Sydney
London has the Brit Awards, Hollywood hosts the Oscars and everyone wants to tread the red carpet at Cannes, but Sydney's night of tiaras and tantrums is without doubt the annual launch of The Good Food Guide.
Now in its 24th year, the restaurant guide is the arbiter of what's hot and what's not on Sydney's congested dining scene. To win a 'hat' (ratings go from one to three hats) is to join the city's gastronomic elite. To be named restaurant of the year or chef of the year is a financial bonanza, generating enormous press coverage and healthy bookings.
'That sort of recognition has all sorts of spin-offs,' says English-born chef Sean Connolly, from Astral restaurant, who was named chef of the year last year. 'Suddenly every apprentice chef in Australia - and even overseas - is beating a path to your door. It's bloody great.'
But the loss of a hat can provoke a foul-mouthed outburst worthy of Gordon Ramsay. According to culinary legend, one prominent Sydney chef was so incensed at losing a hat that he set fire to a copy of the guide in the car park.
Neil Perry, one of Sydney's most successful chefs, stormed out of an awards ceremony after Rockpool, his celebrated three-hatted restaurant, was stripped of a toque. Such was the controversy caused by the decision that French chef Alain Ducasse made an impassioned appeal for the return of the hat. 'I believe in my heart that Neil Perry deserves three hats,' he said.
Perry, who writes cookbooks, stars in his own BBC cooking series and has a supermarket brand, later played down the incident. 'I'm not devastated, but it's disappointing,' he said. 'Particularly for the staff who've worked so hard.'