Goldfields scoops up four chef hats

Results from the annual The Age Good Food Guide awards confirm that it has been an exciting year for regional restaurants. In the 2016 guide, the Goldfields region, one hour away from Melbourne city centre has been the big winner, scooping up four new chef hats. Restaurants, Catfish (Ballarat), Masons of Bendigo (Bendigo), The Pubic Inn and The Good Table (both from Castlemaine) have each earned themselves one prestigious chefs hat – meaning ‘very good, consistently notable’.

Other regional winners include Dan Hunter’s Brae – the only regional restaurant to be awarded three chef hats meaning its the ‘best of the best’. Gladioli (Inverleigh), Lake House (Daylesford), Provenance (Beechworth), Royal Mail Hotel (Grampians), Ten Minutes by Tractor (Mornington Peninsula) all achieved a ‘great’ or ‘excellent’ two chefs hats each.

In Melbourne, Ben Shewy’s Attica is the only city restaurant to achieve three chef hats, but there were many proud new owners of their first chef hat including Italian Tipo 00,  Japanese Kappo, South Melbourne’s ambitious Lume, O.My serving amazing local produce on the outskirts of the city, and the Roving Marrow in Carlton’s Lygon Street precinct, an area that is offering some exciting new dining options of late.