Why the '90s was a turning point for Canberra's food scene

But where did it all begin?

Rama's Fijian-Indian was opened in Pearce in the late '80s by Mini Gaunder, who still trades to this day. She is famous not only for her great food, but also for her incredible ability to remember everyone's name! The Barker Street Brasserie was launched by Paul and Peter DeGroot and it had its brief time in the sun. This location went on to became one of Canberra's favourites, Rubicon.

The Garden Terrace on Northbourne Avenue served classic French food and in 1991 they ran a 50 per cent off Grange Hermitage promotion where diners could order the '84 vintage for $60.

Lonsdale Street had a sprinkling of restaurants including Cafe Pronto, owned by Con Lebetzis, and Andrew and Vanessa Stefanou's Burps, which was a rolling party most nights of the week. In terms of Japanese, there was a choice between Asakusa, which was upstairs in Green Square, and Shogun in Garema Place. Opening in the fully refurbished Hyatt Hotel in 1988, The Oak Room was Canberra's grand old dame of fine dining, where the waiters wore white shirts, bow ties and black cummerbunds.

The Fig at Griffith shops was an on-trend, suburban gem owned and managed by Andrew and Catherine Haskins. Andrew was known locally as the "salmon king", and although it is prevalent these days, Tasmanian salmon was a delicacy back then. Andrew would go on a few years later to launch Pod Food, in amongst the greenery at Pialligo and after that, 3seeds Cooking School. They relocated the school to upstairs at the Fyshwick markets and this was later succeeded by Flavours, exposing the city to the superb talents of former Raffles Singapore chef Jan Gundlach.

Although the concept of a vegetarian restaurant was never a large market, Bernadette's at the Ainslie shops carved out its own audience, at around the same time that Frank Condi took the reins at Edgar's Inn on the corner. There was also a high-end fine-diner called Dijon, which took off in Ainslie and later moved into the city on West Row.

This street became a hot spot for a few years, including as home to David Chatto's Chatfish and Jeff and Justin Piper's wonderful Anise restaurant, which was an establishment ahead of its time. Jeff, a longtime associate judge at Lester Jesberg's wonderfully independent Winewise magazine, had a superb cellar that he would cycle through the restaurant list.

We had dinner at Jeff's place one night and he asked me to pick a couple of bottles from the "third bedroom". I had never seen so much wine in one person's house! Anise later become Thirst, with a menu based on Jeff's passion for visiting Thailand and learning the secrets of their cuisine.

In Yarralumla, there was a beautiful little restaurant called Mossard's, run by Francois and Jenni Mossard. They served French onion soup, snails, frogs legs, coq au vin and profiteroles. They were BYO and non-smoking. French restaurants felt the pinch in 1995, when places such as The French Kitchen were boycotted due to French nuclear tests in the Pacific. It did seem like a rather unusual line of causation to draw back then, as it does now.

Freshness of ingredients was not as common as people may remember in the early 1990s. One reviewer for The Canberra Times, Mary-Ellen Hepworth, reported in 1992: "but with the advent of freshly squeezed juice available bottled in Canberra shops, it's entirely feasible now to put a proper orange juice on the table, and its incidence is increasing. So, early marks to the Regatta Point restaurant, where the juice was wholly satisfactory, and only $2 a glass". Harsh reality kicks in soon after, when she adds: "Deduct a few (points) though, for the glass ... which was cracked ... it matched the window."

Gillian Vale wrote a column in The Canberra Times in the mid '90s called Sweet and Sour. In August 1994, she raised the issue of Canberra restaurants being pressured to boycott Tasmanian produce due to the Apple Isle's highly conservative position on the gay rights debate. Bruce Gibbs, who owned the cutting-edge modern brasserie, Delicateating in O'Connor, joined the one-month protest. Bruce went on to build All Bar Nun, which was later owned by Dan and Andrew Kenny. It's now The Duxton.

Santa Lucia in Kingston was an old-school Italian restaurant with chequered tablecloths. My usual order was the chilli, lemon and garlic spatchcock. The proprietor's father would knock back a bottle or two early in the evening and then walk around the dining room playing the accordion. He would usually be napping in the corner by the time we hit the tiramisu. Caffe Lella in Green Square was famous for chef Romilo's prawn and chilli oil pasta. Although I never visited it, Kalinka in Dickson was a curious offering of high-end Russian food in an environment of imperial opulence. Think Russian Standard vodka, caviar and chicken pojarski (kind of like a Kiev with an apricot filling).

In 1996 Canberra hit the big time, with both The Republic and Ottoman achieving a chef's hat, at a time when only seven restaurants outside Sydney were deemed worthy. Roberto's Trattoria in Manuka was gutted by a fire in the mid 1990s and came back bigger and better as the second of four Belluci's, the first one being in Curtin, and the last two in Dickson and Woden. The Dickson outpost later became Sub-Urban, as Socrates Kochinos and Pawl Cubbin along with Frank Condi, made their mark across the city.

The Lobby had been through various owners including Michael Delaney, who reputedly had one of the best wine lists in the country, assembled by David Farmer from the Farmer Brothers liquor store. Fiona and Tony Wright took over in the early '90s, with a young Michael Gray starting as a trainee before going on to manage the floor and create a solid career including becoming the general manager at Vue de Monde in Melbourne.

Patrick Cavanaugh's Mirrabook was the only place to go for Sunday lunch. Post-work drinks for hospitality staff were usually at the Blue Beat Café or La Grange, where it wasn't uncommon to see federal government cabinet ministers drinking pints of Thunderbolt beer or Sub-Zeros with chefs and waiters on a Monday night.

Derek Lyall and Paul Smith started The Republic, which seemed like an appropriately named restaurant at the time, with a young Matthew Evans initially in the kitchen. He was followed by an even younger Darren Perryman. Juniperberry in Red Hill also won numerous awards around this time under Janet Jeffs.

Former ANU students Danny Yip and Josiah Li launched The Chairman and Yip in the old Petros site and Asian food in Canberra was never the same. Having spent a large proportion of my 20s working there, I learned to cook several dishes from the menu through osmosis. Alumni from Chairman included kids who went on to become champions of the industry, such as my mate Paul Downie, who was at one point the general manager of Eleven Madison Park in New York. I was lucky enough to travel to Bangkok to attend a Thai cooking school with the head chef, William (Wiegor) Suen. He didn't speak much English at the time and I didn't speak much Chinese, but it didn't matter.

I believe that he is one of the greatest chefs that Canberra has ever seen. The staff meal recipes from Chairman are still my "go to" at home, some 25 years later. Danny and Jo had previously tasted success with the China Tea Club in North Lyneham, as well as Madam Yip, which was truly iconic. Danny returned to Hong Kong and his iteration of "The Chairman" still sits inside the top 50 on the World's Best Restaurants list. He was recently named the winner of the Icon Award as part of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2024. Josiah went on to launch delicious venues such as Lanterne Rooms (which we opened together at the Campbell shops), Malamay, and his current gem, Mu Omikase. And of course, everyone knew Albert Chung at Chairman. We worked together for many years and every lawyer, accountant and IT professional in town had a special arrangement with Albert, whereby he "produced a menu just for them".

I have fond memories of my decade or so at Chairman and although the days were long, I learned that if you are curious, restaurants give you a unique insight into other people's lives. I always enjoyed the customers and I found that people mostly just wanted to have a great time. This formed my philosophy for customer service. In the years to follow, we served so many locals, visitors and famous people every week. I remember once putting a shantung lamb down in front of Paul Keating and he said, "Wrap your laughing gear around that!"

Chez Daniel served beautiful French/Belgian food upstairs in Manuka. He opened the restaurant originally at the Downtown Spero's Motel and then relocated it southside in the early '90s. Daniel Collard's large personality, along with his love of Meshach shiraz, was legendary. I still remember the first time that I tried snails, his incredible duck a l'orange and floating islands dessert. It was exciting to dine there.

Serif Kaya moved the Ottoman from upstairs to the corner shop in Manuka and that become the absolute go-to destination for a big night out. High-end Turkish food was new to so many people and it was about that time that people started to travel from Sydney to Canberra just for the food.

The night after, they would dine at the spectacularly modern Atlantic, in the alleyway, which was the brainchild of David Wood, Nic Gravias and Bill Lyristakis. James Moussillon first ran the kitchen as a late 20-something and served thousands of plates of basil-infused tuna. Dean Zammit took over the kitchen at Atlantic and in 2003, Canberra had its first restaurant to be awarded two chef hats by the Good Food Guide.

Former Canberra Times wine writer Chris Shanahan recalls a wine dinner there where 80 people let out a collective "ahhhhhh" when putting their collective spoons into the duck egg ravioli with fresh asparagus. Zammit and Gravias moved to Artespresso in Kingston, taking over from Miriana Cavic who used to run a wonderful show. Alex Piris owned Deep Dish around the corner in Manuka. He is now an industry veteran, operating the Fox and Bow cafes and is still an exceptional mentor to many young industry people around town.