100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences Revealed

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EMBARGOED UNTIL WED MARCH 24, 2010

100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences Revealed

Greatest culinary experts in the country decide little-known Tasmanian cooking school top gourmet experience in Australia.

Australian Traveller Magazine has published the list of 100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences today, with the top gourmet experience going to the farm-based Agrarian Kitchen cooking school, set up in 2009 by Tetsuya Wakuda's former apprentice chef Rodney Dunn and wife Severine.

Second place went to another surprise result, the "Bulgari of Butchers", Victor Churchill in Sydney's Woollahra. Controversially, Sydney's Quay was the highest rated restaurant at 3rd, above international icon Tetsuya's, which placed 7th. Both were ahead of the first Melbourne restaurant, Vue de Monde, ranked 8.

Australian Traveller editor Greg Barton says: "The end result is a marker for where Australian food experiences are in the country right now.

"Cooking schools have also well and truly arrived. Other key findings were the great interest in heirloom or heritage varieties of produce, which have unique and unexpected flavour profiles. Kitchen gardens that provide instant organic produce are also well established at most great gourmet experiences."

"The way Australians eat has undergone remarkable change over the past few decades. We've gone from being a meat-and-three-veg society to a country that produces and celebrates some of the world's finest wine, cheese, meat and produce. Not only that, we know what to do with it in the kitchen," Barton concluded.

Methodology
A panel of food experts including Matt Moran, Jacques Reymond, Maggie Beer, Simon Johnson, Matthew Evans, Alla Wolf-Tasker and Michael Ryan decided the Top 100 Gourmet Experiences. The panellists were presented with a shortlist of 300 experiences and asked: "On a scale of 1-10, how strongly would you like to experience the nomination and/or would you advise a friend to experience it?" The answers were tabulated and the Top 100 Gourmet Experiences revealed.

Editor Greg Barton is available for interview. The complete 100 experiences list is available at www.australiantraveller.com (From March 24th 2010)

END

For media enquiries, interviews and photos please contact:

Quentin Long
t. 02 9281 6080
m. 0429 980 955
e. [email protected]

The Top 100 Gourmet Experiences issue of Australia's best selling travel magazine is on sale Wed Mar 24 from all newsagents and Woolworth/Safeway stores nationally.


Australia's Top 20 Gourmet Experiences

1. The Agrarian Kitchen, TAS
2. Victor Churchill, NSW
3. Quay, NSW
4. Fish and chips on the beach, NAT
5. Holy Goat, VIC
6. Daylesford Organics, VIC
7. Tetsuya's, NSW
8. Vue de Monde, VIC
9. Pyengana Dairy Company, TAS
10. Sunnybrae Restaurant, VIC
11. Collingwood Kitchen Garden, VIC
12. Istra Smallgoods, VIC
13. Flower Drum, VIC
14. Aria, Sydney
15. Berowra Waters Inn, NSW
16. Jacques Reymond, VIC
17. Appellation at the Louise, SA
18. Picking Your Own Picinic, NAT
19. Central Markets, VIC
20. Chef's Table Dining, NAT


SOURCE: Australian Traveller Magazine