The awards were presented last night at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, with the 30-seat Orana the only South Australian restaurant to receive three hats, the guide’s highest ranking, while Zonfrillo’s Bistro Blackwood was awarded one hat.

Chef of the Year title went to Sydney-based Peter Gilmore, of Quay restaurant in Circular Quay, which has been awarded three hats for 16 consecutive years and named restaurant of the year six times.

Orana’s win tops off a highly successful year for Zonfrillo, who recently won the Basque Culinary World Prize, worth more than $157,000, for his work championing Australian indigenous culture and culinary traditions.

“Zonfrillo has an ability to take left-field ingredients such as ants and Geraldton wax and turn them into something incredibly delicious,” Good Food Guide editor Myffy Rigby said in an awards article on the Good Food website.

“There’s no cultural cringe, just purity and beauty. And, most importantly, Orana is a lot of fun to eat at.”

Zonfrillo said that picking up three hats at the awards meant a lot to his team, “but also all of the small owner-operated restaurants out there”.

“We are so proud to stand amongst our peers and celebrate the Australian food community and even prouder to bring the Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award back to South Australia.”

Chef and restaurateur Jock Zonfrillo. Photo: Aaron Gully

More than 500 restaurants around the country were reviewed for Fairfax Media’s latest Good Food Guide, with 264 of those receiving hat status, ranging from one to three.

Orana was the only South Australian restaurant among seven nationally which achieved the top accolade of three hats, with the others being Attica, Brae and Minamishima (all in Victoria), and NSW restaurants Momofuku Seiobo, Quay and Sixpenny.

Overall, South Australia saw a small net gain in hatted restaurants, with Hentley Farm and Magill Estate each receiving two hats, while one hat was awarded to Africola, Appellation, Bistro Blackwood, Botanic Gardens Restaurant, The Currant Shed, d’Arenberg Cube Restaurant, FermentAsian, Osteria Oggi, The Pot by Emma McCaskill, Press Food and Wine, Shobosho, Stone’s Throw and The Summertown Aristologist (see the full listed of hatted restaurants here).

2019 Good Food Guide winners:

– Restaurant of the Year: Restaurant Orana, South Australia

– New Restaurant of the Year: Laura, Victoria

– Chef of the Year: Peter Gilmore, Quay, New South Wales

– Regional Restaurant of the Year: Brae, Victoria

– Young Chef of the Year: Jodie Odrowaz, Iki-Kime, Victoria

– Wine List of the Year: Otto, Queensland

– Regional Wine List of the Year: Wickens at the Royal Mail, Victoria

– Sommelier of the Year – Travis Howe, Carlton Wine Room, Victoria

– Service Excellence Award: Kylie Javier Ashton, Momofuku Seiobo, New South Wales

– Coffee Legend Award: Stefano de Pieri, Stefano’s Cantina, Victoria

– Bar of the Year: The Dolphin Hotel Wine Room, New South Wales

– Food for Good Award: Sydney Doesn’t Suck, New South Wales

– with AAP