Attica and Brae among World’s 50 Best Restaurants

Victoria's Ben Shewry of Attica and Dan Hunter of Brae

Victoria’s Attica and Brae are among the top 50 restaurants in the world, according to the prestigious The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards that were hosted in Melbourne last night.

Attica moved up one place from last year to number 32 while Brae jumped 21 places, to take out the 44th position on the coveted list.

Known as the Oscars of the dining industry, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards were hosted at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building (REB) – just the third city to host the awards, after London and New York.

In the past few days, the world’s culinary elite has descended on Melbourne to celebrate the ceremony, including 200 media of the world’s top food media and digital influencers and 92 international chefs, along with the judges. It is hoped that after the chance to experience some of the state’s best restaurants, additional Victorian dining destinations will be added to the list in years to come.

While the who’s who of food filled the historic REB, Federation Square welcomed almost 1000 foodie aficionados keen to watch the awards unfold as they were live-streamed onto the big screen.

The celebrations continued outside Arts Centre Melbourne, with the exterior of Hamer Hall lit up with food-inspired light projections – an artistic endeavour brought to life by creative genius David Atkins OAM.

While they concluded with the end of the awards, a selfie-worthy mural of the world’s best chefs remains larger than life in the laneway adjacent to Melbourne’s ever-popular Asian-inspired restaurant, Chin Chin.

Created by Melbourne street-artist Heesco, the mural depicts Australia’s best chef Ben Shewry (Attica, Melbourne) alongside the world’s three best chefs, namely Joan Roca (El Celler De Can Roca, Spain – coming in at number three), Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana, Italy – number 2) and Daniel Humm (11 Madison Park in New York, which took out first place) as well as Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck, London) who won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

These faces, looming large, act as a reminder that Melbourne sits among the world’s best when it comes to food and wine.