The Ary ‘Buzzing’ From Perfect Plate Domination

At the Perfect Plate Awards Night on Tuesday, 2 July The Ary Toukley took home a whopping three awards — first place in the Central Coast region, the state-wide ‘medium club’ award and the inaugural Best Dessert award.

Over 84,700 Perfect Plate dishes were purchased by delighted diners across 176 eateries from 151 clubs across NSW — with members and patrons invited to score the meals out of five and cast their votes between 30 April and 16 June 2024. 

The Ary team drove down to Bankstown Sports Club on Tuesday night to clean up at the Awards for their Queensland King Prawn Ravioli with Saffron Beurre Blanc and their dessert, a Belgium Chocolate Fondant with Creme Anglaise, Vanilla Ice Cream and Vanilla Fairy Floss.

Club Marketing Manager Debbie Dickson says the entire staff, from front-of-house to the board, are completely shocked by the incredible feat. 

“We're still reeling and in shock, in good shock,” Debbie joked to ClubLIFE.

“There is a massive buzz in the Club amongst patrons and staff, looking into the kitchen everyone's beaming and there's a great energy throughout the Club right from front-of-house up to our directors. Everyone's celebrating, embracing and enjoying these wins.”

While the competition is the club industry’s premier dining competition, it is also an exercise in marketing, with member clubs tasked with promoting their dishes through collateral and social media posts, and encouraging diners to vote via their unique QR code.

Debbie shared that the success of the campaign was partly due to how they tackled their marketing channels both online and in-venue. 

“The digital platforms played a big role — we posted a ‘boosted’ reel that showcased the two plates when we launched the competition that reached almost 10,000 people and had over 20,000 plays,” Debbie said.

“Then we followed that up with lots of social media exposure and eDMs to members, including our visit from Matt Moran which was fantastic, That post got nearly 9000 impressions, and it reached over 8000 people with 300 comments. 

“In house, we had pull-up banners and we had all our in-house TVs showcasing the dishes with the staff highlighting the dishes when seating our customers and really selling it well to our members — our front-of-house staff are champions.”

The Club visit by Perfect Plate ambassador Matt Moran even made an impression on the celebrity chef himself.

“I tried everything from a beautiful Greek-style beef moussaka to a rich, slow-braised duck and mushroom ragout pappardelle, not to mention some amazing desserts. I was actually fortunate enough to sample The Ary Toukley’s winning chocolate fondant — it was simply outstanding,” Matt said. 

“Clubs took the Perfect Plate competition to a whole new level this year, I was so impressed with what they plated up.”

Debbie also attributes the success to the team at the Club all working cohesively.

“As with everything we do, particularly around our menu, it’s a collaborative effort from marketing through to the chefs and the waitstaff, and everyone has an input into these competitions. It is such a great platform for us to bring the team together and work on something and achieve something as a team,” Debbie said.

As for next year, they are focused on basking in their glory right now, while moving to launch a new menu next week.

“We haven't thought about next year yet, we do have a brand-new menu launching next week so we've sort of got that in our heads, as well as trying to embrace this fantastic high that we're on and ride this amazing win,” Debbie said.

“It's definitely a fantastic energy through the Club and a real buzz — we'll be riding that for a long time to come!”