australian food — Neil Perry is one of the most influential chefs in Australia. Image: AFP/David Hancock

The list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants will be unveiled on April 5 in Melbourne, a first for the city which is known as the culinary capital of Australia. This international event will put the country’s cuisine in the spotlight.

For 14 years, the ranking of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants was revealed in London. In June 2016, the group which publishes Restaurant Magazine, which created the list, decided to hold its annual awards ceremony in New York. This year, the city of Melbourne has been chosen for the event, with the big announcement scheduled for April 5. As this event also functions as a publicity vehicle—Tourism Australia is one of its major partners—it will give exposure to local cuisine, particularly as it coincides with the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Although Australia is perhaps not best known for its cuisine, it can easily hold its own with other parts of the world. World famous chefs are full of praise for the high-quality local produce. They include Peter Gilmore, whose restaurant Quay nestles between the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, overlooking Australia’s iconic Sydney Harbour. Quay was ranked 95th in the list in 2017.

Also in Sydney, Neil Perry is one of the most influential chefs in Australia and has built a culinary empire whose standard-bearer is his restaurant Rockpool. He is a familiar face on Australian television and created the menus for the national airline Qantas.

In Melbourne, Shannon Bennett applies what he learned from Alain Ducasse and Michel Roux at his restaurant Vue de Monde, in the Rialto Tower. And the New Zealander Ben Shewry has the highest-ranking Australian restaurant on the World’s 50 Best list: Attica was 33rd in 2016.

With its many Asian-inspired restaurants, alongside those drawing on American and European traditions, Australian cuisine is bursting with talent and attracts many foreign chefs. Last year, Danish chef René Redzepi, known for Noma, which has topped the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants four times, installed a pop-up restaurant in Sydney which was booked up in minutes. British chef Heston Blumenthal also temporarily moved his Michelin three-star restaurant The Fat Duck to Melbourne for six months.

Further proof that the Australian culinary scene has a lot to offer came when France’s Gault&Millau decided to publish an Australian edition of its famous guide in November 2015, initially focusing on restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne. At the launch, Gault&Millau CEO Côme de Chérisey said that Australia’s culinary scene deserved to be recognized as one of best in the world. Gault&Millau’s rival Michelin has yet to publish an Australian guide. JB