‘Unsurpassable quality’: Australian chef awarded three Michelin stars

Newcastle-born Brett Graham has become the first Australian chef and restaurant owner to be awarded three stars from the prestigious Michelin Guide, receiving the accolade for his London restaurant, The Ledbury, during a ceremony in Manchester overnight.

Michelin Guide inspectors said Graham received the highest of gastronomic honours for his “technical mastery across dishes that deliver sublime flavours using ingredients of unsurpassable quality”, noting they’d “never eaten better” at his 19-year-old Notting Hill restaurant.

“Each mouthful provides considerable depth of flavour, with the consistently harmonious combinations showcasing a streak of originality,” the inspectors said.

The Ledbury takes reservations up to three months in advance for its £210 ($A406) dinner tasting menu, which at times includes dishes such as “mushrooms from the cabinet”. Mushrooms are a noted culinary obsession for Graham, who cultivates lion’s manes, shiitakes and reishi varieties in a large moisture-controlled “fungarium” in the restaurant.

It was introduced to The Ledbury during its post-COVID revival. In 2020, the restaurant closed indefinitely due to the impracticality of social distancing measures, dealing a heavy blow to the UK restaurant industry. At the time, The Ledbury held two Michelin stars and appeared on The World’s Best 50 Restaurants list.

The closure allowed time for a complete refit and gave Graham a new sense of direction and purpose. UK media outlets such as Restaurant Online predicted The Ledbury’s new, modern look signalled Graham’s push for a third star.

Graham, born in 1979, began his career in hospitality aged 15 at Newcastle seafood restaurant Scratchleys on the Wharf before moving to influential Sydney restaurant Banc. In 2000, the then-20-year-old was awarded The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year award (then called the Josephine Pignolet award) and scored a return flight to London.

“I was really shocked to win,” Graham told Good Food at the time. The young chef said a moment with “an old bloke” and a chicken set him on his path to the kitchen.

“When I was about 14, an old bloke showed me how to butcher, pluck and gut a rooster,” he said. “I did what he told me, then cooked it. I knew then that I wanted to be a chef.”

While Graham is the first Australian owner-chef to obtain the coveted three stars, fellow Australian chef Matt Abé has been awarded the accolade at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay each year since he took over the kitchen in 2020. The restaurant has maintained its three-star status since 2001.

The Ledbury was the only newcomer to the Michelin Guide’s list of three-star restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland during the February 5 ceremony. Six restaurants were elevated to two stars (including Gymkhana in London, one of two Indian restaurants to receive such an accolade for the first time) and 18 received their first star.