Cafe owner Donna Carrier was over the moon when she contacted the Chronicle with the news.

“It’s a pretty huge one to pull off,” she said. “We were just extremely proud to have made it this far and are thrilled that a regional café can be in the running against such high profile hospitality operations.”

Bent on Food was up against a range of premier fine dining outlets from across the country. The cafe was a representative of both the Manning Valley and New South Wales, on account of the win in the Tourism Restaurants and Catering Service category at the State Tourism Awards in November last year.