The most influential Victorians in food and wine from past 30 years
They are the game changers who transformed Melbourne’s dining landscape and made us the food capital of Australia. These are the visionaries, the stubborn, the passionate and the proud. Often ahead of the pack and their time, these are the 30 most influential Victorians in food, wine and hospitality.
Victoria
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STEPHANIE ALEXANDER
Stephanie Alexander’s impact on how Australians eat puts her in a league of her own. Alexander’s legendary restaurant Stephanie’s set new culinary standards over 21 years. Her 1996 book The Cook’s Companion is known as Australia’s “food bible”. But it’s the Kitchen Garden Foundation she established in 2001 that is perhaps her most significant achievement: inspiring a generation of children to grow and cook “real” food.
ELIZABETH CHONG
Teaching Australia how to stir-fry via her much-loved segment on Good Morning Australia in the 1990s, Elizabeth Chong made Chinese cooking accessible to Melbourne through her cooking school and tours of Chinatown. Special mention must be made to Chong’s father William Wing Young, for what would Melbourne’s food scene be if he hadn’t invented the dim sim?
CON CHRISTOPOULOS
Starting with Cafe Segovia in the early 1990s, Con Christopolous has opened some of Melbourne’s most sociable and recognisable eating and drinking spaces — the European and the City Wine Shop, Supper Club and Siglo, Kirk’s Wine Bar and Neapoli and Butcher’s Diner, to name a few. What connects them is consistency, conviviality and a welcoming Euro vibe.
SHANE DELIA
Whether it’s him beaming from behind the pass in his subterranean glamour den Maha, or into our lounge rooms from the TV, Shane Delia has been a part of Melbourne’s food life for more than a decade. While his take on modern Middle Eastern makes Maha a firm fave, his lasting legacy to how we dine comes in the form of Providoor. By offering finish-at-home meals from Melbourne’s best restaurants, Delia has revolutionised food home delivery that will play a starring role in our post-lockdown, COVID-normal world.
RINALDO DI STASIO
Credited with helping define Melbourne’s laneway dining culture in the mid-1980s, Rinaldo di Stasio, is, of course, more commonly associated with St Kilda’s cafe di Stasio – which celebrates three decades this year – and its glamorous CBD sibling, Citta. A restaurateur skilled in hospitality’s fine arts, di Stasio is also a parton of the modern arts and it’s this combination of inimitable brio, swagger and impeccable Italian that has made Di Stasio an institution: both the restaurant and the man.
GAIL AND KEVIN DONOVAN
First welcoming South Yarra’s well-heeled to dine on innovative east-meets-west cuisine at Chinois in the early 1990s, then offering their distinctive brand of family welcome and open-armed hospitality at their St Kilda beachside dining room, Gail and Kevin Donovan have been an integral part of dining out in Melbourne for the past three decades. With Gail creating the stylish beach house chic vibe and Kevin the cellar full of celebrations, Donovans is where Melbourne has celebrated both milestones and Mondays in comfort and class for more than 25 years.
MARK DUNDON
Opening in 2001, Dundon’s Ray cafe in Brunswick was ground zero for modern Melbourne cafe culture and what’s termed the Third Wave of coffee, which is defined by a focus on coffee as a high-quality product, rather than a commodity (the first wave was instant, the second espresso). Dundon went on to found South Melbourne’s St Ali cafe and roastery and is still involved in Seven Seeds – all bywords for cafe and coffee excellence that created the foundation for the Coffee Capital of Australia.
ANTONY FEMIA
Cheesemonger-turned-cheese evangelist, Anthony Femia is showing the whey with cheese toasties at his Maker and Monger stall. First plying his three-cheese grilled sandwiches from a simple food cart at Prahran Market, now from an schmick permanent stall, Femia’s “Chapel of Cheese” – attracting fans from throughout Melbourne – specialises in farmhouse and artisan makers rarely seen elsewhere.
DONLEVY FITZPATRICK
It’s almost impossible to imagine today, but 30 years ago you couldn’t have drink without a meal unless you were in a pub. In 1989 that changed with the opening of St Kilda’s Dog’s Bar – Melbourne’s first modern wine bar. Founded by engineer-turned-restaurateur-turned property developer Donlevy Fitzpatrick, Dog’s Bar created the template of what a Melbourne bar looks like now: a wide selection of booze served by knowledgeable staff teamed with a small menu of wine-friendly fare.
TANSY GOOD
From Tansy’s in Carlton to her new home in Kyneton, chef and restaurateur Tansy Good has paved the way for much of what we love about restaurants in Victoria today. An inspiration to cooks and diners for more than 30 years, many of Melbourne’s most famous food names – Karen Martini and Philippa Sibley among them – trained under Good and have gone on to do so much for Melbourne in their own right.
GROSSI FAMILY
Since 1928, Florentino has been where Melbourne’s power elite have gathered under the mural roof. For the past two decades Guy Grossi has been the custodian of the space, serving his high-end Italian. While Guy is the ebullient face familiar to most from the telly, the Grossi empire – that includes Cellar Bar, Grill, Florentino, Ombra, Arlechin and Merchant – is very much a family affair, with son Carlos running the front of house and sister Liz Grossi-Rodriguez the brains of the back of house. The Grossis embody the beating heart of Melbourne hospitality.
JAMES HALLIDAY
There is simply no bigger name in Australian wine than James Halliday. Since founding his Coldstream Hills vineyard in the mid-80s (since sold), Halliday has been a champion of the Yarra Valley, with the prolific wine judge, critic and author playing a defining role in the industry through the James Halliday Annual Wine Companion. While this year he stepped down from his editor-in-chief role, Halliday will continue to sniff, swirl and influence what wines we buy, drink and cellar.
BAO HOANG
Roll’d began as a small, hawker-style space in Goldsbrough Lane in the CBD in 2012 and in just a few short years has grown into a chain of more than 80 fast-casual Vietnamese restaurants across the country, turning over $75 million in sales. Founded by Bao Hoang and his mother Phien (along with his cousin Tin Ly and school friend Ray Esquieres) their brand of fresh and fast rice paper rolls has quickly found many fans.
PHILLIP JONES
He makes Australia’s best – and most expensive – pinot noir, but it’s Phillip Jones’ belief in Gippsland as a wine-producing region that makes him a true visionary. The legendary winemaker sold his Bass Phillip vineyard earlier this year to a group that includes a Burgundian vigneron and Singaporean wine investor, but his legacy in elevating Victorian pinot noir to the highest echelons will live on in cellars and our best restaurants’ wine lists for years to come.
RICK KINZBRUNNER
Mechanical engineer-turned-winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner is widely regarded as making Australia’s best chardonnay – with critics hailing Giaconda as one of best found outside of Burgundy. A jewel of the Beechworth wine region, Giaconda is devoted solely to chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz – with a separate nebbiolo vineyard nearby – and for more than three decades has been at the forefront of proving New World wines can have Old World appeal and longevity.
GILBERT LAU
Elevating Cantonese cuisine into an art form, Melbourne has Gilbert Lau to thank for the quality of Chinese restaurants found right across the city today. It was, of course, at the Flower Drum that Lau proved Chinese could and should be considered fine dining and today he continues to delight diners at his Lau’s Family Kitchen in St Kilda.
CHRIS LUCAS
Chin Chin, the phenomenon that heralded the reservation-free restaurant, is arguably Melbourne’s most famous restaurant. But since One Fitzroy St in St Kilda to The Botanical Hotel in South Yarra in its Paul Wilson-heyday, Chris Lucas has been a towering presence on Melbourne’s food scene, and is now one of the industry’s biggest employers. He will again make his mark on Melbourne when his much-anticipated Martin Benn/Vicki Wild collaboration opens at the 80 Collins development next year.
ANTHEA LOUCAS BOSHA
First as a highly respected magazine editor, now in charge of putting on the biggest annual celebration Victorian food and wine – it’s hard to find a bigger, or more passionate proponent of our chefs and restaurateurs, winemakers and artisan producers, than Anthea Loucas Bosha. Having edited Gourmet Traveller for more than a decade, Loucas Bosha returned to her hometown of Melbourne in 2018 to take up the role of CEO Food + Wine Victoria, the non-profit organisation charged with advocating for our food and wine industry, which culminates in the annual internationally acclaimed Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
MCONNELL FAMILY
Andrew McConnell has bars, bistros, butchers, fine-diners and even a fresh food market scattered across inner Melbourne. And rather incredibly, each new venue in his Trader House Group seems to raise the bar, from Cumulus Inc to Gimlet, which opened in the CBD just before Melbourne’s second lockdown. But it’s not just Andrew who has so defined dining in Melbourne. Brother Matt’s made his mark with the much-loved Bar Lourinha in the CBD, while cousin Jason and his wife Rene have added South American flare to the city with a stable of fire-powered restaurants including San Telmo, Pastuso and Palermo.
MATT PRESTON
A much-loved TV personality, cookbook author and food writer, for more than two decades Matt Preston has been covering Melbourne’s evolving food scene with humour, candour and undeniable relish. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of ingredients, restaurants and dishes, his flavour-first recipes that are easy-to-replicate has seen his evolution from restaurant critic to best-selling cookbook author.
KATHLEEN QUEALY
Kathleen Quealy made her name in the 1990s where she played a big role in popularising pinot grigio. At the T’Gallant label on the Mornington Peninsula she was the first in Australia to plant the Italian varietal for commercial use. Now as chief winemaker at Quealy Winemakers in Balnarring, she is an early pioneer of skin-contact wines and is famed for her fruliano.
RAPH RASHID
Meals on wheels has a whole new meaning thanks to Raph Rashid. After his Beatbox Kitchen van debuted at the Meredith Music Festival in 2009, our love affair with eateries of no fixed address began. Inspired by Los Angeles’ food truck scene, Rashid followed his Beatbox burgers with Taco Trucks cruising the inner city. With picnicking and outdoor dining to be a feature of a COVID-safe summer, expect a food truck boom coming to a park near you.
JACQUES REYMOND
It’s not just for the impact Jacques Reymond had on a generation of chefs who passed through his kitchen across two decades that makes his contribution to Melbourne’s culinary identity so powerful – his pairing of French technique and Asian ingredients has helped define an Australian cuisine. Now semi-retired, he has passed the baton onto his children who now keep the Reymond spirit alive in their L’Hotel Gitan, Bistro Gitan and Frederick restaurants.
SAND HILL ROAD GROUP
Saving old-school pubs from becoming development sites through good old hospitality values and design vision, the Sand Hill Road Group has cemented itself as a big hospitality player. You need look no further than their inspired revitalisation of St Kilda’s Espy – one part history, two parts today – to see the impact the group made up of brothers Andy and Matt Mullins, Doug Maskiell and Tom Birch has had. Garden State Hotel in Flinders Lane is equally impressive, while The Terminus (Abbotsford), Richmond Club Hotel and Prahran Hotel – among others – have cemented themselves as pub hubs of their local communities.
BEN SHEWRY
Ben Shewry’s Attica was a staple on the zeitgeisty World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the best part of a decade and one of the reasons the awards were held in Melbourne in 2017. Shewry and his restaurant are best known for the multi-course menu that makes the most of Australian ingredients. But it’s his COVID-pivot – offering high-end takeaway delivered by Attica staff, and, importantly, offering a weekly soup kitchen for visa holders ineligible for government support – that shows Shewry’s ingenuity, creativity and humanity and why he’s one of our best and brightest.
ANNIE SMITHERS
Annie Smithers was one of the first to truly champion the farm to fork ethos at her central Victorian restaurants. First at her eponymous Kyneton bistro and now at Trentham’s Du Fermier. The Stephanie Alexander-trained chef now has a 9ha property 10 minutes from the restaurant on which she grows the bulk of the produce she then transforms into three daily changing courses of comfort executed with class.
WILL STUDD
Say cheese and Will Studd springs to mind. The UK-born entrepreneur and educator who settled in Melbourne has long been its greatest champion. That the world-famous French cheese Roquefort is available in Australia today is thanks to Studd, who took on red tape officialdom in 2002. His efforts were finally rewarded and today unpasteurised hard and semi hard cheeses – such as Emmental, Gruyere and Roquefort – are now a feature on cheeseboards around the country.
NATHAN TOLEMAN
Turning smashed avocado into a dish and brunch into An Event, through an ever-evolving portfolio of cafes, Nathan Toleman has been at the forefront of putting Melbourne’s cafe culture on the world map. Today the CEO of The Mulberry Group oversees a stable of venues that includes Liminal, Hazel and Dessous in the city, The Beach House in Geelong and his innovative Common Ground Project – a not-for-profit community farm with a new-found focus on promoting food security and cooking and delivering meals to Victoria’s most vulnerable.
FRANK VAN HAANDEL
Having employed some of Melbourne’s brightest chefs in the kitchen since opening on New Year’s Day in 1990, Stokehouse owner Frank Van Haandel has a gift for spotting talent and nurturing the next generation of stars on both sides of the pass. But it’s his determination to rebuild his beloved restaurant in six-star sustainable glory after it burnt to the ground that will be van Haandel’s lasting legacy to the St Kilda foreshore and Melbourne’s hospitality industry.
ALLA WOLF-TASKER
Long before foraging was fashionable and we gave a fig about where food came from, foodie force Alla Wolf-Tasker waved the flag for ethical, sustainable, local and seasonal produce. She and artist husband Allan transformed a treeless site in Daylesford more than 30 years ago into the Lake House. Credited with putting regional destination dining on the map, her dining room remains one of our best restaurants, with Wolf-Tasker passionately supporting small-scale producers and mentoring hospitality talent as part of her “Lake House tribe”.
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