• Our favourite recipes of the year

The Good Food team lists the memorable menus and morsels in a year of eating deliciously.

JILL DUPLEIX

Chicken liver pâté and crisps at Odd Culture, Newtown

Creamy chicken liver parfait is always a good thing, but when chefs Jesse Warkentin and James MacDonald put it in a puddle of fish sauce, garlic and chilli caramel and hide it under a roof of salty, crunchy potato crisps, I'm howling at the moon. Weirdly reminiscent of a pâté-smeared Vietnamese banh mi roll, it goes perfectly with a wild-yeast craft beer at the newly one-hatted Odd Culture. oddculture.group

TERRY DURACK

Potato and roe at Oncore by Clare Smyth, Barangaroo

It was a potato. Yep, just a potato, but I happened to eat it at Oncore, on the cloud-level 26th floor of Crown Sydney at Barangaroo. And it just happened to be slow-cooked in butter by chef Alan Stuart, meticulously garnished with a carpet of gleaming ocean trout roe and baby shoots of sorrel, chives, wild rocket flowers and salt-and-vinegar crisps, and served pooling with a classic, and perfect, beurre blanc. And isn't that what good cooking is all about, when a mere potato is elevated to the best thing you've eaten all year? crownsydney.com.au

BESHA RODELL

Steamed tapioca dumplings at Jeow, Richmond

Inspired by the traditional Cambodian dish sakoo yat sai, these steamed dumplings made from tapioca and Jerusalem artichokes were savoury, texturally intriguing, and deliciously unexpected in every way. The tamarind dipping sauce offered a clear acidic and slightly sweet note that played off the almost nutty flavour of the filling beautifully. I'm still thinking about them months later. jeow.net.au

CALLAN BOYS

South Coast tuna with tomatoes, tahini and fragrant chilli oil at RAFI, North Sydney

I've travelled thousands of kilometres across NSW and the United States this year, and the dish I can't stop thinking about is ... one block from the Good Food office? Such is the thumping power of RAFI's diced ruby-red raw tuna, tumbled with tomato, tahini and cucumber, and kicking with a neon eschalot-loaded chilli oil. It's a masterclass in direct flavour from chef Patrick Friesen. (PS: The best thing in the US was Arnolds' peach pie in Nashville, and Bistro Livi's crab in curry-leaf butter has my heart in Murwillumbah.) rafisydney.com.au

ROSLYN GRUNDY

Selat lumpia at Serai, Melbourne CBD

It's rare for me to reorder a dish at a restaurant – there's always something new I want to try. But since tasting this two-bite flavour riot at The Age Good Food Guide's New Restaurant of the Year, I've been back twice for more. Loosely based on a Filipino spring roll (lumpia), the paper-thin tart crust is dabbed with a complex curried coconut sauce, topped with tangy salsa made with wood-roasted pineapple, and finished with soy-flavoured tapioca pearls disguised as caviar. Spring rolls never tasted so good. seraikitchen.com.au

ANNABEL SMITH

Honey tart with cultured cream at Hazel, Melbourne CBD

This tart don't jiggle jiggle, it sways, the triangle's custard tip curving like the crest of a wave. Perfectly set in a short pastry case, the smooth flan-like filling had me swooning, its depth of flavour thanks to a rare quadrennial "Christmas Mallee" flowering gum. The floral honey's distinct and not-too-sweet character is countered with the tang of house-made kefir-cultured cream. Uh-huh honey. hazelrestaurant.com.au

TRUDI JENKINS

Everything at Bar Vincent, Darlinghurst

I love this place. The simplicity of the ever-changing, hand-written menu; the relaxed room; the chilled but knowledgeable staff. Hand-chopped tuna or beef tartare (pictured), lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon. Asparagus with sauce gribiche. Vitello tonnato. Housemade sourdough and pastas – maybe some maltagliati with wild-boar ragu. Or a risotto with prawns and nettles. It's the sort of neighbourhood restaurant where you could be blindfolded but blissfully content with whatever you order. barvincent.com.au

ANDREA MCGINNISS

Meatball sub at Rocco's Bologna Discoteca, Fitzroy

It had been a fun Friday night, too many glasses of fizz, not enough canapes, and on the way home a seat at Rocco's rollicking backroom counter beckoned. The famous meatball sub is only served at lunch or after 10pm. I grabbed my window of opportunity – and that golden-crusted pillowy roll – with both hands. Crammed with juicy, plump pork and veal polpette, spilling over with a rich tomato sugo, punctuated with piquant salsa verde under a blizzard of parmigiano, it was a magnificent, hot and memorable mess. I regularly find myself staring back wistfully at my Instagram shots of it (above). I'll be back, and I won't be wearing white. roccosbologna.com

MEGAN JOHNSTON

Whole menu at Nativo, Pyrmont

Why stop at one or two dishes when you can order the whole menu? At Nativo that's totally doable without busting the budget. All 10 dishes at this pocket-sized taqueria come in at about $10-$15 each, but don't come expecting typical street food. Mexican chef-owner Manuel Diaz brings a little French technique from his time in Michelin-starred kitchens, giving his beef brisket an eight-hour sous vide treatment in a tequila and beer marinade. Snack-sized tostadas are served with 12-hour braised pork. It's excellent cooking at tiny prices. nativomexican.com.au

EMMA BREHENY

Beetroot and swede roll-up at Igni, Geelong

Beetroot is often handled in predictable ways, but this beet blossom shone bright among its peers. Crafted from wafer-thin sheets of each vegetable, which are poached in olive oil, such a pretty little thing feels awful to destroy. But then you'd miss out on the hearty amounts of browned butter the delicate folds have soaked up. Lightly smoked almond cream from Igni's fire is the backing track while a zingy crown of Yarra Valley caviar electrifies the whole thing. Let's hear it for root vegetables. restaurantigni.com

ARDYN BERNOTH

Wood-fired spatchcock at Di Stasio Carlton

It has a lot to do with sitting in the crunchy gravel-lined courtyard, by the trickling fountain shipped from Rome amid the pot plants and cockatoo statues that makes me love this poultry treasure pulled from the wood-burning pizza oven. Stuffed then swaddled in pancetta, the meat is so tender, I could eat it every week. It needs only a simple insalata and a spritz to complete both the scene and the sense that there is no better place to spend a Melbourne summer's evening. distasio.com.au