WO’GOA
Martin Benn Australia’s Chef of the Year...
Martin began his career as a chef at the Oak Room in London learning French gastronomy under Michel Lorrain, from there Martin Benn moved to work at The Landmark London and later The Criterion, where he came under the tutelage of Marco Pierre White. Moving to Australia in 1996, Martin spent two years at Sydney’s Forty One Restaurant as sous chef and later gained a place at Tetsuya’s, where he learnt the fundamentals of Japanese cuisine from Tetsuya Wakuda, mastering Tetsuya’s culinary philosophy, which centers on pure, clean flavours that are decisive, yet completely refined, and at the age of twenty five Martin become head chef. In 2004, Martin joined the Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay as executive chef, returning to Tetsuya’s before a brief move to Hong Kong. Returning to Sydney, Martin opened Sepia Restaurant in 2009, collaborating with George Costi to supply the restaurant with the best quality seafood available. Since opening, Sepia has gone on to become one of Australia’s most awarded restaurants and was recently named ‘One to Watch’ at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and was voted 84th best restaurant in the world.
The Pearl Pre Dessert
Martin Benn was named The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011 Chef of the Year and the following year saw Sepia awarded the prestigious The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year 2012, and Three Chefs Hats, a meteoric rise in just over two years. Sepia has maintained the highest rating of Three Chefs Hats and 18.5 points out of a possible 20 points for four consecutive years and was awarded The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year 2014 and 2015 and in 2015 was named Australian Financial Review’s Best Restaurant in Australia. The past twelve months have also seen Martin Benn awarded Australian Financial Review’s Chef of the Year, Australian Gourmet Traveller Chef of The Year 2015 and The Weekend Australian Magazine’s Hottest Chef of the Year. WO’GOA January 2016 -
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