartender who’s also an actor or a would-be singer-songwriter. Bartender-artists are a rarer breed, though, and finding someone active in the arts who is working in a bar not so much as a sideline to support themselves but as a dual profession or indeed another form of artistic […]

Cast your mind back to 1990 and a young Ronnie Di Stasio is several years into his first solo venture as a restaurateur, the eponymous Café Di Stasio, in what was a part of Melbourne better known for its sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll than its food. With Valerio Nucci cooking, Di Stasio working […]

Artist and mentor, baker and cook, Phillip Searle has worn many hats, many of them at the same time. One of the first Australian chefs to successfully bring the flavours and textures of Asia into the world of fine dining, he’s also recognised as an innovative pastry chef. His influences and interests are diverse. “The […]

One of Simon Curkovic’s favourite words is ‘fun’. He uses it when he tells you how he regularly introduces adventurous diners at Catalina restaurant to the wine world’s more obscure bottles (“drinking something different is great fun”). Tellingly he also uses the F-word when talking about the great older-vintage Burgundies at the heart of Catalina’s […]

Among the many things we love to love about Nu Nu is the way in which it’s good all day long. With Jason Rowbottom from Punch Lane on the floor and Pearl’s Nick Holloway running the kitchen, it’s like a little piece of Melbourne’s scene gone troppo: diverse influences unified by a kitchen that offsets […]

There’s always been another side to Neil Perry; a side that wasn’t Chinese roast pigeon with prawn-stuffed eggplant. And that side was steak with horseradish cream, pappardelle with duck ragù, confit of suckling pig with mustard fruits and a nice little apple and rhubarb crumble. In short, Rockpool Bar & Grill, his remarkably accomplished and […]

Ben Shewry exhibits refreshing characteristics for a young chef, not the least being the credit he gives his mentors for their part in a brief, yet brilliant, career: his first boss, back in New Zealand and his culinary school teachers; his first serious chef, the decorated Swiss-New Zealander Mark Limacher, for a gruelling work ethic […]

Judging three-star restaurants is a funny business. Do you go in and just sit and wait to be wowed? Or do you work backwards, clipping points back from a perfect score and see who’s left at the end? Whichever way you choose to look at things, Pier comes up trumps. Speaking personally, I visited every […]

The Australian Gourmet Traveller 2008 Restaurant Guide awards are in.

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