Caveau’s new owners Tom Chiumento and Siman Evans have breathed a sign of relief at the news that they have retained the eatery’s prestigious Chefs Hat for a 13th year.
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The young pair took over from Peter and Nicola Sheppard in January, who had previously gained a coveted hat in the annual Good Food Guide for 12 years running.
“This has been a dream of ours, so it’s a massive achievement, we’re super proud, super chuffed,” Mr Evans said on Tuesday.
“Also, with the history of Caveau, we had to keep that going – we definitely didn’t want to lose the hat, so it’s a sigh of relief.”
Before taking over, Mr Chiumento and Mr Evans had been at the helm of the restaurant since 2015.
However, in the past year they have slowly been making changes to modernise the eatery’s style and menu.
They now change their menu every six to eight weeks, using produce almost entirely sourced from within 100kms of Wollongong.
Mr Chiumento said Good Food Guide reviewers had highlighted particular dishes that signaled this new direction, “which is a positive sign that this is what we should be doing”.
“They also said that after 13 years, a restaurant can kind of rest on its laurels and they highlighted that we definitely weren’t doing that,” Mr Evans said.
The reviewing team unveiled the results of their findings from six months of research around Australia at The Star on Monday night.
Melbourne’s Attica was named restaurant of the year, while chef of the year went to Daniel Puskas, at Sixpenny in Stanmore.
Notably, the award for regional wine list of the year went to the Adelaide Hills’ Summertown Aristologist – which has paired up for a takeover of Wollongong’s Babyface Kitchen next week.
Read more: Babyface Kitchen introduces natural wines
Other South Coast and Southern Highlands restaurants who were given hats in the 2018 Good Food Guide include Bowral’s Biota Dining (Two Hats) and Berrima’s Eschalot (One Hat).