Award goes outside Sydney and Melbourne for first time in 20 years with Sydney’s Fred’s the night’s other big winner

Adelaide’s Orana was awarded restaurant of the year by Gourmet Traveller magazine on Wednesday night – the first time in 20 years that the coveted title has been won outside Sydney and Melbourne.

Led by 41-year-old Glasgow-born owner and chef Jock Zonfrillo, the 10-table restaurant opened in 2013 and has become globally known for its dedication to native Australian ingredients and culture – expressed through both its menu and its non-profit organisation the Orana Foundation, which Zonfrillo describes as the “backbone” of the business.

“I wanted to make a change for Indigenous people and for their culture and for their standard of living and, to me, all I know is food,” he told Guardian Australia.

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The restaurant sits above its newer, bigger, cheaper bistro version Blackwood, on Rundle Street in Adelaide. $175 will get you a degustation of about 18 dishes, which could include puffed kangaroo tendon, emu with mulberry and mountain pepper, crocodile consommé or buffalo curd with fermented bunya nut and beetroot.

Zonfrillo has travelled to, and spent time with, Indigenous communities around the country and was once described by the late restaurant critic AA Gill as “the Mad Max of foraging” – he lists sugar lerps, sweet and sour leaves and green ants among his favourite native ingredients.

But he describes the Orana Foundation as his raison d’être: a non-profit venture that works with Indigenous communities to preserve and promote Indigenous food and culture and share skills training and employment opportunities.

“I certainly didn’t open Orana to become restaurant of the year or whatever,” he said. “It was more about starting the foundation. We couldn’t start the foundation until we could actually display it – here’s what it looks like, here’s what it tastes like, here are the positive changes we can make through it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Orana in Adelaide. Photograph: Gourmet Traveller

Zonfrillo’s passion was born from a chance meeting with an Indigenous busker in Circular Quay; the pair spent four hours talking about Indigenous food and culture. “It was a conversation that changed my life. It changed me as a person and it changed the way I cook,” he said from the stage. “And his parting words to me were, ‘Whatever you do, give back more than you take’ – and really that’s been the backbone of everything that we do.”

The foundation won a $1.25m grant from the SA government in December and in June announced a partnership with the University of Adelaide to continue its work researching, cultivating and championing Indigenous food and its fair trade.

They hope to use the money to build their current arsenal of 700 Indigenous Australian ingredients into an open-source database of 1000. They also want to set up a research and development facility, to analyse the taste and nutritional content of ingredients, and hub of skills training and development to support Indigenous Australians.



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The Gourmet Traveller awards, the country’s longest running restaurant prize, were held at Chin Chin Sydney – the Sydney iteration of the Melbourne Asian fusion eatery, which will open to the public in late September.

With a kitchen rumoured to be worth more than $1m, it’s the first Sydney venture for restaurateur Chris Lucas and the awards were a high-pressure dress rehearsal for his staff: jungle curry of lobster and crab, caramelised pork and twice-cooked beef short rib with coconut salad and prik nam pla were served to a guest list including Merivale’s Justin Hemmes, Quay’s Peter Gilmore and restaurateur and TV chef Kylie Kwong.

The other big winner was Sydney’s Fred’s, which opened last year in Paddington led by Californian Danielle Alvarez. Fred’s has a 2.5m hearth at the centre of its open kitchen, fuelling farm-to-table-style fare. It won new restaurant of the year and Caitlyn Rees was named sommelier of the year.

With a senior staff made up almost entirely of women – a rarity in the food industry – Alvarez said their success could have a flow-on effect.

“It’s encouraging that when even one of us gets pushed to the front, there’s a whole group of women behind that can follow in their tracks,” she said. “Sometimes you just need a bit of encouragement but there’s women there that are ready to take these jobs.”

Mat Lindsay won the coveted peer-voted title of chef of the year for his work at Sydney’s Ester, which was recently featured in the New York Times; and Geelong’s Igni won regional restaurant of the year for the second year in a row.

Ronni Kahn of Oz Harvest was honoured for her work in food waste activism and bar of the year went to Bar Rochford in Canberra.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Danielle Alvarez and Caitlyn Rees from Fred’s with Justin Hemmes.

Full list of winners

Restaurant of the year: Orana, Adelaide

Highly commended: Attica, Victoria; Momofuku Seiōbo, NSW; Brae, Victoria

Chef of the year: Matt Lindsay – Ester, Sydney

New restaurant of the year: Fred’s, Sydney



Best new talent: Josh Niland – Saint Peter, Sydney

Regional restaurant of the year: Igni, Geelong

Bar of the year: Bar Rochford, Canberra

Maitre d’ of the year: Chris Young – Café Di Stasio, Melbourne

Wine list of the year: Kisumé, Melbourne

Outstanding contribution to hospitality: Ronni Kahn, OzHarvest

Sommelier of the year: Caitlyn Rees, Fred’s, Sydney