Chef Ben Shewry buys top Australian restaurant Attica

• World's 50 Best: Attica voted Australia's top restaurant

Chef Ben Shewry has announced he is the sole owner of Attica, the restaurant in Melbourne's south-eastern suburb of Ripponlea that's No. 32 on the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list.

Attica's owners, Helen and David Macorra, approached Shewry in January with news of their intention to sell.

"I said I wanted to buy it," Shewry says, which started a six-month process to hand ownership to Shewry and his wife, Natalia. Under the new deal the Shewrys are sole owners, and Ben's official title is executive chef and director.

"I always wanted to own Attica but didn't think it was possible," Shewry says. He is delighted for himself, his family and the Attica team. "It's very exciting, for all of us."

Shewry sees the move as an opportunity "to take things to the next level", adding that he is grateful to the Macorras "for the opportunity to work and build, and now own" the business that he has been part of since 2005.

On whether any immediate changes were planned for the restaurant, Shewry says: "We've been running Attica from the diner's point of view for years, and that won't change; it will be the same, but better."