Brisbane’s Agnes has been named Australia’s restaurant of the year at Gourmet Traveller’s annual awards, becoming only the second Queensland establishment to claim the title in the awards’ 44-year history.
The Fortitude Valley warehouse venue, led by head chef and co-owner Ben Williamson, is known for its open kitchen with multiple woodfire pits, and a menu that features innovative use of fire and smoke. There is no gas or electricity in the restaurant’s cooking process.
At the Sydney awards ceremony on Monday night, Williamson described the win as “unbelievable”.
“Brisbane, I mean, it’s not just a place that you come to on the way to Noosa and beyond, I guess,” he told the crowd to cheers and laughs.
Williamson told Guardian Australia that it was “incredible to fill the shoes that Phil Johnson filled many years ago”, referring to Johnson’s 1997 win as the head of E’cco bistro – the last Brisbane restaurant to claim the top gong.
He said the return to the “very primal base” of cooking with fire was in part inspired by the building’s age. “What we wanted to do was … harness that old feeling that the building has and take the cooking right back to what it would have been hundreds of years ago.
“What I love about cooking this way is, you can write a recipe, but you really need to teach it because managing the fire is probably 50% of the cooking process.”
Gourmet Traveller editor Joanna Hunkin said Agnes was, in some ways, “not what many would expect from a restaurant in Brisbane. But Agnes proves that old dining tropes can change.”
Williamson was hopeful that it was “the beginning of some great things” for Brisbane.
“For a long time, Brisbane [was seen as] a bit of a gateway to the rest of north Queensland and the state, and I think lately… it’s really becoming a destination of its own.”
Ollie Wong-Hee of Byron Bay restaurant Bar Heather was named best new talent, with the head chef telling Guardian Australia he was “somewhat baffled by it all, to be honest”.
Wong-Hee’s menu incorporates culinary influences from east and south-east Asia, a nod to the richness of Australia’s food scene. “If it wasn’t for cultural diversity in this country, our food would never have evolved. So all I’m doing in my place is honouring different cultures that belong in this country with their food identity.”
Wong-Hee said he did not frequent fine dining establishments, and preferred “to eat where the people eat”. Despite the complexity of the dining landscape, he said non-European cuisines in Australia had yet to receive the respect – and pricing – they deserved.
“I really dislike how we can go to any restaurant in Sydney and pay $40 for 100g of pasta, and we fucking question $18 for a bowl of brilliant noodles from a mother-and-pop shop. That’s what does my head in. I want that disparity to narrow.”
Regional Victorian restaurant Brae received the readers’ choice “icon” award, a new category for this year’s ceremony, while Hugh Allen of Melbourne’s Vue de Monde was named chef of the year.
Hunkin said she hoped the Gourmet Traveller restaurant guide, to be released next week, would “set an agenda for the year ahead” for diners.
“I definitely think we are entering an era of more accessible dining,” Hunkin said of this year’s winners, with many venues offering more “casual entry points to great dining experiences”.
“The quality is there, but it is at a lower price point. I think that’s the reality, that the industry is responding to the cost-of-living crisis”
The Gourmet Traveller 2023 restaurant award winners
Restaurant of the year
Agnes, Brisbane, Queensland
State winners
Onzieme, Canberra, ACT
Aalia, Sydney, NSW
Agnes, Brisbane, Queensland
Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide, SA
Peppina, Hobart, TAS
Etta, Melbourne, VIC
Millbrook, Jarrahdale, WA
Readers’ choice icon award
Brae, Birregurra, VIC
Chef of the year
Hugh Allen - Vue de Monde, Melbourne, VIC
Best new restaurant
Serai, Melbourne, VIC
Best new talent
Ollie Wong-Hee – Bar Heather, Byron Bay, NSW
Best destination dining
Glenarty Road, Karridale, WA
Wine bar of the year
Good Gilbert, Adelaide, SA
Restaurant personality of the year
Louise Radman – Institut Polaire, Hobart, Tasmania
