By Abbey Cannan
Noosa’s top restaurants have been recognised as Australia’s best in 2022, earning themselves a prestigious Chef Hat Award.
The pandemic has shown the true grit and passion of all those working in the hospitality industry, spending their days fighting to survive while still producing award-winning experiences.
“In any fighting sport, you have to be willing to get punched in the face,” renowned chef Peter Kuruvita said.
Out of the first 38 days of his new Noosa Heads restaurant being opened, the doors were forced to be closed for 15.
That didn’t stop ALBA by Kuruvita receiving an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat for the first time at a high level in 2022.
“In hospitality, you put your heart and soul into it, so I feel terrible for any restaurant that has had to close throughout the pandemic,” Mr Kuruvita said.
“To be totally honest, when I was opening the restaurant, I thought ‘Come on, it’s been two years of the pandemic, what else could go wrong?
“Well, I got Covid, along with the rest of my family. I actually got hit really bad. I’m a healthy, fit person but I think the four months prior to getting the restaurant together really took a toll on my immune system. There were nine days that I really thought I wasn’t going to get better.”
Mr Kuruvita said his whole team was stoked about the award.
“We like to have a great venue for the tourists but for us, the most important people are the locals and in return we have been rewarded for that,” he said.
“The satisfaction of being able to put up good food, entertain locals, and make them proud, is why I do it.”
When you start from scratch in the middle of Christmas with a hyped-up venue, you’re just inviting madness, the chef admitted.
“This Christmas was like standing on the end of the biggest rainbow and seeing a massive pot of gold, but you could never reach it,” he said.
“These next few months and over winter, it will really show who can survive this.”
The Australian Good Food Guide awarded a 2022 Chef Hat to a number of other Noosa favourites including; Sum Yung Guys, Locale, Alba, Miss Moneypenny’s, Noosa Waterfront, Embassy XO, View, Sails, Noosa Beach House, Sumi Open Kitchen, and Rickys.
Third-time award winners, View by Matt Golinski, agreed that the Christmas period was an unusual time.
“It’s been a really strange two years,” Mr Golinski said.
“The Christmas period was unusual in that we’ve had trouble with finding enough front of house staff.
“During the period that is usually the busiest time of the year, we’ve kind of just been plotting along in the kitchen.
“We’re looking forward to a time when we’re able to be really busy again.
“While it’s tough being in the restaurant trade at the moment, we certainly haven’t struck it as bad as people in Melbourne and Sydney.”
Mr Golinski said while he was proud of his whole team’s effort, Noosa’s local produce was to thank for their Chef Hat Award.
“We have such amazing producers that drop their ingredients at our back door every day, and to me it’s their Chef’s Hat as much as it is ours because we rely on them so much,” he said.
“It makes such a massive difference to the end product.”
With a new restaurant manager on board, Mr Golinski said locals can expect exciting new cocktails and a range of upcoming events at View.
“He’s been creating new cocktails using a lot of the indigenous ingredients we have available to us,” Mr Golinski said.
“Expect to see ingredients like Davidson Plums and cinnamon Myrtles, and we’re also liaising with a lot of Queensland wineries to try and get some of their beautiful wines on our wine list as well.”
Tourism Noosa CEO Melanie Anderson congratulated all the restaurants.
“Noosa has long been known as a great destination for food lovers and the Australian Chefs Hats awards are a great acknowledgment of this,” she said.
“It is wonderful to see the diverse range of Noosa restaurants being awarded this year – from one of our smallest, Sumi, to some of our most established restaurants and one of our newest. Congratulations to all.”
