Five of the biggest ways Good Food Guide Legend Peter Gilmore changed how we eat

When Peter Gilmore’s name was read out at the 42nd Annual Good Food Guide Awards on Monday night, the standing ovation started and seemed like it would never stop. It didn’t quite approach the Cannes record of 22 minutes set during the premier of Pan’s Labyrinth, but the level of admiration for the winner of this year’s Good Food Guide Legend award was palpable.

This is a chef who did it all. Three hats for 23 consecutive years. Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year six times. Signature dishes that became household names. A peak of number 27 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

The award, said Sydney Morning Herald editor Jordan Baker, acknowledged Gilmore’s impact throughout his career, from making his name at De Beers at Whale Beach, to his time at Quay, and his decade-long run at Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House.

Quay’s closure in February meant the award was an opportunity for Gilmore to be acknowledged for his outstanding long-term contribution to the hospitality industry, in a room full of his peers.

“God, it’s been a ride, absolutely. What can I say? This industry has given me so much, so much joy and so much love,” said Gilmore as he took the stage. “It hasn’t been work; it’s been my life.”

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After thanking his family, the staff who’ve passed through his restaurants, as well as Quay’s owner Leon Fink – who first signed the chef in 2001 – Gilmore echoed Neil Perry’s words from when he received the Legend Award, with a definitive, defiant “I’m not done.”

But what he does next won’t look anything like what he’s done before. In July, Gilmore made the move to southern Tasmania, where he’d purchased a small farm in 2023 with his wife, Kath. Many thought this meant retirement, but it’s only taken a few months for the wheels to start turning one more time.

“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure when I decided to move to Tasmania what I’d be doing,” Gilmore tells us the day after the awards. “But having a little bit of time off, I’ve actually realised just how much it’s part of my DNA, creating and cooking and working with ingredients. And it’s so beautiful down here that I just decided I definitely want to do something,” he says. “I’m not done. I’m not done by a long shot.”

The details are closely guarded, but Gilmore can sketch out what his next step will look like. “I’m working with a couple of people on the idea of a project that will probably be just a little bit outside the city of Hobart, and will fully embrace the garden and the growing. So there’s something in the works,” he says. “It’ll be a project that we actually build from the ground up, and that’s probably all I can say at the moment.”

‘I’m not done. I’m not done by a long shot.’

Peter Gilmore

That’s what’s ahead, but the award is an opportunity to look at Gilmore’s legacy and how he has fundamentally shifted the dial on what Australian cooking and restaurants were and could be.

It’s a legacy that will run for generations. In our words, his, and the words of some of his closest collaborators, here are five of the ways Peter Gilmore changed Australian dining.

Establishing networks for rare and exceptional ingredients

Gilmore wasn’t the first Australian chef to dig deep on heirloom varieties of vegetables, but his work with suppliers to build a supply chain of rare exotica was part of what made dining at Quay so remarkable and influential. Odds are, if something appeared on Quay’s menu, it’d soon be on the radar of every chef worth their red orach. Gilmore drops names such as Stephanie Alexander and Serge Dansereau as pioneers, but no one went as deep with fishers, makers and particularly growers as he did.

Quay’s early years saw Gilmore build a supply chain for the likes of white carrots and native violets with Richard and Nina Kalina in the Blue Mountains, before he went even further in the 2010s with Dylan Abdoo, who runs Newcastle Greens – a grower of unique vegetables, leaves and edible flowers. In many ways it’s thanks to Gilmore, his obsessive tinkering in his home garden and his drive to build commercial supply, that Australia’s restaurants have such an enormous larder at their fingertips.

Peter Gilmore: “Serge was one of the first I heard about doing anything direct with farmers, and that was back in the ’80s at a time when there were two varieties of potatoes in Australia: dirty and washed. I think what I did probably just reached a little bit further into the realm of heirloom vegetables that you really had to work to get into this country.”

“My work with various farmers over the years has been really rewarding, but back in 2004, 2005 there weren’t those sorts of relationships happening. It took a while to establish, and we had to commit to buying the crop ahead of time, and forward planning. I’m really proud of that because I think we have a bigger network of farmers and chefs doing that sort of thing now.”

Abdoo:“He’d generally get 12 months or two seasons, let’s say, of something that he wanted me to grow. And then after that, we’d sort of open up the gates and let a few restaurants – you know, your Bathers’ Pavilions and your Saint Peters and such – have a crack at it too.

“There had to be at least 20 chefs in the kitchen. Those chefs then move on and go out into other places. And we’ve become pretty close. We’re all in WhatsApp groups talking. And it’s just sort of that carry-on effect. There’s so much business that comes from supplying a restaurant like that, not only from the social media platforms, you know, your stuff on those plates, but also from the chefs that move on to other venues, because to them, it’s second nature to use me and to use our business and use our farm.”

Idylle Lee and her late husband Paul are the founders of Table181, a purveyor of high-quality artisanal Korean ingredients and longtime suppliers of Quay and Peter Gilmore.

Lee:“From what I’ve seen over the years, I think Peter is always looking for the true, natural character of an ingredient. For him, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the rarest ingredient or the most expensive. Of course, quality is incredibly important, but it’s not simply about luxury.

“It’s about how an ingredient has been grown or produced, whether its natural qualities have been respected, and what it can contribute to a dish. I think he’s also very interested in the story behind an ingredient, not just where it comes from, but who makes it and how much care has gone into producing it.”

Passing on skills to generations of chefs

Hundreds of chefs passed through Quay and Bennelong during Gilmore’s time. Rob Cockerill (now leading Bennelong); Analiese Gregory (running 10-seat Lumachelle in Tasmania); Nicholas Hill (running Porcine); Sander Nooij (running Yellow). Troy Crisante joined Quay as a third-year apprentice and became its co-head chef, spending more than 15 years working alongside Gilmore. Now at Three Blue Ducks Burradoo, Crisante is part of the team that just took out the Good Food Guide’s New Restaurant of the Year award.

Crisante: “I started at Quay as a third-year apprentice and spent more than 15 years with Peter Gilmore and Fink, so Peter’s influence runs through almost my entire development as a chef.

“As an apprentice, it was about learning the foundations, respecting ingredients – we would spend hours grading fruit and vegetables into size and levels of ripeness – ensuring every day the most perfect ingredients hit the plate. It was about working precisely and understanding the level of care required to cook at a level I had never experienced.

“As I progressed, I started to slowly understand the ‘why’ – why does temperature matter so much? Why do we need to blanch the peas for exactly 35 seconds and not 45? I think the details and the precision of cooking at Quay is something that I will always carry with me.

“Part of the genius of Peter Gilmore was that he knew how to build incredibly talented teams, but ones that were also balanced and nuanced in a way that not many chefs can do. I think that’s one of the most underappreciated parts of what has made PG the legend that he is, and the list of chefs that have passed through the kitchen at Quay and that have gone on to do such incredible things in the industry would be 100 pages long.”

Developing a new culinary grammar that put the ingredients at the centre

Nature, texture, intensity, purity. These were the words that Gilmore came to use to describe his cooking, a style rooted in the subtle shifts of the natural world, attuned to the seasons, and obsessed with clarity of flavour, layering of texture and an expression of truth on the palate. Those few distilled ideas have echoed through his kitchens, and live on in the minds of all the chefs who have ever worked closely with him.

Crisante:“Something that is rarely talked about, but I think a huge part of the brilliance of Peter Gilmore is the subtle changes of texture that all his dishes have. Often it’s not an obvious juxtaposition of super-soft and super-crunchy, it’s subtle and nuanced changes of textures that are so incredible.

“Its pairing buttery-soft squid ribbons with shiitake mushrooms – both soft and silky but offering just that little bit of difference in mouthfeel and bite – often paired with a custard or rich puree that coats the palate and the freshness of some sort of incredible heirloom vegetable that has been harvested at exactly the right time, prepared perfectly and cooked simply.”

Lee:“I’ve often thought of Peter’s cooking as an orchestra, where every ingredient has its own character and its own voice, but somehow, in his hands, they all come together in perfect harmony.

“He has an amazing ability to recognise the subtle differences in an ingredient, not just its immediate taste, but the depth and complexity underneath. He doesn’t simply look for strong or dramatic flavours. In fact, I think he often appreciates the quieter, more delicate qualities that other people might miss. And once he understands an ingredient, he knows exactly how to use it.

“There are many talented chefs around the world, but I think Peter has a particularly rare ability to understand not only the flavour of an ingredient, but also the philosophy and craftsmanship behind it. And then, through his own creativity, he transforms all of that into something entirely his own. For me, that’s what makes his cooking so special.”

“When I think about Peter’s food, I think about purity, balance, patience and respect. But above all, I think about his ability to bring together individual flavours in a way that feels completely natural, yet is incredibly difficult to achieve. It’s that understanding of ingredients, and the harmony he creates between them, that I believe defines Peter Gilmore as a chef.”

The work of art is not just on the plate, it is the plate

When Quay opened, stiff European sensibilities ruled. Fine-diners typically had white tablecloths and, invariably, the plates were spotless white porcelain or bone china. When molecular gastronomy boomed in the early 2000s, smears, dots and foams were everywhere.

In the midst of it all, Gilmore developed his own style, more focused around organic shapes and the beauty of natural ingredients. By the 2010s, Gilmore was collaborating with ceramicists such as Paul Davies and Jacqueline Clayton of Red Shed Studio Jam, as well as Malcolm Greenwood and Ben Richardson, who would design specific plates for specific dishes, in seamless harmony with his food.

What Gilmore started soon spread into kitchens around the country, until white plates were suddenly passé, and almost every chef at a certain level of restaurant had a ceramicist on speed-dial.

One person who was there to capture it was Nikki To, a food and lifestyle photographer, and co-director of creative studio Buffet. She photographed Gilmore’s food for almost nine years, the final shot being an image of the chef’s signature Snow Egg dish for the Powerhouse Museum’s Australian Culinary Archive, taken just before Quay’s closure.

Nikki To:“I’m always blown away on our shoots at just how intricate and beautiful Pete’s dishes are, but sometimes it’s not until the post-production stage, when I’m back at my computer reviewing the shots in detail, that I’m truly blown away by the incredible precision, curation and skill that I’ve just captured.

“There can be so much going on with a dish – the combination of ingredients, the textures, colours, shapes and sizes, and then there’s the vessel, the actual plate that has been handcrafted and designed by Pete and his ceramicists. For me, his brilliance lies in the harmonisation of all of this together on the plate.”

Shaping a new kind of Australian cuisine

When the rest of the world was spherifying olives or turning snails into porridge, Gilmore was looking at what was right in front of him: the ingredients. At its core, his cooking has always been about discovering his own style, one that preferences local produce, draws on a global pantry, and speaks of Australia and all its influences.

Gilmore:“Part of that equation of trying to be more consciously Australian was really sort of embracing more of a multicultural sort of feel, taking techniques from China and Japan and incorporating them into our cuisine was also again not a conscious thing, just sort of a natural thing.

“You cook what’s around you and we, being a multicultural society, have fantastic Asian food, fantastic Middle Eastern food, Italian influences, Greek influences, as well as the French tradition. So I think I was just a bit freer in adopting all of those things and just wanting to express my surroundings.

“Twenty years ago we were probably the first country around the world to really embrace that style of thinking.”

Crisante: “Another influence that PG has had on so many of the chefs that have come through his kitchens is the quest to find your own style, your own cooking DNA. Quay dishes have a signature that you know as soon as you see it – it’s a Peter Gilmore dish.

“I think the best chefs and the best restaurants have this irreplicable and iconic style that is so difficult to achieve, while still pushing their style and flavours forward through the years.

“His dishes from 2010 are still just as relevant as dishes from 2026, even while they’re still evolving and improving, which I think is incredible.”

The winners of the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards were announced on Monday, October 26, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. Pick up a free 56-page Good Food Guide liftout in the Herald on Tuesday, October 27.

The home of the Good Food Guide, the Good Food app is free for premium subscribers of the SMH and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the app here.