After yet another hard year for the hospitality industry, Carboni's Italian Kitchen has been named as Ballarat's best business in 2021.
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Carboni's was announced as the winner of the Federation Business School Business of the Year at the Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards on Thursday night at the newly reopened Civic Hall.
The judges said Carboni's won the top gong after providing a constant stream of ideas throughout the multiple lockdowns Ballarat suffered throughout the year.
"After feeling the initial sense of emptiness at the start of the pandemic, the Carboni's team's creative response came out at full speed and they unleashed ideas which have allowed them to not just survive but expand," the judges said.
"From cooking videos to product in supermarkets and setting up their own retail store, Carboni's innovation and passion for their staff shone through."
Carboni's Italian Kitchen co-owner and chef Donatello Pietrantuono said it was a great honour to win the award after close to two years affected by the pandemic and thanked his team for coming together.
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"It's a great honour, of course, being awarded after almost two years of the pandemic. It's great," he said.
"It's a good feeling and the biggest thank you goes to all those guys that pulled it together so well, stuck together as a team and we got it done."
Other category winners were announced at a virtual awards night in October with Carboni's taking home the Restaurants, Cafes and Pubs Business Award.
Other winners included Cafs, The Athlete's Foot, Black Cat Truffles, Elements Health and Fitness, Sovereign Press and Formosa Gardens Nursery.
The awards night was anticipated to be attended by more than 400 people from across all industries, along with representative of the City of Ballarat and the state government and represented a celebration of "Ballarat businesses' strength, innovation and resilience" and a chance for many to let their hair down after a stressful time through the pandemic.
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