Monday night’s launch of The Age Good Food Guide 2025 marks the 29th time Stefano’s in Mildura has made the cut, a formidable record for one of the state’s farthest-flung restaurants. In its first appearance in the Guide , the 1995-96 edition, the now-32-year-old restaurant was described as “our out-of-town discovery of the year”. “Stefano’s is hard to beat for hospitality, charm, quality and value,” the reviewer concluded three decades ago.
But two-hatted Stefano’s nearly didn’t make it this year. There have been whispers that Stefano de Pieri would be closing the restaurant, almost 475 kilometres from Melbourne. The groundbreaking regional chef and restaurateur planned to retire, and the candlelit cellar dining room in the regional hub’s Grand Hotel would no longer serve his lard-laced focaccia, soup with yabby meat, pasta with veal ragu or simple, perfect cod from the Murray River over the road.
De Pieri didn’t shut down the rumours. He told regulars he was in discussions with a potential buyer. Wine nuts noticed that he was running down his exceptional cellar of Italian wines such as Piedirosso and Barolo.
Good Food spoke to him in May, mid-machinations. “My desire is to move on. I’m turning 70.
I have 10 good years left,” he said at the time. “But I don’t want to give it away. To negotiate, you need to have the patience of Julian Assange.
” The following month, whistleblower Assange was released from jail but De Pieri remained in his su.