Tasmania’s The Agrarian Kitchen has been named restaurant of the year at the Gourmet Traveller restaurant awards, the first time an eatery from the island state has claimed top gong in the event’s 45-year history.
The New Norfolk restaurant in the Derwent Valley, on the grounds of a former psychiatric hospital, is known for its hyper-seasonal farm-to-table approach, with ingredients sourced from the garden and local surrounds, and charcuterie, cheeses and ferments made onsite.
Co-founder Séverine Demanet said she was “shocked” to receive the award at Monday night’s ceremony in Sydney. “We didn’t expect this at all.”
Demanet founded the original Agrarian Kitchen cooking school and farm in 2008 with her husband, executive chef Rodney Dunn. Over the years it morphed into its current iteration: a regional restaurant, kiosk, garden and cooking school, located about 30 minutes’ drive north-west of Hobart.
Dunn said even being invited to the awards “was amazing”. “I thought, how can a little Tassie restaurant win Gourmet Traveller restaurant of the year?”
Demanet acknowledged their success comes at a difficult economic time for the Australian restaurant industry. “I think any restaurant that is actually still around now, hats off to all of them, because it’s really tough at the moment.”
Joanna Hunkin, editor of Gourmet Traveller, said cost-of-living pressures came with an extra burden for hospitality operators.
She said financially strained customers expect a lot from the restaurants they visit. “They don’t give you a free pass, they hold you to a higher standard,” she said.
Chef Mischa Tropp was named best new talent for Toddy Shop, his debut Keralan restaurant in Melbourne. After running a series of pop-up events serving dishes influenced by his maternal heritage, the chef opened his 20-seat eatery in Fitzroy in late 2023. “I sling curries rather than win awards,” joked Tropp upon accepting his prize.
Tropp said restaurant accolades typically go to “upmarket” establishments rather than casual restaurants showcasing the coconut-spiked dishes of the southern Kerala state.
“The majority of the public when they think of Indian food, they want two things: butter chicken and naan … and there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Tropp.
However he says there is a growing appetite for regional Indian cuisine in the Melbourne Indian community and beyond. “There’s an older generation that probably knows south Indian food because they were hippies once,” he said.
Tropp’s aim is to showcase Keralan food to as many diners as possible. Sometimes, he looks out at the restaurant and sees mainly Indian faces; other times, there’s a mix of patrons from different backgrounds. “It’s great though, you can’t have every single person in the restaurant be brown,” he said. “You’re in Fitzroy. It’s not a brown neighbourhood.”
The Ayubi family of Adelaide’s Parwana Afghan Kitchen received the outstanding contribution to hospitality award. The family fled Kabul in 1985, at the height of the cold war, and opened Parwana in 2009. The colourful, tiled restaurant on the fringe of central Adelaide is driven by matriarch Farida’s vision to honour and share the food of their homeland.
In addition to serving a menu of kabuli palaw (Afghan-style rice) and bolani (chive-stuffed flatbreads), the restaurant also hosts fundraisers for charities in Afghanistan.
In accepting the accolade, Farida’s daughter Durkhanai said: “When my mum and dad made that decision to uproot their life and leave behind everything they knew … food was the sense of home that came with us.”
Food, she says, became the family’s “irrepressible response” to the narratives of war, depravation and loss that are typically told about Afghanistan.
“It became our way to tell our own story through our own eyes, our hands … When people come to Parwana we want them to feel what dining should be with loved ones … each dumpling folded with love and care according to millennia of traditional knowledge.”
Parwana, which means “butterfly” in Dari, is named after one of Farida’s favourite dining establishments in her home city.
“There was one beautiful lady with her son, they were running the restaurant and the food was so amazing … like your grandma is cooking for you. Me and my husband used to go there for lunch,” Farida said.
It was a double-gong night for Pasi Petänen who was named chef of the year, while his Sydney restaurant Cafe Paci won New South Wales restaurant of the year.
In Victoria, Chauncy in Heathcote claimed the best destination dining title; Lake House in Daylesford took home the reader-voted icon award; while Melbourne’s Vue de Monde was named the state’s top restaurant.
In Brisbane, chef and restaurateur Sarah Baldwin of 10-seater restaurant Joy, was named restaurant personality of the year.
The Gourmet Traveller 2024 Restaurant Award winners
Restaurant of the year
The Agrarian Kitchen, New Norfolk, Tasmania
State winners
Pilot, Canberra, ACT
Cafe Paci, Sydney, NSW
Restaurant Labart, Burleigh Heads, Queensland
Maxwell Restaurant, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Agrarian Kitchen, New Norfolk, Tasmania
Vue de Monde, Melbourne, Victoria
Casa, Perth, Western Australia
Best new restaurant
King Clarence, Sydney, NSW
Chef of the year
Pasi Petänen, Cafe Paci, Sydney, NSW
Best new talent
Mischa Tropp, Toddy Shop, Melbourne, Victoria
Restaurant personality of the year
Sarah Baldwin, Joy, Brisbane, Queensland
Best destination dining
Chauncy, Heathcote, Victoria
Wine bar of the year
South West Wine Shop, Busselton, WA
Outstanding contribution to hospitality
The Ayubi family, Parwana Afghan Kitchen, Adelaide, SA
Readers’ choice icon award
Lake House, Daylesford, Victoria
Yvonne C Lam is a former digital editor of Gourmet Traveller.
