Five things that make Attica special

It's rated the number 21 restaurant in the world ... but why? Fairfax Media's national food and wine editor Janne Apelgren is intimately familiar with Ben Shewry's much-lauded Attica restaurant at Ripponlea, and she explains the five reasons why it's right up there with the world's best.

1. The turnaround

Attica's turnaround since 2005 — from struggling restaurant to one of the world's best — has been spectacular. When Ben Shewry joined as head chef in 2005, he recalls cooking for as few as two people, before drawing up his own, very personal menu. In its first week a customer declared that whoever wrote it was on drugs, and walked out. Shewry persisted with his vision, with the support of owners David and Helen Maccora.

2. The owner

The restaurant's co-owner David Maccora, is a doctor working in emergency medicine and often does double duty at the restaurant. Shewry says he can be regularly found up a ladder fixing things after his hospital shifts. The partnership of Shewry and the Maccoras has delivered a tight-knit team, and it shows in the way the restaurant runs.

3. The personality

Shewry's dishes are intensely personal and original. His 'Sea Tastes' was inspired by his childhood rescue from near drowning by his father; while 'snow crab' was borne of his outrunning an avalanche on his snowboard following the eruption of Mt Ruapehu. His dish of potato cooked in earth draws on the New Zealand earth oven hangis of his childhood.

4. The chef

As a chef, Shewry is respected and liked by his peers, and among an innovative group considered the world's most influential cooks. His presentations at overseas culinary events, often highlighting his emotional connection to food, have been known to reduce some in the audience to tears. He's well-know for foraging wild ingredients (including from the coast and even close-by suburban Attica) and being fanatical about sourcing the best local components for his dishes, many of which he grows in a kitchen garden plot at nearby National Trust house, Ripponlea .

5. The food

The food at Attica is exciting, original and innovative. It looks beautiful, tastes extraordinary, is often remarkable in texture and execution, and sits easily among the world's very top restaurants. I'd even venture to say, having eaten at several, at 21 it's still under-rated.