Not run of the mill degustation dinners either.

Apelgren sipped and supped her way through the pantries of four of Victoria's most exhilarating restaurants: Dunkeld's Royal Mail Hotel and winner of The Age Good Food Guide's 2011 Restaurant of the Year; three-hatted Vue de Monde and Jacques Reymond; and Attica whose chef Ben Shewry is the Guide's 2011 Chef of the Year.

"I can tell you the human body does not cope well with such an experience," Apelgren says.

"I was wearing my very loosest dress by the end of it."

She says it's not always about the 'hats' in the Good Food Guide.

"Some of our best finds are local heroes, places that keep the neighbours coming back again and again."

Places like:

Hobsons Bay Hotel, Williamstown

Rosa Mitchell (formally Canteen in Flinders Lane) continues her known rustic Sicilian approach, this time in modern bayside surrounds.

Pint of Milk, Newport

A friendly interpretation of the of the modern milk bar and neighbourhood hub.

To order the guide, visit The Age shop

On sale August 30.