By Leigh O’Connor.
There are signature dishes and then there are signature dishes!
You know the ones we mean…they stay on the menu forever and are the reason you go to the restaurant. As we prepare for the big reveal of Chef Hat winners for 2025, let’s take a look at five iconic signatures from top Chefs that we all know and love:
Peter Gilmore – Snow Egg:
When Quay mastermind Peter Gilmore decided to retire his Snow Egg dessert, the Sydney restaurant’s website traffic tripled and phones rang off the hook. After all, it was Australia’s most famous restaurant dessert.
First made more than 15 years ago, Peter hatched an ‘egg’ filled with poached meringue and ice cream, topped with maltose tuile and served with granita and fool in a Riedel tumbler. It took two months to perfect the concept and since the first egg, the flavour and fruit have changed more than 20 times and it was the cooking challenge for the second season finale of MasterChef.
After renovations to Quay in 2018, Peter created the White Coral dessert to replace his signature in a bold move which required something spectacular to meet people’s expectations.
Growing up under the snow-covered slopes of Mount Taranaki, Ben Shewry has always been in tune with the New Zealand outdoors. It is from these memories, that the Attica Chef created potatoes cooked in earth they were grown in. Paying tribute to Maori culture, it is Ben’s oven version of a hangi - where fish, chicken, pork and root vegetables are cooked underground on hot stones.
Maori are aware the earth is the giver of all life, from the soil comes food and that same food is cooked beneath the earth.
It’s never cool in the kitchen when Lennox Hastie is playing with fire. His Sydney restaurant, Firedoor in Surry Hills is where wood-burning ovens and grills produce epic dishes full of smoky flavour and native ingredients.
His signature dish of pipis with garlic and karkalla is uniquely Australian and fascinatingly cooked. High in natural fat, pipis only require a simple dressing such as olive oil and lemon to bring out the subtle flavours.
Luke Mangan – Kingfish Sashimi:
One of Australia’s leading restaurateurs and Chefs, Luke Mangan’s influence on the food and drink industry can be found everywhere with various restaurants in Sydney, a presence on cruise ships and partnership with Mater Private Hospital in Brisbane to bring healthy, quality restaurant food to hospitals.
Known for his light, fragrant and modern dishes, it is his kingfish sashimi that has become a signature served with dashi, sesame dressing, Nashi pear and shiso.
Tetsuya – Ocean Trout Confit:
Landing in Sydney in 1982 with nothing more than a small suitcase and a love of food, Tetsuya Wakuda had no plan and no place to stay.
"I got in a taxi and said ‘the city’ and the taxi driver drove me to the corner of Oxford and Bourke Streets. I was 22 so I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I just wanted to visit Australia – that was a long-time dream,” he recalls.
Eight years later, he owned and operated two restaurants including Tetsuya’s, which until its closure in 2024 was AGFG’s highest Chef Hat at 19.
His signature dish – ocean trout confit – has been labelled the world’s most photographed dish – think ocean trout marinated with herbs, olive and grapeseed oil and cooked in the slowest possible oven until just warm.
It is then sprinkled with finely chopped konbu and served with a simple shaved fennel salad.
