The Ledbury's Brett Graham awarded three Michelin stars - News + Articles

Feb 08, 2024

This is the first time an Australian-born chef has ever scored three Michelin stars for their own restaurant.

Brett Graham, head chef and owner of The Ledbury in London, has been awarded three Michelin stars in a world first for an Australian chef in their own restaurant.

Michelin, which revealed its latest guide at a ceremony in Manchester on Monday night, said The Ledbury’s third star indicated the “very highest of gastronomic honours” with Graham and his team receiving praise for “unsurpassable quality” in all Michelin criteria.

For 124 years, the Michelin Guide had been the international benchmark of excellence for restaurants across Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Graham’s modern European bistro has consistently claimed high praise since opening in 2005, earning two Michelin stars in 2010. Nabbing the third star is a first for any Australian-born chef-owners.

Only nine restaurants across Great Britain and Ireland now hold the three-star status, as the boy from Newcastle joins the likes of Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, helmed by Sydney-raised chef Matt Abe.

The Ledbury takes reservations up to three months in advance for its £210 ($A406) dinner tasting menu, which at times includes dishes such as “mushrooms from the cabinet.” The cabinet being Graham’s moisture controlled “fungarium” in which he cultivates lion’s manes, shiitakes and reishi varieties.

Graham has been lauded as one of the greatest culinary talents of his generation, receiving the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year Award in 2003 when he was working at Sydney’s Banc restaurant.

Moving to London soon after, Graham joined Phil Howard at diner The Square, before the two opened The Ledbury together in 2005. Since then, Graham has led his team through the Michelin stars, and secured a top 10 spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.