Geelong Advertiser

SCOOPING UP AWARDS

LOCAL RESTAURANT­S, ICE CREAMERIES WOW JUDGES

- NADIA DIMATTINA and JEMMA RYAN

THE region’s food scene is catching the attention of the nation with a swag of awards and nomination­s in recent weeks.

Local restaurant­s Igni, Geelong, and Brae, Birregurra, have been named finalists in the Regional Restaurant of the Year category of Gourmet Traveller’s National Restaurant Awards, to be held in Sydney on August 23.

Meanwhile, the region’s ice cream companies have scooped up a number of wins for their delicious gelato flavours at this year’s Australian Food Awards.

Dooley’s Ice Cream in Apollo Bay won an award for every flavour it entered, with 16 winning gold and one winning silver.

Owner operator Alyciandra Milner said even though they had now won more than 400 awards, every year was different.

“You can never be too confident, but it’s always a nice surprise and it’s fantastic feedback to receive from the judges,” she said.

With 250 different flavours, Dooley’s Ice Cream won gold for its Milo, banana, mint choc chip, caramel and chocolate flavours, to name just a few.

The awards also proved successful for new business entrant Gelato Gelato in Lorne.

With eight gold awards and six silver, Gelato Gelato cofounders and creators Stephanie Lewis and Jo Stevens were overwhelme­d with the result.

“We are very humbled. We are not in-the-spotlight type of people, we just believe in what we do and it was with reluctance that we entered and it’s just phenomenal what has come from it,” Ms Lewis said.

“For a new business we could not have had any greater recognitio­n,” Ms Stevens added.

To top it off, Gelato Gelato was also awarded the overall best gelato award for its maple walnut flavour.

“We ran an autumn flavour competitio­n in store where customers decided on their favourite flavour and the winner was maple walnut, which is why we entered it,” Ms Stevens said.

The Gelato Gelato duo believe they have a real point of difference.

“It is all local produce and nothing is artificial. Everything is hand batched, we even peel all the mangoes ourselves for the mango sorbet,” Ms Lewis said.

The Australian Food Awards are Australia’s leading national food awards program.

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