Post-cyclone menu reset leads Byron resort to Hotel Chef of the Year win

CRYSTALBROOK Byron’s executive chef Tiffany Jones has been named Hotel Chef of the Year at the 2025 Hotel Management Awards, announced at The Fullerton Hotel Sydney last week.

Jones, who has championed a strong farm-to-table philosophy since joining the resort in March, said she was surprised and excited by the accolade.

“It’s been a very, very busy year meeting all the local producers and getting the menus where we want them,” she said.

Having worked in Sydney, where produce often passed through two or three hands before reaching her, Jones said she relished working directly with local suppliers.

She now sources ingredients from local forager Peter Hardwick and from farmers at Bangalow Pork and Northern Rivers Ducks.

At the resort’s Forest restaurant, which is open to both in-house guests and locals, dishes include chargrilled Ballina prawns with capers, lemon, green olive, pickled green chillies and brown butter; pan-fried duck breast with sliced sausage and bunya cone syrup; and a coconut ice-cream sandwich with guava sorbet and hibiscus gel.

Originally from a dairy farm in South Australia, Jones began her career as a kitchenhand in Adelaide.

She later worked as a sous chef at Maggie Beer’s restaurant Charlick’s before moving to London, where she joined the pastry team at the luxury Grove Hotel under Michelin-star chef Chris Harrod.

She has also worked alongside Justin North at Becasse and Etch in Sydney, with Colin Fassnidge at his Paddington pub Four in Hand, and at Lotus Dining Group.

Jones joined Crystalbrook the same week Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred hit.

“We changed all the menus within the first month of me joining thanks to the cyclone,” she said.

“It wiped everything out and we had five days of shutdown so I started with empty cool rooms and freezers, which was terrifying but it meant we could launch straight into the new menus.”

Crystalbrook Byron was also runner-up in the Best Resort category, which was won by JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa, at the awards.