Editor’s letter
The term “fine dining” still suffers from the notion that it can be a bit stiff and stuffy. But Australia’s modern fine diners are anything but. Instead they’re hotbeds of creativity, wit, humour and playfulness, where dinner is as much performance as it is dinner. They’ve become more fun. At Attica, in Melbourne’s Ripponlea, Ben Shewry tells the history of the surrounding area through the medium of three small tarts, serves finger-lickin’ crocodile ribs and hauls his customers into the backyard so they can chat with the chefs over billy tea or while toasting marshmallows over an open fire. This breaking down of the old expectations of fine dining is one of the reasons we love it and why we’ve awarded Shewry and his team Gourmet Traveller’s 2020 Restaurant of the…
