Graham Kerr’s Guide to Good Eating in Sydney 1969

‘Galloping Gourmet’ and television chef Graham Kerr published Graham Kerr’s Guide to Good Eating in Sydney – Australia’s first restaurant guide – in 1968. This was followed, later the same year, by Graham Kerr’s Guide to Good Eating in Melbourne.

Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, the Guides didn’t claim to be complete, encompassing ‘just over 5 per cent of restaurants’. They directed the reader to the Pink Pages (a forerunner of today’s Yellow Pages) to find more than 1000 restaurants in Melbourne or 3000 in Sydney. Kerr commented that “very few establishments have ‘settled down’ with long-serving, highly qualified staff”. Restaurants were not rated – there were no stars, or forks or hats awarded, simply a description of the establishment and mention of a few typical dishes.  (australianfoodtimeline)