Aug 6, 2017
Jill Dupleix grew up as the daughter of a sheep farmer and took an
unusual route to becoming a food writer – it involved a phone book,
a bike ride and a stint in the world of advertising. And meeting
Terry Durack: “We hated each other on sight.”
They not only married each other, they ended up reviewing
restaurants together.
Since those early days, she's written 16 cookbooks, been the editor
of the Good Food Guide, food curator of TEDx and currently she's
the co-director of the Australian Financial Review's program
for Australia's Top Restaurants with Terry. It involves
overseeing the Australia's Top 100 Restaurants list and ceremony
and writing about the remarkable venues that get highlighted by
these chef-voted awards. (There's one restaurant that lives up to
the obsession with hyperlocal produce by making its plates from its
actual surrounds.)
She talks about how the Australia's Top 100 Restaurants list is put
together and what makes the highest-ranked establishments so
special – from the neighbourhood charms of Tipo 00 to the
special-occasion appeal of Brae, where even the temperature of the
dishes will make an impression on you.
Jill also covers the unusual espionage methods she resorted to
while reviewing restaurants in the early 1980s (long before the
iPhone – or the luxurious ability to simply take a photo of
the menu or the dishes you're eating – existed) and what she thinks
the future of restaurant reviewing will look like.