The influential Victorian chef received the accolade a day after retiring from a 42-year restaurant career.
It’s been a big week for Tansy Good. On Sunday, the influential Victorian chef retired from a 42-year career after deciding to close her Kyneton restaurant, Tansy’s, which she ran with her partner, John Evans.
Then on Monday, at the 45th annual Age Good Food Guide awards, she was recognised for her long-standing contribution to the industry by being named the 2026 Legend.
“A cooking career spanning four decades is quite remarkable,” says Emma Breheny, who co-edited the 45th Guide alongside Frank Sweet. “But then you look at the number of game-changing chefs that Tansy Good mentored – from Andrew McConnell to Karen Martini – and you realise just how lasting her influence on Australian dining will be, even if she’s hung up her apron.”
The self-taught chef was sadly not at the awards to accept her accolade, but when Good Food visited her in the lead up to her retirement, she said she wasn’t remotely sad to close.
“It’s all about, ‘oh, where are you going? Oh, sorry [you’re] closing.’ I’m not sorry, I’m happy to go off. Think about me. It’s not sad. It’s good. This is the rest of my life,” she said.
Good was awarded her many hats across three Tansy’s: The first in Carlton North between 1983 and 1992, the second in the city between 1992 and 1994, and the third in Kyneton between 2019 and now.
Breheny says if Good hadn’t closed Tansy’s, she would have picked up her 31st Good Food Guide hat.
Andrew McConnell, the co-owner of Gimlet, Cutler, Supernormal et al, worked with Tansy in the city restaurant, which blazed like a culinary comet in 1992 before closing in 1994.
“The food was original and pioneering,” he says. “Cooking with her truly gave me an understanding of different ways to coax flavours. There was a real lightness to how she cooked and composed menus.”
Rita Erlich, Good Food Guide co-editor through the 1980s and ’90s, remembers the Carlton North restaurant particularly fondly.
“It was a beautiful place, so thoughtful,” says Erlich. “Wherever you looked, there was something lovely to see: a vase of flowers, a painting. The food was extraordinary in its technique and flavours. It was astonishing how everything went with everything. It was brilliant menu planning.”
Good and Evans ran the small Kyneton restaurant with no staff, living out the back. Now, the chef is looking forward to her next chapter in Creswick, where the couple has bought a house. Retirement will include some teaching and small-scale gardening.
“I need a breather. It’s going to be hard for me to stop because this is what I do, but the time comes along,” she said.
A free 80-page Good Food Guide liftout with all the award winners and Critics’ Picks will be inserted in The Age on Tuesday, October 28.
The Good Food app is the home of the 2026 edition of the Good Food Guide, with more than 500 reviews. The app is free for premium subscribers of The Age and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.
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Sarah Norris – Sarah is Head of Good Food and a former national editor at Broadsheet.
