This is the fine dining we like. Large windows overlooking the water in Pyrmont, in the Sydney bay: with well spaced tables and attention to detail without too much excess. Welcome to the reign of chef Federico Zanellato...

Federico Zanellato, head chef of LuMi Bar & Dining and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide's 2017 Chef of the Year, shares some of his much-loved home recipes.

The innovator

Federico Zanellato, LuMi (Citi Chef of the Year)

Is this young Italian 2016's answer to Tetsuya Wakuda? It's not such a long bow, when you look at what he's putting on the plate. Innovative and original, with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic, his Italian food breaks rules in all sorts of delicious ways. 

The gleaming glass-walled space on Pyrmont Wharf is lit by a starry ceiling of pendant lights, and service strikes that very Italian note of both informality and care. 

Who the hell would pipe a glossy black sesame emulsion on top of salt-baked beetroot? And make it look like a party-time continental cake? And make it taste earthy, explosive, incendiary? Only someone like LuMI's Federico Zanellato.