Modern cuisine is one of my passions, I wish there were more restaurants in NZ offering it without worrying about the stigma attached to it by people decrying the evils of anything other than what they are comfortable with. Brent Savage runs the kitchen at The Bentley Bar, it’s located in Surry Hills in Sydney and along side an intimidating number of other eateries. I was recommended to eat there by Adam Melonas, another Australian chef, it was a recommendation that I quickly looked into and soon booked for our holiday.
The Grove Restaurant (Auckland)
It has been a long time coming, and while I have always intended to visit The Grove, the priority of visiting the former head chef’s restaurants took priority. The new head chef, Benjamin Bayly, trained in Hamilton and Auckland after growing up in Te Awamutu. It turns out he was a year or two ahead of me at the same high school, prior to his appointment at The Grove he worked under Peter Thornley at Kermadec. I think the last time I ate food by someone that grew up in Te Awamutu was when I lived there in ‘97’.
Quay Restaurant (Sydney)
When you get voted amongst the best restaurants in the world you have to be doing something right, and if you are wanting to visit one of the restaurants it is probably best to book well in advance, with Quay we had our booking 4 months prior to our visit to make sure we would be able to enjoy not only the spectacular view, but also some world class cuisine. Planning sometimes pays off in an awesome way.
Sydney Itinerary
Next week Claire and I are off to Sydney for 3 days for our first trip away together since we got married and started our family. The main purpose of the trip, other than to relax, is to sample some of the best food in the world, or at least some of the best food that is within reach for people on a budget and thousands of miles from Europe and the US.
For the three nights that we will be there we have our dinners sorted. Thursday we will be visiting The Bentley Bar, their cuisine is modern and exciting, the style of food that I haven’t found in NZ. Friday is Quay, Peter Gilmore looks to be creating some stunning plates of food here and the view sounds spectacular. Saturday is Marque, European Australian from a Chef that started late in the game and has slogged away to create something all his own.
I’m excited about every single meal that we will be having there. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet some of the chefs and check out their digs. We still need to sort out our Lunches, but given that we will be eating fairly heavily in the evenings we might just play it as we go, some good Mexican if we can find it, perhaps some Chinese as I hear there is some exceptional eateries in China Town. Can’t wait.
A Contemporary Boil Up
As part of Rick Stein’s Food Odyssey Tour they are calling for an homage to Kiwi food, something that speaks tradition, or rather, something that stands for the identity of New Zealand cuisine. I’ve always liked a good boil-up in spite of always knowing that it wasn’t the perfect meal, and that too many of them would quite swiftly lead to a blocked coronary, but it is warming and probably (after the Hangi) the most iconic Kiwi meal. Even though I thoroughly enjoy a Boil Up, there are definitely a few things that have prevented it from becoming a regular feature in my house, first up, the doughboys. A dumpling can be a beautiful thing, but all to often they are heavy, bland, and far too big. Secondly, I’m not a huge fan of soupy meals, and a boil up walks a line between meal and soup that I don’t think has a real classification in traditional cookery.
This is my take on what it I think a Boil Up would want to be when it grew up (in the 21st century). First of all, it became less of a broth and more of a meal. The star of this dish is easily the pork glaze, thick, rich, mouth coatingly excellent, it has the rich pork flavour and the slight peppery flavour from the watercress stalks. A close second are the gnocchi, a little parmesan for savoury effect and a lot of watercress, replacing the heavy doughboys with something light and flavourful. Everything else in the dish is either due to a direct inspiration from the original dish or drawn from other culinary traditions that I associate with Porkdom.
Gothenburg
I had the pleasure of working along side Lorna (the head chef at Gothenburg) while OneZB was still alive and kicking, she’s a lovely person and, as many already know, a great chef. When Gothenburg opened she was on board from the beginning and has been able to craft the menu to suit the restaurants theme of a casual yet sophisticated tapas bar and restaurant. I’ve visited Gothenburg three times since it opened and each time I have tried something different from the menu.
Top 50 Announced
Oh to be able to whisk myself away to Denmark. Noma received the honour of top restaurant in the world as voted by the chefs and foodites that have input into the list. El Bulli and The Fat Duck rounding out the top three. Unfortunately no sign of any New Zealand restaurants showing up in the extended top 100 list, but four Australian chefs making it in. Quay taking the top Australasian spot, with Tetsuya dropping down a considerable amount, Attica from Melbourne and Marque in Sydney sneaking into the 50-100 spots. Hopefully come July I will be able to get to at least two of the top Australian restaurants mentioned here, finances permitting of course.
I’m sure all of the teams involved will be rapt with any inclusion in such a prestigious list, but I imagine that some Danes are particularly overwhelmed by the vote of respect from their peers.
One question though… the people that do the voting, do any of them ever come down this far under? I wonder if they did how the best of our restaurants would fare?
Metro’s Restaurant of the Year 2010
Well it’s comforting that Metro seem to have a manner of thinking inline with my own, I am now certain that I am not completely crazy and that there is hope for New Zealand food.
Tonight they announced the winners of their restaurant of the year, The Grove took the top honour of best restaurant. The Auckland based competition sees the best of the best eateries in New Zealand’s biggest city pitted against each other to see who has the goods. Along with the best overall restaurant was the announcement of Sidart receiving the Best New Restaurant nomination from the magazine.
The full list of the top 50 will be in this months Magazine. Once I track down a copy I’ll be sure to post up some thoughts.
Thanks!
A huge thank you to the people in white jackets that helped out last night. Putting everything together wouldn’t have been possible, and making the evening enjoyable for the guests… well that just wouldn’t have happened. Couldn’t have asked for more.
Tasting Night Pictures
Tonight (or rather, last night) the tasting menu was held with a few friends and family serving as guests, guinea pigs, and most importantly, critics.
The dinner consisted of 7 courses, there were a few extras planned, however these did not eventuate with 2 “staff” not showing up. Below are some pics of the first 4 dishes. I would have liked to have taken a picture of every dish however tiredness set in and cleaning took priority.
