Gav Panesar has been awarded Most Innovative Hospitality Entrepreneur at the Australian Enterprise Awards, with his Cowes venue, Mon Dieu Cafe and Restaurant also heralded for leading the 'farm-to-fork' dining experience in Victoria.
The awards, hosted by Corporate Vision magazine, celebrate "exceptional achievements and innovations of businesses across Australia".
Corporate Vision described the island resident as a "passionate chef, exceptional entrepreneur and creative visionary".
Gav's restaurant, on Church Street in Cowes, was celebrated as a "beacon of innovative and successful hospitality services, rooted in sustainability and a commitment to client-centricity."
Humble beginnings
The father-of-two arrived in Australia from India at the age of 17, not knowing a word of English. His first job in hospitality was as a pizza delivery driver for a venue on Lygon Street.
Since then, Gav forged his way up the ranks to become the owner and founder of Panesar Hospitality Group and two Cowes venues - Mon Dieu and Cafe Biscotti.
Initially studying law in Australia, Gav said he decided to pivot to hospitality while working in a French restaurant in Melbourne.
"I just found it fascinating how somebody was able to create something so special with ordinary ingredients, and so I dropped my studies and chose to follow hospitality," he said.
Gav said as a society we are being pushed away from "real food", and one of the biggest trends he had noticed over recent years was more people seeking out healthy, local ingredients.
"My biggest concern is that nowadays you go to Coles and you can find everything in a can. We're moving away from the actual taste of food.
"It's a huge difference in taste when you're dealing with something that's organic and comes directly from the farm, rather than a product with all the sprays and preservatives on it."
Gav said both his restaurants champion locally grown fresh produce.
"We have so many (producers) around us here, and I'm not sure many restaurants even know about it. We can source pretty much everything locally out here, and it's good for local producers too."
For the locals
For several years before opening Mon Dieu, Gav was the head chef at Mad Cowes and said during that time he developed a deep understanding of "exactly what locals want".
"(As a chef) you start reading people and what they like, and you write the menu accordingly. And of course you give (locals) a bit of special treatment, because on the island here, as a local they want just a little bit extra."
Gav said that hospitality venues are the lifeblood of the island.
Recently, he began the Panesar Hospitality Group - which aims to provide support and guidance to up-and-coming businesses in the industry.
Gav said he named his restaurant Mon Dieu (French for "my goodness") because he wanted that to be what everyone said when they had a bite of his food or a sip of his coffee.
"Coffees are the new cocktail," Gav laughed, noting you can have everything from a simple flat-white to a decaf-soy-chai-extra-shot latte.
"And it's great!" Gav said. "Why not? We're living in 2025, if we're not going to enjoy our life with the new variety of things coming up, then what's the point of having all this innovation?"
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