Marrickville

The Trailblazer Award is given to a person, team or business approaching things from their own perspective and in doing so, pushing Australian food forward. The winner should have a unique point of view and embody hospitality in its truest sense, with a focus on community above all.

It’s for these reasons (and many more), that the inaugural winner is Baba’s Place, a freewheeling celebration of the suburban Sydney experience grounded in the stories of immigrant families and their shared experiences of food and cooking.

Like bills embodied a particular sense of Australia, Baba’s Place does the same, proudly drawing on the Lebanese, Macedonian and Greek heritages of co-owners Alex Kelly, Jean-Paul El Tom and James Bellos for the decor and the dishes, and reclaiming the narrative around what Australian cooking is and can be. A path laid down for all of us to follow.