Food NewsBy Franz Scheurer Can you stand the heat? Matt Moran and the kitchen team at Aria want you to feel the heat of the kitchen first hand. Their new Kitchen Table, an opulent dining room for eight, is built right into the kitchen. As you arrive and take your seat, curtains rise dramatically to reveal the drama about to unfold in the Aria kitchen during service, executed with (mostly) a minimum of fuss and (always) military precision. There’s no doubt who’s boss and if you want to hear as well as see all the excitement you can open the windows and really be part of the heat in the kitchen. The interaction between chef and the participants at the Kitchen Table is absolute, as produce is inspected and explained before being cooked and served. This is the most intimate view of a superb Sydney squad in action — you must experience it at least once.
For more information or bookings contact
Aria Restaurant
1 Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
02 9252 2555 Bécasse he can Justin North’s book Bécasse: Inspirations and Flavours is an amazing tribute to his suppliers as well as a journey through the life of one of Sydney’s best chefs. It may have him taken a just few years to travel from his native New Zealand via Raymond Blanc and Liam Tomlin’s kitchens to his restaurant, Bécasse in Clarence Street, but along the way he honed his kitchen craft and palate. But this is not a cookbook for the uninitiated. It relies on stocks, sauces and reductions that your average household simply doesn’t have on hand and there’s no such thing as an ‘easy’ recipe. That aside, it’s deeply inspirational and a must-have in any serious cook’s collection. Published by Hardie Grant, the book retails for $69.95 and is available in bookstores now (ISBN 13579108642). Bentley is motoring Take an old pub and remodel it with hip, hard surfaces and arty cut-out panels. Add splashes of bright colours, funky tables (with even funkier lock-in tablecloths), chairs and banquettes, a working kitchen and a groovy bar and you have all the makings of a Sydney mod-Oz restaurant.
So far so good. Now what you need is someone to run it and make it stand out from the crowd.
This is exactly what happened at Bentley. Nick Hildebrandt, one of Sydney’s leading wine talents and one of the few who can routinely match wine and food perfectly, runs the floor and complements the kitchen, where chef Brent Savage creates challenging food that needs Nick’s drinks expertise. Brent’s food is ethereal, sometimes confronting, always textural and cerebral but never boring or bland. It’s food that needs to be mentally as much as physically digested. Food to talk about, argue about and dissect but, in the end, always enjoy! Go on, do yourself a favour and try it — as long as you can still get in ...
For more information or bookings:
Bentley Restaurant & Bar
Cnr Campbell and Crown Streets
Surry Hills NSW 2010
02 9332 2344 Get over SydneyOn the 17th floor of Star City, Astral’s Private Dining room, with its 300-degree views of Sydney, shows off our city in the best possible way. The dining room is opulent but modern, elegant yet comfortable, and every seat has a view. Large glass doors open to the night air, introducing a gentle breeze should you prefer that to the air-conditioning. Sean Connolly’s impressive food with matches by sommelier Peter Bell, cutlery by LaGuiole, crockery by El Bulli and stemware by Riedel combine to do the room and the view justice.
For more information or bookings:
Astral Restaurant, Star City
80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont
1800 700 700 | | Drinks NewsBy Franz Scheurer Exclusive at Vintage Cellars Maxxium and Vintage Cellars have teamed up to release the Macallan 10-year-old Fine Oak. Exclusively sold at Vintage Cellars, this is a very different Macallan: young, brash and proud. Already the winner of a Gold medal at the 2005 San Francisco World Spirit Competition and Silver at the Chicago Beverage Tasting Institute, it’s pale straw in appearance and the nose is biscuity with hints of stewed fruit and heather honey. On the palate it’s soft, the biscuity aromas confirmed with added short bread and an alluring maltiness balanced by figs and persimmons. It finishes with a hint of oak, lingering and gentle.
It’s available exclusively at Vintage Cellars as August 8, and I’m told it will be below $70. Warm shiraz, crisp semillon and cool bluesBimbadgen is a cool Hunter vineyard. By cool I don’t mean the location nor the terroir, but the ambience. The vineyard overlooks the surrounding countryside — that’s cool. It serves great food at its restaurant, Esca — that’s very cool. And it hosts Bimbadgen Blues — how cool is that?
Now in its seventh year, Bimbadgen Blues is making its mark by showcasing the best of blues and roots music underpinned by great wine and good food. Up to 4000 people are expected to attend this one-day, six-hour extravaganza on September 2, where Bimbadgen will offer special gourmet hampers for two, which can be pre-ordered. Be part of it and be cool, too.
For more information go to: http://www.bimbadgen.com.au Ardbeg: beauty and the beastDrinkers of blended Scotch whisky demand and expect consistency from their favourite tipple and are therefore usually brand loyal. Single malt lovers, however, revel in the diversity that each distillery and every single cask brings to the nose and palate. Moët-Hennessy Australia knows this and will be bringing the whole range of Ardbeg single malts into the country this year, starting with the fabulous Ardbeg Uigeadail (the beast) and the Lord of the Isles (the beauty) a little later in the year. The standard 10-year-old expression has always been available; despite its pale colour, it packs a whole working harbour into its flavour profile. Ardbeg is produced in Smugglers Cove on Islay, a Scottish island exposed to the fiercest elements where only the fittest will survive — but when they do, they are sublime. Taste an Ardbeg and know you’re alive!
Available from good liquor stores.
Go to http://www.ardbeg.com/ Helping elephants forget There’s a substantial, established market for cream liqueurs like Amarula Cream, a serious contender in the flavour stakes. Made from the ripe fruit of the native African marula tree (also known as the elephant tree due to the giant mammal’s love of this delicacy), it’s first fermented using wild yeasts, much like a fruit wine, then distilled in small pot stills and aged in second-hand oak casks for two years. During the last three months of its maturation the distillate is enriched with sweet, natural marula extract and finally blended with cream just prior to bottling. Amarula Cream is best consumed neat over ice and makes a mean marinade for lamb! Originally launched in 1989 in South Africa, the brand has been acquired by Bacardi Lion for wide distribution in Australia.
For more information go to: http://www.amarula.co.za/ On the grapevine: Wine Australia 2006 Wine Australia, the local industry’s premier event, happens every two years. This year it takes place at the Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, from July 14—17. Visitors can sample tastings from more than 350 wineries from around the country and partake of a collective wine knowledge that’s almost frightening. No question should be left unanswered as no doubt someone, somewhere in the building will know whatever you want to know. For the consumer, the vintner, the retailer or anyone with an interest in the grape, this don’t-miss event focuses as much on industry insiders as on employment.
For more information go to www.wineaustralia2006.com.au Be embittered with Fee BrothersAs the saying goes, you only ever need one bottle of bitters per marriage. If that’s true, Fee Brothers has been promoting the divorce rate for four generations and the recipes of its house bitters are closely guarded secrets. Four of their bitters are available on the Australian market: old-fashioned Aromatic Bitters, Peach Bitters, Mint Bitters and Orange Bitters. The old-fashioned is used the same way as an Angostura bitters and the three available flavours add greatly to mixability. I love Mint Bitters as an aromatic seasoning for lamb and Orange Bitters on duck. All of course add another dimension to your mixed drinks, and Orange Bitters is fantastic in a classic sazerac cocktail.
For more information go to: http://www.feebrothers.com/ |
