WHILE some restaurants rejoiced after last week’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide award winners were announced, others were left gutted by the results.
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Newcastle’s Restaurant II – now called Restaurant Deux – lost its hat, although new owner Lesley Taylor told GT the loss of the hat wasn’t a true reflection of the situation.
Taylor and her partner Pauline Sazdanoff had bought the restaurant from former owner, chef Peter Bryant, in April this year.
They had taken over the kitchen in May.
But due to the change of ownership, Taylor said they hadn’t been reviewed for the 2011 Good Food Guide.
‘‘The book was being put together and printed at the same time we bought the restaurant,’’ she said.
‘‘So we won’t actually be judged until next year, when we will definitely be fighting for a chef’s hat.
‘‘We’ve been putting a lot of work into the food we’ve been doing, so hopefully we will be in contention for a chef’s hat next year.’’
Taylor won her first hat while working at Wickham’s Cafe Albion.
She had decided to change the name of the restaurant to further reflect the French flavours of its menu.
East Maitland’s The Old George and Dragon, which has been awarded 13 hats over the past 28 years, was ‘‘extremely disappointed’’ to have lost its hat this year.
‘‘We stayed within a formula and probably didn’t push the boundaries too much – what is there was what was there before,’’ chef Gavin Forman told Newcastle Herald journalist Naomi Davidson last week.
But the loss had proved a major motivator.
‘‘It now gives us another goal for next year,’’ he said.
The 2011 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide is now on the shelves.
