New awards let chefs choose Australia's Top 100 Restaurants

Who better to judge where to eat than the people putting the food on the plate?

That was the talk among the top chefs who met, many for the first time, at Crown Melbourne's Club 23 to launch The Australian Financial Review Australia's Top Restaurants, presented by Qantas Airways and Vittoria.

Over the next three months, chefs and restaurateurs from 500 premium venues, selected by Fairfax Media critics, will be able to vote for their top 10 favourite restaurants across the nation. The results will form a list of Australia's top 100 restaurants.

Renowned food writer, critic and award director Jill Dupleix said the key difference of the awards was that the chef and restaurateurs were in control of the vote.

"I don't believe there is another awards system in Australia like that," Dupleix said. "It will make a difference. It will be fascinating to see whether the chefs vote for the status quo or whether they flip it completely upside down. It's going to be quite exciting."

The chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, Terry Durack, said restaurant awards have traditionally been driven by critics. "But when you talk to a chef, they never ask another restaurant critic where to eat; they ask a chef," Durack said.

"We may even find the chefs, who are usually critical of the critics historically, are going to find the faults are exactly the same."

Regions pack a punch

Durack said while all the focus in recent years has been on Melbourne and Sydney, what has happened in Australian dining is a phenomenon that has grown around the country.

"It's even occurring way out in the depths of Western Australia," Durack said. "We were in Hobart a few weeks ago and had two of the best meals we've had in the last 12 months. So everybody is catching up."

Dupleix added Adelaide was also "putting itself on the map too".

Therefore it was only natural that Adelaide's Duncan Welgemoed made the list. The chef of Africola said chefs make the best critics as they don't get much time off work and when they go out to eat they don't want to "be sustained".

"Because it's all learning for us, every time you go out," he said. "The restaurants that made the list I am sure are worthy of being there, it's just where they place."

Welgemoed said there would definitely be surprises in the rankings.

"It's not where the critics think people should eat; it's where the chefs go and eat, so you could have Quay next to Golden Century next to Belle's chicken diner," he said. "It certainly opens it up a lot."

Josh Lopez, executive chef at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, said the awards were a "fantastic initiative".

"That level of self-assessment and self-criticism is really refreshing. I think the good guys will get further up on the list and the universally good guys will filter out," he said. "The critics can sometimes pick up only on trends, but chefs can pick up on more and pick up on other trends that might be important for this time."

Voting for the awards will begin this month and the top 100 list will be announced in May.

View the top 500 list here: australiastoprestaurants.com

Which Australian restaurant would top your list? Let us know in the comments.