Live blog: The SMH Good Food Guide Awards

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Welcome to The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards

By Annabel Smith

Good afternoon! My name’s Annabel Smith and I’m here at Carriageworks in Eveleigh to help guide you through the Good Food Guide Awards ceremony, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. After a stormy Sunday, the sun is shining.

After the success of last year’s earlier start, we’re kicking off proceedings with a mid-afternoon party again. As Guide editor Callan Boys will say in his welcome speech, the hospo crowd are nocturnal-dwelling creatures, but they did so well last year that we wanted to drag them all into the daylight again – and the natural light is flooding into the arched windows of the old railway yard sheds today.

Join Bronte Gossling and me as we find out who will be crowned Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year. Which of the 10 hot, new openings claims the title of 2026’s best new restaurant (you can cast your vote in our poll shortly)? Who will gain a hat? All will be revealed today.

We’ll be with you the whole way, providing updates on all the winners as the ceremony unfolds into the early evening. Our roving reporters Bianca Hrovat, Erina Starkey, Emily Holgate, Emma Breheny, Andrea McGinniss and Christopher Harris will be feeding us hot takes, speeches and gossip as the 500 guests – a who’s who of the NSW and ACT hospitality scenes – swap their chef’s whites and chore jackets for cocktail attire, and begin to arrive. There’s plenty of glitz, glam, and cheffy potato wedges and snack packs (yes, really) in store.