From the Editor
IMAGINE YOU’RE 50 years old and you’ve been working for the same company for 17 years. Business is good and life is busy but manageable. What do you do? Keep going as you have been, collecting the regular pay cheque? Or rock the boat and disrupt your highly successful career?
If you’re Peter Gilmore, the executive chef at Sydney’s harbourside restaurants Quay and Bennelong, you take the latter approach. In July – alongside owners Leon and John Fink – he unveiled the new-look Quay after a $4 million renovation that turned everything upside down and inside out. Tablecloths have been discarded to showcase the custom-made spotted-gum tables. The dishes Gilmore spent so long perfecting have gone to restaurant heaven (RIP Snow Egg, hello White Coral). Even the crockery has changed, the chef working with ceramic artists to create specific plates for each course.
I first met Gilmore at a restaurant awards night in 2003. In the 15 years that have passed, he hasn’t changed one jot – unassuming, humble despite the accolades, intensely driven. His fine-diner isn’t somewhere you drop in to for a casual meal; it’s a six- or 10course dégustation that screams occasion. Quite simply, Quay is a place that makes you feel lucky to be there.
Every year, Australia’s dining scene continues to evolve and improve. But it’s not all about restaurants of the highest standard (although we owe a great debt to the likes of Ben Shewry at Attica in suburban Melbourne and Dan Hunter at Brae in country Victoria). Innovation – and, let’s face it, fun – can also be found in a casual diner that’s open until the wee hours or a favourite neighbourhood brunch spot that takes the classics and gives them a kick.
This issue, our annual Hungry 100, is a celebration of food and drink. It focuses on the trends of the moment (from burnt honey to Vegemite), the rise of plant-based eating, the new booze-free cocktails and restaurants that just want to do one thing really, really well.
It seems Peter Gilmore’s attitude is catching. And aren’t we the luckier for it?