Old wave to new wave: How Sydney dining grew up

We wouldn't have the restaurants we have today if it weren't for surfing. Being a chef was the perfect career option in the 1970s and '80s for someone who wanted to work at night and surf by day.

At one point, chef Mark Armstrong was plastered on the cover of Vogue Entertaining Guide in a wetsuit. Greg Doyle used to turn up to do his prep at The Roxy after a morning with the waves. His brother Peter gave up a nice, safe public service job for cheffing so that he, too, could go surfing, opening his first restaurant Reflections in a small fibro shack in Palm Beach in 1982.

Chef Tim Pak Poy celebrated a high-scoring review of Claude's in 1995 by hitting the surf at Bondi.

There were other waves of talent washing up in Sydney during the '80s apart from the surfie mob. From Melbourne, enter stage left: Gay Bilson, Tony Bilson and Damien Pignolet, followed by Janni Kyritsis, Dietmar Sawyere and Luke Mangan. From universities and art schools: Jenny Ferguson, Stefano Manfredi, Ann Taylor, Phillip Searle. From Canada, Serge Dansereau. From Pyrmont, via the WA deserts, Jennice and Raymond Kersh.

Suddenly, there was a new breed of largely self-taught chefs with the energy, talent and determination to change the way we dined, taking us from classic to modern, from European to Australian. Together, these chefs form the roots of our family tree, shaping and influencing the chefs out there cooking for us today.

Let's face it, every generation of chefs believes it invented the knife, the fork and every dish placed between them, but you really can trace how we eat today to those pioneering kitchens of 30 years ago.

By the first Good Food Guide in 1984, Tony Bilson had already left Berowra Waters Inn, and Gay Bilson had been joined in the kitchen by Janni Kyritsis, fresh from Stephanie's – run by the renowned Stephanie Alexander – in Melbourne. The three-hatted Berowra Waters was a magnet for the day's brightest young stars, from hospitality legend Anders Ousback to Neil Perry (Rockpool), Sean Moran (Sean's Panaroma), Michael and Judy McMahon (Catalina) and Barry McDonald (Cafe Sopra and Fratelli Fresh).

The only other three-hat award in 1984 went to Reflections, where Peter Doyle was creating his own refined take on French nouvelle cuisine between catching waves. There, and later at Le Trianon, Cicada, Celsius and est., Doyle trained a legion of serious Sydney talent, from Oscillate Wildly's Karl Firla to Monopole's Adam Wolfers.

By 1991, brother Greg had opened Pier in Rose Bay, a fertile training ground for the talents of Steve Hodges (Fish Face), Grant King (Gastro Park) and Flying Fish founding chef (and dedicated surfer) Peter Kuruvita.

Stefano Manfredi had been cooking French food (they were all cooking French food back then) at Jenny Ferguson's You and Me, before picking up his first chef's hat award in 1984 for the classy Italian cooking at The Restaurant in Ultimo.

Manfredi's kitchens have since been home to some of our highest achievers, from ARIA's Matt Moran to Jonathan Barthelmess of The Apollo and Cho Cho San.
David Thompson was also cooking French food at the time, at Rogue's in Darlinghurst, long before he revolutionised Thai cuisine at Darley Street Thai, Sailors Thai, and now at the global success that is Nahm in Bangkok. Accompanying him on his scud-propelled journey were Martin Boetz (Longrain, Cook's Co-Op) and Ross Lusted (The Bridge Room), as well as Ben Shewry of Attica, and Ben Cooper of Chin Chin in Melbourne (our tree has many branches, and its leaves drop where they please).

Michael McMahon then hired Neil Perry for Barrenjoey House in Palm Beach. The Pony-Tailed One went on to open a string of ground-breaking restaurants, including Perry's, Blue Water Grill, Rockpool, Wockpool, XO, Rocket, Rockpool Bar & Grill, and Spice Temple – amassing an unprecedented 97 chef's hats in the Guide.

Among the leading chefs to emerge from Perry's kitchens are Mike McEnearney (Kitchen by Mike), Ross Lusted, Nathan Sasi (Nomad), Mat Lindsay (Ester), and, of course, Kylie Kwong.

The tiny kitchen at Billy Kwong has, in turn, been home to Hamish Ingham (Bar H), James Parry (Sixpenny), O Tama Carey (Berta), Chui Lee Luk (Chow), Nic Wong (Cho Cho San) and more.

Full family tree (2MB): click here

Damien and Josephine Pignolet were at Claude's in 1984, winning two chef's hats for running it "in a spirit of culinary high-mindedness", according to the Guide. There and at Bistro Moncur, Damien mentored a swag of young gun chefs, including Tony Papas, whose Bayswater Brasserie was to change the course of smart casual Sydney dining.

Meanwhile, Tony Bilson opened Kinselas in Taylor Square, where he hired a young Japanese chef with little English to make sushi. His name was Tetsuya Wakuda. At Ultimo's and then at Tetsuya's, Wakuda created a unique cuisine combining classic French technique with traditional Japanese flavours, that has had a big impact on those who trained there.

Roll-call: Rockpool's Phil Wood, Dan Hong (Mr. Wong), Daniel Puskas (Sixpenny), Alex Woolley (est.), Luke Burgess (Garagistes, Hobart), Luke Powell and Shannon Debreceny (LP's Quality Meats), Beau Vincent (Subo) and, most significantly, Martin Benn of Sepia.

Former Tetsuya's chefs Darren Robertson and Mark LaBrooy of Bronte's Three Blue Ducks also do their best to stay true to Sydney tradition by dividing their lives between the chopping board and the surf board.

There are so many more. In 1993, Dietmar Sawyere founded Forty One restaurant, which begat Liam Tomlin and Banc, which begat Brett Graham, who now holds two Michelin stars for The Ledbury in London.

Brent Savage (Bentley Restaurant & Bar), Pasi Petanen (Cafe Paci), and Jowett Yu (Ho Lee Fook, HK) all worked with Mark Best of Marque, while Analiese Gregory is just one of the rising stars to be mentored by Peter Gilmore at Quay.

Add our Italian maestri, Chinatown dynasties, providores, food producers and regional stars (those unnamed are here in spirit, lurking in the leaves) and it's one hell of a family tree.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide is available from selected bookshops and online at smhshop.com.au for $24.99