A celebration of good eating
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010
Tricia Brown
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 [©Fairfax Media]
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide is celebrating its silver anniversary. That's 25 years of great eating, and 25 years of editors dedicated to the cause of celebrating the best of Sydney's food.
Co-editors Simon Thomsen and Joanna Savill asked the Guide's alumni of former editors to look back on their time at the helm and a potted 25-year history of the Good Food Guide by those 14 editors features in the introduction. It's a fun read of fads and failures, what and where we were eating at the time, but mostly it's a look at how our tastes and trends have changed since 1984.
Restaurant scores in the Guide are given out of 20 with places scoring less than 12 not included. The team of dedicated reviewers visited more than 500 restaurants throughout New South Wales over the last 12 months, sampling at least four dishes per meal, and paying in full.
As well as awarding chef's hats to the highest scorers, there are other awards designed to recognise greatness. Quay took out Restaurant of the Year title for the fourth time since 2003, and is a testament to chef Peter Gilmore's imaginative, sophisticated food. Chef of the Year went to Mark Best of Marque in Surry Hills and Mitchell Orr of Sepia picked up the Young Chef of the Year award.
For the second time in three years, Darley's, at the Lillianfels resort in the Blue Mountains, has won Best Regional Restaurant. Other awards included Pilu at Freshwater for Wine List of the Year, Rockpool Bar & Grill for Best New Restaurant, and Regional Wine List of the Year went to Union Bank in Orange.
To mark the 25th anniversary, the 2010 Good Food Guide pays tribute to restaurants that have stood the test of time and maintained their standards along the way. Some 55 restaurants that feature in the 2010 edition as well as appearing in a number of Good Food Guide editions over the years are listed in a special Stayers section at the front of the book.
While the economic downturn has made it a little easier to find a table, dining across NSW continues to thrive with 70 new listings. Popular sections such as bars and the best Sydney cafes return too, along with a comprehensive listing of the best places to visit in regional NSW, from cafes to bakeries, farmer's markets and wineries.
The 10 of the Best lists for Breakfasts, Guilty Pleasures, Sushi, Yum Cha and Green Eateries provide a great quick reference as well as inspiration for visiting each and every one.
Regional entries are included for the Blue Mountains, Canberra & Snow Regions, Hunter Valley, Central Coast & Newcastle, South Coast, Southern Highlands, North Coast and The West. As well, there is an Interstate section listing a further 70 restaurants, including a comprehensive guide to the best in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 will soon be available as a mobile phone application.
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 edited by Simon Thomsen & Joanna Savill is published by Penguin Books (2009; RRP A$29.95). Subscribers of VisitVineyards.com and Winepros Archive can purchase this book at 12.5% discount from our book partners Seekbooks (postage extra).
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- Sydney (NSW)
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