Igni gets second serve of success
A GEELONG restaurant has taken out the top spot in Gourmet Traveller’s national restaurant awards this week.
For the second year running, the Ryan Place restaurant Igni won the award for the best regional restaurant and was deemed “the next big thing in Australian destination restaurants”.
Igni chef Aaron Turner said they were always surprised to find themselves nominated but to win “especially for the second time” was a real honour.
The humble chef said he thought Igni’s location may have helped but luck was also on their side.
“Everybody in all the categories does an amazing job and it was a bit of luck for us.”
“I think it could be something about where we are in Geelong. It’s a bit out of the norm for a lot of people,” he said.
The awards night took place in Sydney, and Aaron said it was great opportunity to catch up with everyone.
“When you look at everybody who’s in that room, there’s a lot of talent. There’s some really great places that I admire.”
He said the plan for Igni over the next year was to keep getting “better and better and to bring more and more people down to Geelong”.
The chef is also a writer and will be launching his new book Igni — A Restaurant’s First Year on October 1.
Another local winner on Wednesday night was Ocean Grove chef Ben Shewry, whose kitchen at Attica in Melbourne took out second place in Australia’s Top Ten restaurants. Adelaide restaurant Orana took out the number one spot.
World renowned Birregurra restaurant Brae came in at number four in the country.
Mat Lindsay, of Sydney’s Ester, was named chef of the year and OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn was honoured with the outstanding contribution to hospitality award for her foodwaste activism.