The search for a new Bennelong was drama-filled and tinged with superstition - a result of its fraught history.

It is an energy that continues to attract food writers and chefs eager to explore this new food frontier like chef Rene Redzepi (who plans to relocate Noma to Sydney for a 10-week stint in January).Ĭhef Peter Gilmore (center). “We are way beyond the idea of ‘fusion.’ The food here is an open-minded natural mix of our multicultural heritage and the provenance of our unique produce.” Once masters of mimicry, Australian chefs are now more self-assured about their place on the gastronomic map. “To be a chef here is to have the freedom of being able to cook without labels,” says Gilmore, who together with his backers at The Fink Group also runs Quay, one of the country’s renowned fine-dining restaurants. Early signs suggest that the chef, undeterred by what industry insiders call the “Bennelong curse,” has made good on his pledge to create “somewhere we can all be proud of: a great Australian restaurant, for our greatest building.” And his success begs the question of what qualifies a restaurant as uniquely Australian.

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