Meet the chefs behind Victoria's best restaurants

Ben Shewry, Attica

For a Kiwi, Ben Shewry tells a great Australian story. He is making diners think beyond Australian ingredients to Australian culture with deceptively complex snacks that demand we let go of our cultural cringe. And for a guy who is so often up on the winner's podium (The Age Good Food Guide 2014 Chef of the Year, The Best Restaurant in Australasia 2016 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants), he has remained impressively grounded.

Alla Wolf-Tasker, Lake House

Senior judge, Young Chef of the Year panel

If there are chefs who work harder than Alla Wolf-Tasker to champion young talent, regional dining and produce, we have yet to meet them. Over the past 32 years she has fostered a host of small producers, growers and winemakers – all while turning a gorse-infested paddock beside Lake Daylesford into a fine dining restaurant, cooking school, luxury hotel and spa employing more than 100 people.

Dan Hunter, Brae

Restaurant of the Year

Intense and quietly spoken, Dan Hunter brings titanic technique honed at the likes of Mugaritz, in Spain's Basque country, to a hilltop farmhouse in the Otway hinterland. There is creativity and craft aplenty but the core ingredient in his dishes is hard work. That is evidenced by Brae's ever-expanding kitchen gardens and orchard, by the wood-fired bread made from house-milled, hand-sifted wheat, and by the fact that he is more likely to be seen driving a tractor than a Maserati.

Michael Ryan, Provenance

Regional Wine List of the Year

Michael Ryan began his career as a chemist, but the Japanese-influenced dishes he plates up at his Beechworth restaurant balance science and art. He tackles fermentation, dehydration and experimentation in dishes such as jerusalem artichoke with house-made karasumi (cured mullet roe) and dried orange, which his winemaker-sommelier wife, Jeanette Henderson, might pair with a hard-to-find sake.

Koichi Minamishima, Minamishima

In a quiet Richmond side street, this Nagoya native is living the dream. It's a dream of sushi using seldom-seen ingredients such as fugu (pufferfish) and shako (Japanese mantis shrimp), and a dream of owning his own hidden place, which he has nurtured since he began learning the ways of the sushi master at age 20. Observing Minamishima-san's samurai knife skills from a stool at the sushi bar is one of the great Melbourne dining experiences.