Good Food Guide Awards LIVE updates: Crowd gives standing ovation to Sydney icon Peter Gilmore as he wins Legend Award; Peter Fiander takes out Young Chef of the Year as all the winners, hats revealed

Good afternoon! My name’s Annabel Smith and I’m here at Carriageworks in Eveleigh to help guide you through the Good Food Guide Awards ceremony, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. After a stormy Sunday, the sun is shining.

After the success of last year’s earlier start, we’re kicking off proceedings with a mid-afternoon party again. As Guide editor Callan Boys will say in his welcome speech, the hospo crowd are nocturnal-dwelling creatures, but they did so well last year that we wanted to drag them all into the daylight again – and the natural light is flooding into the arched windows of the old railway yard sheds today.

Join Bronte Gossling and me as we find out who will be crowned Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year. Which of the 10 hot, new openings claims the title of 2026’s best new restaurant (you can cast your vote in our poll shortly)? Who will gain a hat? All will be revealed today.

We’ll be with you the whole way, providing updates on all the winners as the ceremony unfolds into the early evening. Our roving reporters Bianca Hrovat, Erina Starkey, Emily Holgate, Emma Breheny, Andrea McGinniss and Christopher Harris will be feeding us hot takes, speeches and gossip as the 500 guests – a who’s who of the NSW and ACT hospitality scenes – swap their chef’s whites and chore jackets for cocktail attire, and begin to arrive. There’s plenty of glitz, glam, and cheffy potato wedges and snack packs (yes, really) in store.

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We are not so delusional as to put ourselves in the league of custom Schiaparelli when it comes to our choice in evening wear.

But it’s not an exaggeration to say that even the most elusive chefs shirk their whites for cocktail dress for our do because they know it is, essentially, the Met Gala of NSW and ACT hospitality.

Like Anna Wintour’s annual power flex, we so graciously host on a Monday, when restaurants are usually closed or quiet, so 500 of the industry’s elite can gather in one room – most of whom are personally invited.

Attendees are either award nominees or hand-plucked from hatted restaurant or 100 Essential Restaurants staff, past winners or from the coveted VIP list, such as Matt Moran and Kylie Kwong. (There are a select few corporate sponsors, such as presenting partners Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea, who can invite guests).

As they trickle in to Eveleigh’s Carriageworks this afternoon, we’ll dutifully report back all the gossip from inside. In the meantime, click here to see who made the guest list – and who didn’t – at the 46th Age Good Food Guide awards a fortnight ago.

As Good Food Guide editors we’ve consumed enough salt, cheese, meat, flans, gougeres, parfaits, tortillas and caviar-topped scallops (both seafood and potato-based) to give any qualified nutritionist conniptions. We reviewed Fijian-Indian food in Canberra, Cambodian in Cabramatta, and too many CBD grills to count without checking our notes.

We don’t publish a book you can keep in your glovebox or bookshelf any more, because why would we when the tech gods invented apps? You can now access thousands of up-to-date restaurant, cafe, pub and bar reviews by downloading the Good Food app on your phone.

But, as per tradition since 1984, at today’s ceremony we will announce which restaurants gained, maintained or lost a hat throughout the year. To be recognised with a hat (or two hats, or the pinnacle of three), a venue needs to score well across food, service, atmosphere and value.

We’ve been co-editing The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for the past three years, and the biggest restaurant trend post-COVID has been previously bold and ambitious restaurateurs playing it safe; we’ve never seen more steakhouses or generic Italian openings sweep the CBD. Things are getting better, though. Young operators are still finding ways to open personal, intimate diners, and the food in the suburbs has never been more diverse or exciting. Great restaurants find a way.

You can get your hands on a 56-page Good Food Guide liftout inserted into tomorrow’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, which includes all the winners plus a curated selection of 100 Essential Restaurants (more on that soon), the top 10 cafes and top 20 bars, plus the essential pubs and clubs in the city (and beyond), sandwich shops, pizza and ramen round-ups, and regional guides. But to explore every new review from A-Z, you’ll need to download the app, which is the ongoing home of the Guide.

The 42nd edition of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide features 500 independent reviews of restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes in NSW and the ACT across various price points, cuisines, styles and suburbs.

Good afternoon! My name’s Annabel Smith and I’m here at Carriageworks in Eveleigh to help guide you through the Good Food Guide Awards ceremony, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. After a stormy Sunday, the sun is shining.

After the success of last year’s earlier start, we’re kicking off proceedings with a mid-afternoon party again. As Guide editor Callan Boys will say in his welcome speech, the hospo crowd are nocturnal-dwelling creatures, but they did so well last year that we wanted to drag them all into the daylight again – and the natural light is flooding into the arched windows of the old railway yard sheds today.

Join Bronte Gossling and me as we find out who will be crowned Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year. Which of the 10 hot, new openings claims the title of 2026’s best new restaurant (you can cast your vote in our poll shortly)? Who will gain a hat? All will be revealed today.

We’ll be with you the whole way, providing updates on all the winners as the ceremony unfolds into the early evening. Our roving reporters Bianca Hrovat, Erina Starkey, Emily Holgate, Emma Breheny, Andrea McGinniss and Christopher Harris will be feeding us hot takes, speeches and gossip as the 500 guests – a who’s who of the NSW and ACT hospitality scenes – swap their chef’s whites and chore jackets for cocktail attire, and begin to arrive. There’s plenty of glitz, glam, and cheffy potato wedges and snack packs (yes, really) in store.