Stephen Downes is Australia’s longest-serving restaurant critic. A freelance journalist and writer, he is the restaurant reviewer for Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Australia’s biggest-selling daily newspaper.

Over almost three decades he has contributed regular reviews and columns to many of Australia’s most prestigious newspapers and magazines, including The Age, The Sunday Age, The Sunday Herald, The Australian Financial Review, and Gourmet Traveller. Advanced Australian Fare, his history of Australian restaurants and the development of Australian cooking, was named Oustanding Food Book of the Year at the 2003 Australian Food Media Awards.