The Fraternity Club dishes won the Perfect Pizza and Best Medium-Sized Club categories at the Perfect Plate awards. Photo: The Fraternity Club.
Illawarra clubs are proving that a pub feed doesn’t need to be basic or bland, with high-quality restaurant dishes from the region’s everyday venues proving to be some of the most popular in the state.
The Fraternity Club claimed multiple wins at this year’s NSW Perfect Plate awards, with both their restaurants coming out on top in different categories.
The venue’s La Trattoria Bistro took home Best Medium-Sized Club for its Ravioli di Pesce – a seafood ravioli tossed in a signature crab and prawn bisque reduction.
Il Bene Pizzeria won the competition’s newest award, Perfect Pizza, for its signature Pizza Trevigiana which was topped with portobello and shitake mushrooms, italian pork sausage and gorgonzola with a honey and truffle oil drizzle.
“This was the first time they’d run that category in the Perfect Plate awards and so for the club to be recognised as the inaugural winner is a great achievement for all of those people who have built the business to where it is today,” The Fraternity Club CEO Glenn Ward said.
The club prides itself on its impressive food offerings to help set it apart from other venues.
“It’s a lot of the same beers and the same gaming machines if they have gaming, so food is one of those things that can differentiate your club from your competition just down the street,” Glenn said.
“We’d be one of very few clubs who do more food revenue than we do gaming revenue.”
They are dedicated to helping those early in their career, with plenty of opportunities for young, upcoming chefs to design menu items, with each of the Frat’s restaurants changing menus every four months.
“People’s palates have changed so much over the past 10 – 15 years, because of TV shows like Masterchef and streaming things like The Chef’s Table on Netflix – it’s not just meat and three veg anymore,” Glenn said.
“With the blend of ethnicity that’s in Australia, the fusion of food, people just have so much more variety of options.
“I think clubs have evolved with that and are a great nurturing place for chefs to start.
Kiama Leagues Club’s Middle Eastern Lamb Rack took home bronze but its Panna Colada dessert was a winner. Photo: Kiama Leagues Club.
Chefs at Kiama Leagues Club also use the annual competition to showcase creativity and innovation from the kitchen of beloved, accessible venues.
“They have really talented people inside clubs that do want to be creative and aren’t just turning up every day just to cook another schnitzel but want to put together some new dishes,” Kiama Leagues Catering Manager Sarah Rebbeck said.
They’re no stranger to a trophy, with the staff dedicated to creating competitive dishes loved by the community and the judges.
“It’s a big thing for us in the kitchen,” Sarah said.
“We’ve actually got a new head chef in the kitchen and he came up to the awards and didn’t quite realise how important it was to everyone.”
Their Middle Eastern Lamb Rack earned bronze in regional and state categories, but it was their Panna Colada, a coconut panna cotta with malibu and pineapple, which was crowned best dessert in the state.
“It was really fresh; it was not too heavy, it just had a nice flavour and good balance of all things,” Sarah said.
“Always a little bit of a shock when your name gets called out as the winner but it was a really good moment for our whole team.”
Kiama Leagues sold 500 lamb racks and more than 200 Panna Coladas in less than two months, with their members backing them and voting for their dishes.
“Obviously clubs are member based and community driven so having them as the judging team is great,” Sarah said.
The team is already preparing for their next big creation to enter in next year’s competition.
“There’s discussions happening already,” Sarah said.
“The last few years it’s definitely been a lamb or seafood winning trend, but this year there was a pot pie and a stuffed pork fillet so it definitely opened it up to some other possibilities of some other dishes.”
