It is a very small restaurant.  So intimate, and formal without pretence.  We were seated at a table for two – each table for two is positioned around the outside of the room, with the chairs turned into the centre, great for people watching, but mostly so that the waiters may attend to you easily.  The Maitre’d made it seem like he remembered my friend whom I went with, and when she remarked that I had come from Australia, this piece of information made its way to ALL the staff (no joke), as even the servers would ask me how my experience was so far and whether it lived up to expectations.  Each PERSON has their own waiter AND their own server.  The server brings the food on a silver platter with your plate under a ciloche for your gloved waiter to serve you your plate.  Then, your waiter with a flourish pours sauce onto your dish – it is all so symphonic in its execution and inside, I was squealing with delight at every little detail.  But – compose yourself FoodieChat, this IS a three star restaurant, so look cool like you always do this

Did I mention the price? A mere 45 pounds (plus tax) gets you THREE courses for lunch.  In aussie dollars, that’s less than $100!!  There is no such thing as a three MICHELIN star restaurant in Australia, but I can tell you that lunch at most three HAT restaurants would set you back more.  What a bargain.  Even without the “name” the value for money is unsurpassable.  To make it more discreet, only the host of the table gets the menu with the prices. Which set me into a moment of panic thinking “What if the lunch special menu is not available!” because the usual degustation is priced more realistically at 120 pounds.

Guess what this is?  Amuse bouche? No.  In fact, it is the whipped salted butter. Sprinkled with gold leaf and piped onto a granic disc on silver.  *die* of pleasure!!

Now here is the amuse bouche.  My companion is pescatarian, and the kitchen ever so kindly even adapted the amuse bouche, using a tiny poached quails egg sitting in the pea broth.

I am not vegetarian, which means I got the unmodified version. Any guesses about what it is?

My first frogs leg!!  The tiny bone (Slightly offputting hehehe), stuck into a lightly crumbed ball of the flesh which sat on top of a cured speck (I think) and in the pea broth.  OK, if I’m ever going to try a frog’s leg, it’s gotta be at Gordon Ramsay.  It was kinda like flaked chickeny-tuna actually.  Quite seafood-y.    For my first course, I ordered the crab and scallop raviolo.  It was served with the bisque poured by my waiter, and only now in reveiwing my photos had I noticed the painstaking detail – the dots of oil on the dish, the perfectly cubed tomato – but look closely – a tiny herb placed on each tomato – spring onion, chive, coriander. WOW.

The filling was so generous and flavoursome.  And served on a piece of trimmed cabbage.

My friend’s main was fish.  Cooked to perfection, with cute little turned baby veges too.  The flesh was like pearl and melted in your mouth.

But now here is a reason to get excited.  I had the pork dish. It was pork 4 ways!  Count them – pork loin – tender as, and cooked exactly text book pink/just cooked, generously proportioned; crisp proscuitto, a piece of pork belly, and my second first of the day – black pudding.  Hmmm……………………… now that was not something i had ever intended to try…. but again, close my eyes – if there’s ANY place I would try it, it would have to be Gordon Ramsay.  I hope no one saw me spread it on my bread.  I wasn’t game to eat it on its own.  (Did I mention the bread is offered to you all through the meal, as much as you want, so you don’t have to act all greedy and ask for me?).  I was pleasantly surprised – it was like pate!  Quite more-ish and savoury.  The pork dish was served with a yummy jus and a baked nashi slice,.

Well sorry there’s only one dessert photo. We both chose the banana parfait with salted caramel ice cream, no question about it!  A perfectly square crispy chocolate casing enclosed a smooth banana semifreddo, with a perfect quennelle of caramel ice cream.   It sat on a passionfruit sauce drizzle, with a triangular brandy snap on top.

The bananas in the parfait were just slightly more ripe for my own personal tasting, but I can’t flaw it because the perfect degree of banana ripeness is such a personal thing.  I wondered to myself how on earth the delicate lacey chocolate coating was applied.  And here another impressive feature of the restaurant – one of our two waiters overhead and casually said that the chef applies chocolate via a spray and it sets itself due to the cold ice cream.  Have you ever known such an attentive waiter who needn’t even refer back to the kitchen about how something is made?? Wow.  Did I mention he was cute too?  Especially since all the waiters wear coats with tails

Feeling so satisfied and on cloud 9 from such an extraordinary meal, being treated like royalty in a non-stuffy way, I sat back to commence digestion.  Elegantly of course!  When along came a funny little sculptural stand.  What is this thing??

Silver baubles stuck onto a stand were in fact – hand made truffles!! So many to eat between just the two of us! How generous!   They were white chocolate coated, and sprayed with edible silver.  Another *internal squeal of delight*.  And as I bit into my first of 4 truffles….along comes a silver vessel, smoking…. what the?    The gloved hand of the waiter removed the lid and although I wanted to watch the dreamy cloud evaporate to see what was inside – I also wanted it to last – I love dry ice!

Inside the lotus folded napkin enclosed silver vessel of dry ice was in fact ice cream balls!  More balls! How perfectly round are they? And again – how did they do it??

White chocolate encased strawberry ice cream.  The most intense strawberry flavour EVER.

Inside the truffles

It just astounds me that what is one of the world’s best restaurants – and at the least – the best in London – is the remarkable generosity to offer such extras as the amuse bouche, the choccies and ice cream and unlimited bread, even though we were paying a mere 50 pounds a head.  I don’t get it. But I wish Sydney restaurants would catch on.   I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of the amazing sugar bowl.  Cubes – raw and white – perfectly tesselating in the container!

I think my efforts to look “cool” must have been pretty unbelievable, because at the end of the meal, the waiter asked if we would like to have a look at the kitchen.  WOULD WE?!   He had already made my day with the strawberry ice cream balls, but to finish it off in this manner!  And boy was there a shock in the kitchen.  I could not believe it that we were welcomed and in fact, head chef Clare Smyth took time from cleaning and prettying plates to walk from behind the serving bench to shake my hand!!    Do you know any other kitchen that would allow you to come in, treat you like a visitor instead of an imposition – and for the chef to want to meet you?  And the waiter even offered to take a photo for us – I didn’t even dare to ask.

Even recounting the memories now is making me happy.  Do you see what I mean in that the Gordon Ramsay we see on TV is completely at odds to his flagship restaurant?   Lucky Londoners to get to eat here.  I have no idea how they can possibly make money – such a high staff to customer ratio, fine food and such high quality of staff.   Hopefully with Ramsay’s rapid world domination more of this winning formula can be transpired to other parts of the world.  Now this is three Michelin star dining.  And I want more!

First up, I bought this lovely fella – it was $15 a kg and this guy was 3kgs.  He was really gross to touch though

I thought it was great value, as the salmon is already gutted, so you’re really eating pretty much all of it except the head and the spine!  First, wash him and then pat dry with a paper towel.  Next, stuff his belly with fronds of dill and parsley, and some lemon slices.  Then, rub him all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Wrap tightly in foil – double layers – and oops, I was lazy and didn’t grease the top layer of foil, thinking the oil on the fish was enough to make it non stick. So, the skin came off, oops  Nevermind.  Put the whole wrapped parcel on your barbeque on medium heat.  And cook it for 30 –  40 minutes.  It’s cooked if you stab through it and your skewer or knife goes through easily  This is what he looked like when we unwrapped it.

And after we ate the top layer, between 14 of us, we only ate 3/4 of the fish!  It was totally cooked to perfection.  One second more and it wouldn’t have been so perfect. Thumbs up guys! It was soo silky and delicate.  Highly recommend this for your Christmas table!

As if that wasn’t enough, Cecilia also cooked a pork roast.   Salt the skin and leave it overnight in the fridge to dehydrate and you’ll have the most perfect crackling.

Some vegetable is required – and the grilled capsicum and green zucchinis definitely suited the occasion with their very Christmassy colours!

My plate – a bit piggy? We also had chargrilled prawns and a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and pancetta.

After a couple of hours rolling around the floor in pain from over indulging, our bellies made some room for dessert which came in the form of chocolate tart . The recipe is the Matt Moran one from masterchef.  I added some of the extra roasted walnuts on top, but really I was lazy, I should have made them into praline, but I was in my food induced coma

And the slightly lighter option was creme caramel.  It’s just eggs, sugar and milk – how healthy is that?  I was very pleased with this one, using full cream milk absolutely makes a difference as it makes a more substantial custard.   Loved it!

And to wash it all down – sangria!  I had a few glasses of this, sooo easy to drink!!

Thanks for reading me guys, have a wonderful Christmas! And let me know what’s on your Christmas table this year

Foodiechat xoxo

The tea is taken in the Promenade lounge in the hotel.  As we went during the week of the Chelsea Flower show, the tea cost £50 per person plus 12.5% service charge, instead of the usual £35.  Effectively A$100.  So expensive   Well if they say that that’s where it is, better try it.  I actually don’t know what the extra £15 gets you and it seemed quite like a standard high tea.  If you took the special flower high tea for another £11, you got to take home a small pot plant of flowers as well as a more expensive type of champagne.  Standard high tea for me! 

I’m not a drinker, so I contemplated substituting the champagne for a softie. But looking at the menu, the champers itself was £15!  It was actually very fruity and sweet and bubbly still, unlike some other venues that have pre-opened bottles without the fizz.   

I was so ecstatic when the waiters asked if we had any allergies or dislikes.  I actually don’t eat mayonnaise, and the evil white sauce is found in sandwiches the world round, as if there wasn’t such a thing as a sandwich (or sushi in fact!) that could survive without it!  The chefs obliged without any complaint and made them without the sauce for me! And made them vegan for my friend too.  The bread was made fresh and was obviously made in house.  There was a standard cucumber sandwich on caraway seed scented bread, caponata/roast veg on pumpkin bread.  My favourite was the chicken on basil bread, and there was also smoked salmon.  Something I wasn’t accustomed to was the fact that we were asked if we wanted seconds!  Free refills – awesome!  We had both fasted in order to come so we relished another serve of each.

We were served a pre-dessert then, a white peach jelly with jasmine tea foam.  Wow, the peach was the perfect mix of sweetness with a hint of tartness, and it complemented the jasmine tea foam perfectly.  The foam’s tea flavour was so intense without being overpowering, and the texture – so silky!

I haven’t actually had clotted cream before, in Australia we often just get double cream or whipped cream.  On the table I actually thought it was butter – wow, now I know why they call it clotted cream – artery clogging perhaps??  We also had some really runny not set strawberry jam (more akin to syrup) and some blueberry jam which was better.

A sultana scone and a plain scone each.  They weren’t as fluffy as I would have liked, quite flat in fact   But they had a good crumb.

Getting full now.  Which is why it was sort of acceptable that we only got one plate of sweets to SHARE.  I think it was extremely stingy. For $100, we should at least have our own cakes, instead of having to cut these dainty morsels with our knives and making them looked hacked and unappetising   We had a total of five cakes to share.  A key lime and basil macaroon (a  bit weird, but luckily the basil is very faint), a rose flavoured mousse on top of a strawberry sponge, a peanut and caramel mille feuille and another friand type cake.  And I forgot what the other one was!  The mille feuille was my favourite, but it looked like a disaster after we cut it.  I wasn’t much of fan of the dense friand cake. For $100 I would have also thought that they could serve it on a plate that had been cleaned of crumbs as well.

Stinginess aside, the waiter was wonderful.  This is a posh place to go without having to be snooty, and you can tell by the fact that it’s regularly booked out.  I can’t help but conclude that high tea is a bit of a rip off, as I didn’t feel like what we had was worth $100. Especially since I can have a three course meal at three-Michelin starred Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road for that same price (Blog post to come).  Maybe if we hadn’t gone on the Chelsea Flower Show week it would have seemed a bit more worth it.  High tea everywhere is expensive, but at least other hotels give you a sweet each.   I have to say they did look beautiful though. And they were great sandwiches.

Feeling almost full, I chose the crispy skinned barramundi for my main. It was VERY generous proportion as well (see – the $75 is SO worth it!), and topped with fried leeks, and Guillaume’s famous mash, with fresh peas and exotic mushrooms. 

Dessert was either sorbets, or warm apple crumble – served in its copper baking dish topped with vanilla bean ice cream,

or my choice – the trio of creme brulees (I found the coffee one seriously strong though) with 3 petite madelines for dunking.

One of my most favourite things about Bennelong is the petit fours that come with coffee.  As if you could squeeze in another bite, you get to squeeze in four bites:  Dark chocolate tart, grapefruit jelly, salted caramel and pistachio macaron.  Topped with a sensational harbourview, there really is no better way to enjoy a Sydney evening.

These restaurant deals are one of the best things about the credit crunch. Take advantage of them while they last!

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1 piece of salmon
• Half a bulb of fennel, finely sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups of chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley or thyme

Method

1. In a saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and saute garlic until fragrant.
2. Add fennel, then stock (or half stock, half white wine – sorry to gourmets but I can’t open a whole bottle of wine for one meal hehehe). Cover and bring to the boil
3. Simmer until fennel is tender and the sauce is reduced.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir through half a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and the chopped parsley.
5. Season the salmon.  Heat a small frypan with olive oil, and cook salmon, turning only once.
6. Dish up the fennel, and serve with salmon on top.  Spoon over the sauce, serve with steamed greens.

Ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve purchased a 7kg frozen turkey 2 days before Christmas, and wondering how you’ll ever have enough time to thaw it, let alone cook it?  Well I did, and here’s some wisdom/tips I can share.

1. Even though the turkey packet says that each kilogram requires 18 hrs to thaw in the fridge, and not to thaw it on the kitchen bench, it doesn’t actually say that you shouldn’t thaw it by sitting it in a bath of water On my estimationg 18 hrs x 7 kgs is around 5 days. And I only had 2. So in the water it goes.  Did you know that it actually floats? No problem. Anchor it down with a 2L bottle of diet coke.  the next morning, I found that it started to seep some yucky pink liquid, so I took it out, ripped open the packet, and washed my turkey. Seemed thawed enough (after 24 hrs) so I put in my fridge just in case.

2. Next day (eating day). It actually says that each kg requires 45-50mins cooking; so for a 7kg turkey it recommended 5hrs 55minutes. This could be a problem if you are having more than one meat – so find a nearby relative to cook it at their place.  Make the stuffing: pan fry half a bulb of chopped up garlic with 5 rashers of chopped bacon, a chopped onion, then process half a loaf of bread to make breadcrumbs, and mix in with a handful of chopped parsley, thyme and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  Shove stuffing up turkey carcass if you are not faint hearted.  Massage the bird with olive oil and butter. Sick…

3.  Cook the turkey covered with foil for the prescribed time. Since I wasn’t sure if my turkey did in fact thaw, and thinking that I would have double chance of food poisoning through improper thawing and undercooking, I used a meat thermometer for good measure. 180 degrees meant it’s cooked. And amazingly – that coincided with the 5hr 55 cooking time!  Actually I was a bit worried that 6 hrs of cooking would result in turkey jerkey, but it was fine – as I unwrapped it every hour and based it with the pan juices.  End result – every bit eaten up. Lovely!

I think next year I may just be a bit more organised and buy and thaw it ahead of time Merry Christmas!

We then both opted to have the pork eye fillet ($38) – which was the most amazing pork – the intense flavours a definite trend, yet didn’t ruin the integrity of the quality of the meat.  The garlic and herbs infused the light, tender meat, with the juices still in tact to make it so moist.  We each got a side of condiments – caramelised apple sauce, jus in a mini beaker, and a square of perfectly crunchy crackling. (I’m sure that people could hear us crunch crunch in Victoria!)

 We deliberated over whether to have one of the desserts ($14) or to have coffee with petits four ($7).  We opted for the latter, and out came a platter of bite sized lemon tart, discs of meringue with delicate fruit salsa, dark chocolate truffles, and a sugared mini friand.

This is a place to go if you really know your food and don’t mind paying for top quality. At the time that we went, before it had its star, its website listed mains as $30 each – we were just after an inexpensive quick dinner, so was disappointed to see they were $35+ when we got there.  Not complaining too much – we instead got an intimate fine dining experience with attention to detail – which is what you’ll get if you come here. 

Definitely a place to impress a foodie friend for a luxurious fine dining dinner (at city prices) in the inner west.

www.restaurantsojourn.com.au

79 Darling Street Balmain 

I have learned my lesson not to do entree and main with pasta as my entree, so I had an entree sized pasta as my main in order to fit in dessert. Again my favourite scallops spaghettini, spanner crab meat, lemon in a sauce of shellfish tomato brodo.  Personally I would have preferred a sauce that was either more saucy or more dressing like. This was in between like a broth, which certainly was tasty though!  I didn’t try the duck breast stuffed with apple, walnuts and wrapped in proscuitto came also with the leg – fall off the bone meat, in a rich jus on a bed of sauteed red cabbage.

I can’t decide what was the highlight – my entree or my dessert!  I couldn’t go past the warm Valrohna chocolate pudding with honey comb ice cream – a cakey crust that oozed the liquid gold – into the other gold – the shards of honeycomb and the (slightly melted) scoop of honey comb ice cream – amazing. Not good for the diet, cholesterol, blood sugar or any other health indicator!

The rustic looking rhubarb crumble tart was served on its own with your waiter dramatically drizzling the syrup on top to finish – well neither of us could finish our desserts due to their huge servings, but contentedly sat back to enjoy the people watching which comes for free.

 Otto Ristorante, Area 8, 6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo

www.otto.net.au

I went to a Sydney Seafood School class to learn how to make Singapore Chilli Crab. Prawns are a much less fiddly alternative.