The 24-year-old eating her way through the Good Food Guide
Michelle Kresojevic concedes she has slight obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Foremost among them might be her above-and-beyond commitment to eating her way through the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide – from A to Z, no exceptions.
"I have to do things in order," she says. "If I miss one, for instance, it will play in my mind. I just have to go to the next one in the book."
The 2016 guide, published yesterday, won't mean a complete reset of Ms Kresojevic's three-year-old quest. But it does introduce 11 new hatted restaurants for her to conquer, including Firedoor in Surry Hills, Sake Double Bay and Bennelong at the Opera House.
The 24-year-old bartender has just clocked up her 111th Guide-inspired outing (Gowings Bar & Grill in the CBD), and this week's target is the Gunners Barracks tea room in Mosman.
Kresojevic acknowledges it can be an expensive pastime – especially since she likes to opt for the degustation menu if there's one available. But she says it is absolutely worth it to expand her horizons.
"I was sick of going to the same take-out restaurants [or] the same Thai restaurant down the street," she says. "I felt I wasn't really experiencing what Sydney had to offer in terms of food."
Enrolling fellow travellers in Kresojevic's culinary odyssey has proven difficult at times, although her boyfriend Parker and friend Polly have been regular recruits.
"They think it's a little crazy of me, they think it's a little bit weird," she says. "Sometimes they don't want to go to the ones really far out or really expensive. [But] I think they enjoy it regardless."
Highlights of the alphabet's first seven letters were Jonathan Barthelmess' Apollo in Potts Point, Jamie Irving's Italian diner Berta and the iconic Berowra Waters Inn, where Brian Geraghty's tasting menu awaits diners who arrive by boat (or seaplane).
All up, more than 500 restaurants from Sydney, NSW and the ACT feature in next year's Good Food Guide. Fleet, a 22-seater at Brunswick Heads on the state's north coast, was named best regional restaurant. ACME in Rushcutters Bay, Guillaume in Paddington and LuMi in Pyrmont were also among the hottest newcomers on the list.
The Guide is a veritable bible for self-confessed foodies, although Kresojevic isn't sure that's a label she wants to apply to herself. "I don't really post too much [on Instagram]," she says, laughing. "My partner just gave me a death stare."
Michelle Kresojevic's top five (from A to G of the Good Food Guide):
121BC
A Tavola
The Apollo
Berowra Waters Inn
Berta
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2016 will be available from participating newsagents, 7-Elevens and supermarkets for $10 with the newspaper on Saturday, September 12, while stocks last.
Michael Koziol is Sydney Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, based in our Sydney newsroom. He was previously deputy editor of The Sun-Herald and a federal political reporter in Canberra.