Canapes
Served with Vouette et Sorbee Blanc d’Argile NV from Buxieres-sur-Arce, France

Asparagus with Wattleseed Candy. Crisp, blanched asparagus brushed with walnut oil and topped with sweet wattleseed candy.

The Walnut. Rich and nutty pureed walnut encased in a walnut shell with fresh snow peas and walnut oil.

Sea Bounty Mussel. Steamed mussel (and shitake mushroom alternative) flash fried in a sweet doughnut-style batter.

Shitake Broth with 11 varieties of basil. A clear and umami-rich shitake broth with 11 freshly-picked leaves of basil, each giving a different taste, such as minty, licourice, sweet and sharp, to demonstrate the diversity of the plant.

Snow Crab

Chopped egg white, salty salmon roe, coconut, horseradish, rehydrated  bar berries and wood dew granita encased in a scattering of light, fluffy crab ‘snow’.
Served with Peter Lauer FaB 25 Riesling 2010 from Mosel Valley, Germany

Marron, Leek, Native Pepper

Light Western Australian Marron with poached and steamed baby leek and wholecress mustard seed oil in a rich mussel, proscuitto and chorizo broth.
Served with Mac Forbes ‘Gruyere’ Chardonnay 2010 from Yarra Valley, Victoria

A simple dish of Potato cooked in the earth it was grown

Soft, slow-baked potato on a bed of smoked creamy goats curd, crunchy saltbush and coffee.
Served with Lambert ‘Rochettes’ Chinon 2009 from Loire Valley, France

Meat from the Pearl Oyster (pinctada maxima)

Wok-fried oyster with pressed and sweet-battered pork tail, dehydrated onion, fresh radish and stems of broccolini in a shitake broth.
Served with Eastern Peake Pinot Tache 2009 from Ballarat, Victoria

Kumara, Purslane, Pyengana

Sweet potato (kumala) with a slightly sweet shallot puree, almonds toasted in brown butter and garlic, Purslane leaves, a slow cooked egg yolk and rich Pyengana cheddar cream.
Served with Chimay Grande Reserve 2001 beer from Chimay, Belgium

Beef Tongue, Vanilla, Parsnip, Lettuce Stems

Black Angus smoked and poached beef tongue with a mulled wine and vanilla vinaigrette, freeze-dried blackberries, creamy parsnip puree, pearl onions, cos lettuce stems pickled in chilli and finished with salty dried Wagyu shards.
Served with Palacio Remondo ‘La Vendimia’ 2009 from Rioja, Spain

Raisins, Whey, Hazelnut

Naturally sweet and sticky dehydrated grapes with fresh grapes, distilled grape juice, hazelnut puree, cheese flavoured with fig leaves and a scattering of yarrow herb.
Served with Crawford River ‘Serendipitous Selection’ Riesling 2010 from Henty, Victoria

Native Fruits of Australia

Quandong, lemon aspen, candied hibiscus flower, mongres, native currant, desert lime, custard waterseed and sheeps yoghurt topped with native currant ice.
Served with Fairbank Ancestral Sparkling Rose 2011 from Bendigo, Victoria

Pukeko’s Egg

A white chocolate eggshell with a gooey caramel centre presented in a Pukeko birdsnest.

Ben Shewry, executive chef of Attica in Melbourne

Melbourne restaurant Attica jumped 20 places to number 53 in last year’s S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, when just a few years ago chef Ben Shewry admits the restaurant was on the brink of meltdown. With a cuisine that reflects nature with the utmost respect and translates Shewrys childhood memories on a plate, Attica is fast becoming the darling of Victoria in Australia.

Attica has been lurking around the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for some time, but has only really gained recognition in the past year. What effect has being on the list had on you and the restaurant?

We don’t really think of other people taking an interest in us. I come from a very humble and remote background in New Zealand and it’s really impossible for me to imagine attention or interest. When we came into the list for the first time at number 73 a coupleof years ago that was a huge turning point for us because when we started six years ago it was very difficult, we nearly went broke a few times but we managed to hang in there by the skin of our teeth. It takes a long time for you to establish your own personal style and for people to recognise that as something worth eating. But when we first came into the list we were amazed, and it was kind of like a light bulb went on for a lot of people and all of a sudden everybody knew about us in Australia and wanted to come. It felt like it meant a lot to the community here too. It felt bigger than just about us which was really cool. For a small country boy from New Zealand it’s a dream come true. Since that moment the restaurant’s been full every night for over two and a half years and we’re still really busy and booked out a long way ahead.

What is your cooking style, and what are you trying to achieve with Attica?

The main thing is we want to be seen to be doing our own thing and not to copy. That’s been my mission statement from the beginning six years ago. Because I’m an individual and I think people should cook to their strengths and their experiences in life and what they believe in, I try to do a style that speaks of the person creating it and not of other lands. Obviously I travelled the world when I was younger so there’s an influence of that, but for chefs it needs to be something thats clearly identifiable as your own. That’s the foremost importance to me, but secondly is that everybody that works here really enjoys their work and they feel its contributing to something that’s important. I think that often in the hustle and bustle and argy bargy of top restaurants stuff the pleasure you derive from your work is swept aside and all the attention is focused on the pleasure of the guest. That’s a paradox for me because it breaks my heart to think of customers having such a beautiful time in the dining room and there being such misery out the back. The way that my staff feel and the knowledge they gain from working here is super important. I also want to create an experience that is humble which has humility and where people are treated with respect when they come here to dine. Those are the sorts of things that matter to me. Also that we don’t trash the environment that we live and work in and just try to acknowledge it a bit more and express that appreciation through our cooking.

How do you show that acknowledgement through your dishes?

We acknowledge it by being in touch with it and by connecting with it. Whether that’s through everyday foraging for ingredients, everyday speaking with people that grow our food, or reading about the issues that surround food and its production. I’m really interested in the sustainability of the ocean and the sea thats probably my primary concern. That’s why when you come to Attica you won’t be served a piece of fish, from a large fish anyway. That’s because in this country there’s a lot of big species of fish under pressure and there’s a lot of conflicting opinions and information which makes it very hard to decipher the truth and reality. So the best thing for me to do right now is to not serve it. I studied the topic extensively for two years before I came to this conclusion. I don’t want to be contributing to the problem, I want to be helping to find a solution. In terms of expressing that on the plate the cooking is quite natural; it’s not that we shun technology – technique, technology and progression are things that should be at the forefront of every modern chef. But the way to express that is on the plate in a way the customer can’t see.

How do you balance your cooking style to present nature at its best with the use of modern cooking techniques?

I’m not into additives for one, so when I talk about modern technique I’m not talking about adding food manufacturing techniques to my cooking en masse, certainly not more than has been done historically at least. I’m more interested in the physical technique of things and looking at things with fresh eyes. Australia doesn’t have a great culinary tradition yet so my mind is quite free. I’ll approach an ingredient without any preconceptions about it. I would try to cook it three ways and then use which way I feel is best for me and which displays its natural uniquness.

You have a large background in Thai cooking having worked with David Thompson in the past, how does that influence your cooking nowadays?

You can’t see it probably but it’s still there as a strong influence and I’m really proud of the background I have in Thai food because its not a path that young chefs are looking at now, although they maybe should be. The Thais have incredible technique and a really amazing sense of balance that Western countries do not. There’s much to learn from some of these cuisines that Westerners have neglected. When I started at Attica I was cooking not a fusion but two separate styles: my European training, and on the other side of the menu Thai dishes. Within four or five months I realised I couldn’t bring the two together because I wanted to create my own style and if I kept continuing with the Thai I wouldn’t be able to do that because I’d be replicating what I learned from David and the Thai people. So I moved away from that but I never forgot about the way Thai food is balances its seasoning. One of the most fundamental things about Thai cooking is the attention to detail in seasoning and the time spent on seasoning for 15-20 minutes until it’s right is something I’ve brought over here. The desserts in Thailand are very complicated too – the techniques are as complicated as French techniques are. That’s something that very few peple realise. Inspiration can come from all sorts of places, but the important thing to remember from inspiration, is that if you take an idea from another culture or cuisine you need to acknowledge that and not fob it off as your own, or it becomes this thing that becomes completely insensitive and just another ‘wow’ moment without any emotional feeling.

You say you try to be individual but while doing that your food is similar to the likes of Rene and Peter in their love of nature. How do you stay true to your own style with all these other influences around you?

There are many influences in my cooking. When I was younger I read a lot of books but for a three year period I stopped reading and started to look within myself a little more and in the last three or four years I’ve been forced to learn on my own terms. We also have a unique set of ingredients here that are very different from Denmark and even Sydney. There is some shared common ground and philosophy but the food is very different.

You once described your cuisine as ‘emo food’. Why?

I wanted to create some dishes that spoke of my heritage and of when I was a child, so I looked to experiences both positive and negative from my youth. I created dishes from those memories, and some of those stories are quite dark, like nearly drownng and having my back lacerated and torn by the rocks. Afterwards I remember my father was washing the sand and stone out of my back and there was red blood collecting on the bottom of the white shower. Another memory was seeing a flock of geese needlessly slaughtered by mean boys. Both these memories have inspired dishes. So I use the term ‘emo’ tongue in cheek because it’s a term for a genre of music thats emotional and down, but there is some truth in it too. It’s boring taking your work too seriously.

Last year you led a presentation at MAD, the annual cooking forum organised by Noma. Do you think your appearance there coupled with your growing reputation in Melbourne will help Attica break into the Top 50 in April?

I don’t know if it will because people have to travel here and it’s a long way. We don’t easily see as many people that vote. I’m sure that in the next few years the trickling down effect will bring more judges to Australia but they still have to like the experience. It’s all very well talking about your philosophies and what you believe in but at the end of the day if you’re not doing it on the plate there’s little point talking about all that.

If you could choose one dish, which is your favourite?

Probably the one closest to my heart is the Potato Cooked in the Earth. Even if it’s not the favourite for me to eat right now, it’s probably the one I’m most fond of because it’s a really unique dish and it speaks of my homeland New Zealand.

This new year has been busier than ever for Brazilian chef Alex Atala, whose restaurant D.O.M. is ranked #7 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

Just yesterday, he gave a presentation alongside Brazil’s greatest design duo Fernando and Humberto Campana at the event Paris des Chefs, yet the highlight of his Paris stay is yet to come. Atala will serve a tasting menu tomorrow night at Alain Ducasse’s flagship at the Plaza Athenée hotel. “He ate at D.O.M. and seemed genuinely impressed, and that’s when he started to think of inviting me to cook at his restaurant. To me, of course, it’s a huge honour”, says Atala.

Right after the 50-cover dinner Atala will whip back to São Paulo to return to his kitchen but also to work on the latest – and greatest – of his many book projects. He’s deep into the process of producing the photography for a book to be published by Phaidon, which will be a lavishly illustrated retrospective of his career.

Chef Alex Atala prepares the next dish to be shot as photographer Sergio Coimbra (far right) looks on

Atala chose as photographer Sergio Coimbra, known for owning Brazil’s most over-the-top studio and for his near-obssessive dedication to capturing in his dramatic chiaroscuro images the work of top chefs.

At the same time, Coimbra and Atala are also going full-steam ahead on their contributions to the upcoming editon of YAM, chef Yannick Alléno’s gastronomy magazine.

These two projects will be the cherry on the cake, but Atala is no stranger to print. He has many published works – the latest being Amazonia, a bilingual coffee-table beauty co-signed by famed photographer Araquém Alcântara, hit bookstore shelves at the end of 2011.

Amazônia, by Alex Atala and Araquém Alcântara

Also this month, Atala unveiled a new look for his second restaurant, Dalva e Dito. Part of the dining room was converted into a vast and light-filled bar serving oysters, bar snacks and top-notch cachaças and caipirinhas made with lesser-known tropical fruits.

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Last week, Atala gave a tour of the light-filled space, designed by José Roberto Moreira do Valle. The highlights are the leather chairs by  Pritzker-prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and the metallic outer shell which sits above ground, seeming to levitate.

Dalva e Dito: Rua Padre João Manuel 1115 (at the corner of rua Barão de Capanema),
São Paulo, tel. +55 11 3068-4444

Brazil is experiencing a very special time. Many talented chefs are researching native ingredients, looking for sustainable alternatives in their kitchens, and rediscovering their own culinary identity. The ‘New Brazilian Cuisine’ is reshaping the gastro-landscape of the country, and promising to get international recognition with its vibrant and original concept! This culinary movement was initiated in the1970s by the great chef from the Amazon, Paulo Martins, who died last year.

                                             Paulo Martins, Claude Troisgros and Laurent Suaudeau

Two French chefs, Claude Troisgros and Laurent Suaudeau, who fell in love with Brazil in the 1980s have begun to incorporate indigenous produce into their classic cuisine, opening the doors for many other chefs for developing an authentic haute cuisine with a Brazilian identity.

However, one particular restaurant outside the chic urban area of the metropolis is now the highlight of the gastro-scene in Sao Paulo, the gastronomic capital of Brazil.  It is  Mocotó, now one of the most praised restaurants by international food critics, chefs and food lovers. This is not just a restaurant serving Brazilian food. It is a real Brazilian restaurant, in which the guests have a unique opportunity to experience Brazilian hospitality, exquisite food and cocktails in a casual and warm atmosphere.

Democratic gastronomy is the hidden subtitle of Mocotó. There are no reservations, and it is affordable to all pockets. The workers and businessmen in suits share the space at the bar, or wait for a table with no VIP treatment. There are no tablecloths, no fine cutlery and no designer plates…

The food satisfies both a farmer and a gourmet, and has proved that it is possible for a restaurant to please all types of guest. The secret of Mocotó’s success lies behind the stove! Rodrigo Oliveira, son of “Seu José”, is the protagonist of the Mocotó story! Or, to be fair, the protagonist of the second phase of the tale!

It all began with his father, José Oliveira de Almeida…

Born in a small village in the backland (sertão) of Pernambuco, he arrived in São Paulo with nothing but his clothes, and after many years of hard work in factories, he decided in 1973 to open a small bar with his brother.  A year later he went on his own, opening a small bar which became famous with his Calf-foot jelly soup (similar to Ox hoof), called in Brazil ‘Caldo de Mocotó’. People used to queue in front of the small bar only for a cup of the delicacy! In 1979 he decided to open a bigger place in front of the bar, which became the actual restaurant.

In 2004, his son, Rodrigo, at that time an Environmental Engineering student, began a new phase at “Seu José’s Bar”. Rodrigo had intended to have an academic future but a hidden passion for gastronomy became more important, and he decided to embrace the family business, much against his father’s will. From that point on, Rodrigo Oliveira turned the place into the most emblematic Brazilian restaurant in the country, and at the same time helped the city of São Paulo to heal the wounds caused by the discrimination against the food of workers from the northeastern regions, labeled up till then as food for the poor.

Rodrigo has also a special passion for the Brazilian spirit, cachaça, and Mocotó is called Restaurant and ‘Cachaçaria’ because of the extensive collection of the sugar cane spirit. The chef has travelled 30,000km around the country to find small artisans, and his cachaça menu now is unique, with almost 400 references!

The food at Mocotó represents comfort, and expresses identity and pride of a Brazilian region that lives with extreme heat and monsoons, but is rich in its simplicity and warm-hearted people.

Mocotó shows that it is possible to stage an affordable and democratic gastronomy, and that ‘fine-simple food is not a contradictory concept! At Mocotó, ‘poor’ meat cuts are elevated to a high status, and previously forgotten vegetables are prepared to perfection, as if they were a rare asparagus. Honest, simple and fabulous food, cocktails made with fresh fruit from the tropics, the best cachaças, and a chef who is always in the kitchen and lives what he preaches – is this the beginning of a new food revolution?

For Brazilians, the restaurant represents a link between their past and their future, and a place that has helped the city to accept its own story. For foreigners, it is a piece of Brazil with intense flavours, colours and textures, showing the best, original and sincere gastronomy that the country has to offer.  Tapiocas (cassava starch pancakes), grilled country ‘coalho” cheese with molasses, Northeastern ‘cassoulets’ with sundried meat, tasting of Brazilian farm desserts with a twist, and many dishes that stay in the memory of the guests – who are very willing to return!

Rodrigo is a quiet man who avoids talking about himself, who works with many talented young chefs in a community spirit, and who embodies the Brazil of the new millennium.

His education in gastronomy was enhanced by research into the work of great international masters, but above all by his investigations into the work of artisans, great anonymous masters of regional cuisine, and knowledgeable and passionate people who hold the secrets of Brazilian flavours.

His presentations have no special effects, are not showy and do not exploit indigenous myths. They are based in the principle of the Luxury of Simplicity, combining tradition and modernity without the necessity of a conceptual positioning between both of these aspects, and reveal what we food lovers treasure most – food with narrative and passion, introduced by a sincere and talented protagonist!

Rodrigo Oliveira is going to be at Identita Golose in Milan, Italy from 4th – 6th February 2012. For more information about the program, visit

www.identitagolose.it

Mocotó Restaurante & Cachaçaria

Av. Nossa senhora do Loreto, 1100

Vila Medeiros – São Paulo – Brazil

www.mocoto.com.br

Photos: Luciana Bianchi, Sergio Coimbra, Prazeres da Mesa and Press images

 Luciana Bianchi is chef de cuisine and food writer, works as International Editor correspondent for the Brazilian gourmet magazine,Prazeres da Mesa, and contributes to several publications around the world.

on Twitter  http://twitter.com/LucianaBianchi

With a focus on seafood from the nearby Pacific Ocean, Tetsuya’s offers a lunch and dinner degustation menu, with dishes taking a Western influence with a touch of Tetsuya’s native Asian heritage.

I dropped by on New Year’s Eve for a lunchtime 10-course tasting menu, with matching wines. Whlie Tetsuya’s offers menus adapted for specific dietary needs, displayed below is the full, regular menu…

Refreshing chilled pea soup with sweet mint ice cream
Served with Champagne Larmandier Bernier

Savoury steamed egg custard with Avruga caviar
Served with Tamano Hikari Tokusen Junmai Ginjo Sake from Kyoto, Japan

Sashimi of kingfish dressed with a light, oriental blackbean & orange jus
Served with 2011 Henschke Julius Riesling from Eden Valley, SA

Scampi Tail with a sweet Chicken Liver Parfait and a nutty Walnut Vinaigrette
Served with 2009 Chateau Doisy Daene from Bordeaux, France

Confit of Petuna (Tasmanian) ocean trout with a dried salty seaweed crust, with unpasteurised ocean trout caviar and a salad of shaved bitter fennel
Served with 2010 Skillogalee Gewurztraminer from Clare Valley, SA

Steamed Queensland Spanner Crab with silken bean curd, foie gras & salty jellied junsai
Served with 2010 Shaw & Smith M3 Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills, SA

Tender breast of Quail topped with jamon on a bed of quail leg rilettes and spring onion
Served with 2009 Bass Phillip Pinot Noir for Tetsuya’s from Gippsland, Victoria

De-boned rack of lamb with creamy sheep’s yoghurt, salty wilted kale and pine nuts
Served with 2006 Torbeck Mataro for Tetsuya’s from the Barossa Valley, SA

Duo of desserts: Refreshing ginger ice cream with a sweet and crunchy lychee granita, and thick, comforting and oozy bread and butter pudding on a base of sweet vanilla custard
Served with 2010 Heggies Botrytis Riesling from Eden Valley, SA

Rich chocolate pave with sea salt and cream cheese ice cream and cinnamon twigs
Served with Seppeltsfield Cellar #6 Tokay from Rutherglen, Victoria

Tetsuya Wakuda, owner of the popular eponymous Sydney restaurant

Since the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards launched in 2002, Tetsuya’s in Sydney has been a rock in the ever-changing list, despite seemingly moving up and down with the seasons.

But in 2011 the seafood-focused restaurant slipped 20 places to number 63, leaving Quay the only establishment remaining from Australia.

Now with just three months to go until the 2012 list is revealed, owner Tetsuya Wakuda is just hoping to remain on the top 100 list rather than climb back into the top 50. With a new restaurant to handle in Singapore and Tetsuya’s as popular as ever, the chef is remarkably optimistic about the future.

Tetsuya’s has been in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list since it began, but after nine years it has dropped out – why now?

We have been there for so many years but our name is still mentioned in the top 100, so I’m just grateful for our continued association with it. It’s a people choice, and you have to accept that whatever it is. We’ve been doing things the same; we dont really change. Our cuisine is our cuisine and I don’t really follow the trends. Even Ferran (Adria) came here and said “I still like this restaurant, the food is good”, because cooking food is actually entertainment. The most important thing is that a restaurant serves everyday food and thats what matters. You can’t ask more. After the event last year Thomas (Keller) who’s Californian restaurant The French Laundry fell off the list too, told me after that he is still happy as they still have business and again we cannot be all our life at the top. The important thing is that theguests are happy. There are now all these young chefs coming up and there’s not room for everyone.

You’re known for integrating your love of art into your food – how important is art in the restaurant experience?

Art creates ambience but it’s very personal. I like art a lot and that is my passion so the restaurant itself reflects that. People come here to escape from the everyday world, so when they come through the gate we cook for them, serve them what they want and they can enjoy the environment and the art the garden. It’s a package. This is our style and it’s not right or wrong. This is what people expect and it’s what we give. This is Tetsuya’s.

Tetsuya’s has been up and down the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for years, do you have hopes of it going back into the top 20 again?

Of course I want to be back there it’s a peoples choice. What we know we do. We don’t try to be a certain number and change to fit that. We are Tetsuya’s, the experience and the food and that’s how we are and what we try to be. We reinvent ourselves, everybody does, but in the end we get whatever place we are given. But we are very lucky just to get our name mentioned – how many millions of restaurants are there in the world? Just to be in the top 100, of course nuber one or two is great, but it’s an association and to get invited to go to the awards is lovely.

Is there any rivalry between you and the other Australian chefs to get high in the list?

Not really. We’ve known each other for a long time and it’s really most important to keep your restaurant active, people positive and dining room full. That’s most important. We have 60 full-time employees, some of which have worked for me for 25 years. People make you what you are, it’s a team effort.

How would you describe the dining scene in Sydney?

There is less of a fine-dining scene now as more people turn to bistros. In fact it’s so popular someone has termed it ‘bistrology’. People like more casual food everyday. Paris is the same, where a lot of the two Michelin-starred chefs now have casual bistro places too. In Sydney and Melbourne too, people are starting to go out more rather than cook at home. They probably eat out four or five times a week, but fine dining will always only be there for special occasions.

You opened a new restaurant Waku Ghin in Singapore last year – what’s the reception been so far?

Better than expected. I’ve been to Singapore hundreds of times over many years – my heart is there. For Singaporeans it’s a passion to eat and not just to satisfy hunger. The restaurant is small with just 20 odd seats and situated in the Marina Bay Sands complex alongside the likes of Daniel Boulud, Joel Robuchon and Santi Santamaria. It’s such a big corporation it’s quite amazing. Food wise, its a tailor-made menu. We tell people what ingredients and dishes we have and they say what they fancy. There is a menu but there isn’t. Tetsuya’s is very Western with some Asian twists, but Waku Ghin is more Asian with a Western touch. Here in Australia we have to use local produce because quarantines are so strict – if they find even one bit of dirt on your shoes you have to wash them. But in Singapore they have no produce at all so everything needs importing. There are no herbs, no eggs, no nothing. It’s just a city, a hub designed for tourism, airport and finance only. Even the water comes from Malaysia.

Would you like to see Waku Ghin enter the 50 Best?

Yes of course if it’s possible, but the covers are much smaller, so the chances are much smaller too. Plus it’s hard to book.

You’ve been named one of the most influential chefs in the world. Why would you say that is?

I do what I like to do. A lot of chefs now they do sous vide-type cooking but we’ve been doing it for more than 20 years, I didn’t even know it was called sous vide when I started doing it. At the time people told me I was crazy because it was expensive, but it was something I wanted so I built the equipment in my kitchen. I make decisions to do what I want.

What does the future hold for Tetsuya’s and Waku Ghin as well?

I’d like in the future have service staff who stay long term and help us go to the next stage. Next year we will take a different appraoch and define it, and Waku Ghin is the same. I’d like the staff from the two restaurants to swap over so they can see the cooking ethos of the group. Alain (Ducasse) and Joel (Robuchon) say that when the group gets bigger people grow, and naturally you have to grow too because otherwise people leave you and they are an important part of business. Talent is a great thing, and you want to work with great talent for a long time.

The restaurant is interesting in the sense that Australia has no defined cuisine heritage, therefore leaving its chefs to be more innovative and creative. Executive chef Peter Gilmore prides himself on being the one to introduce Australia to a range of carrot varieties – before growing them himself the country only knew the vegetable to be orange.

With a strong influence by nature and heritage vegetables, Quay has constantly evolved to remain ahead of its peers, with both interesting new dishes as well as variations of signature dishes forming the backbone of its menus.

With a picture-perfect view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, I caught a dinner tasting menu with matching wines at Quay earlier this month…

Warm ginger infused milk curd with a slice of kombu and contrasting cold oyster and seaweed consomme.
Bollinger Champagne

Refreshing raw native freshwater marron, sweet young almonds, bergamot marmalade, tangy grapefruit, green mango, elder and chamomile.
Served with 2007 Joh. Jos Prum Graacher Himmelrich Kabinett Riesling from Mosel, Germany

Mud crab congee with fresh, crunchy palm heart and creamy egg emulsion.
Served with 2004 Keith Tuloch Semillon from Hunter Valley, New South Wales

Gently poached Southern rock lobster, hand-caught Tasmanian squid noodles with creamy golden tapioca and lobster velvet.
Served with 2010 Huet ‘Le Mont Sec’ Vouvray from Loire Valley, France

Smoked and confit pig jowl with shitake mushrooms, creamy shaved scallop, crisp and sweet jerusalem artichoke skins, with hints of juniper and bay.
Served with 2004 Benedict & Stephane Tissot Vin Jaune from Jura, France

Slow cooked coturnix quail breast with thick, buttery stoneground semolina enriched with Alba truffle butter, popcorn-esque buckwheat, farro, walnuts, pumpernickel and malt.
Served with 2009 Rippon Jeunesse Pinot Noir from Central Otago, New Zealand

David Blackmore’s tender full blood Wagyu  with a bitter chocolate black pudding and rich oxtail consomme.
Served with 2004 Valenciso Reserva from Rioja Alta, Spain

(Peters signature dish) Pig jowl with a crunchy maltose crackling, rich cauliflower cream, sweet prunes cooked in Pedro Ximinez sherry and pine bud extract.
Served with 2009 Viognier Floreus from Canberra

White nectarine Snow Egg – a crisp meringue shell coated in a maltose crackling and filled with fruity ice cream, on a bed of creamy nectarine fool and crunchy granita.
Served with 2007 Domaine de L’Arjolle ‘Lyre’ from Puzolles, France

Ewe’s milk ice cream with sticky caramel, roasted walnuts, prunes, Pedro Ximenez, rich chocolate bark, chewy pulled toffee and creamy vanilla milk skin.
Served with Mas Blanc ‘Cuvee du Dr Adre Parce’ from Banyuls, France

John Fink & Peter Gilmore of Quay, currently the World's 26th Best Restaurant

For the first time since the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list began, Sydney’s Quay was listed as Australia’s only entry at #26, after neighbour Tetsuya’s dropped 20 places to #68.

Now a 50 Best list stalwart, having been named the best in Australasia for two consecutive years, business partners John Fink and Peter Gilmore are seeking new ways to ensure the restaurant’s future as one of the best on the planet, from evolving menu favourites to dreaming up new TV shows…

Quay is the only Australian restaurant in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants – what does that mean to you?

Peter – It was a surprise for us that we were the only ones in the top 50, but we’d prefer there to be another couple of restaurants because we believe what Australian restaurants are doing is quite progressive.
John – This is an exciting time for Australia because we aren’t restricted by the European culinary traditions which restrict a lot of vision. That’s why the people who break out are so accepted. Here in Australia we are developing an Australian cuisine and it’s exciting to be a part of it. Ben Shewry (of Attica) is a part of it, even the smaller restaurants are doing it. We were the first restaurant in Australia to grow our own produce and now the corner shops are doing it, but we were leading the way. Now Ben’s doing that in Melbourne and we’re a part of that -  its a global movement.

If Australian cuisine is developing, how would you describe it now?

Peter – We are defined by our multicultural society and lack of a strong culinary tradition of one focus. We don’t have a traditional French cuisine behind us. A lot of chefs have been trained to use French techniques but it doesn’t rule everything we do. We are open to new ideas and techniques. There’s a sense of adventure and development that’s been around for quite a while in Australia, but it’s coming to a maturity now where we are refining what we do. The most interesting chefs around the world are developing their own personal style and that’s coming through more than national styles. It’s impossible to say all modern restaurants in Spain have the same style, because they don’t – they are all going on slightly different paths. Mugaritz is doing something completely different to what El Bulli did, and the same can be said all over the place. Rene (Redzepi) started the whole foraging thing in Scandanvia at Noma and that’s been picked up by other people doing different twists on it. There’s very much a personal cuisine movement amongst chefs. With Australia it’s about great produce and freedom of expression.

Like Rene you take inspiration from nature and now others have adopted that ethos too. With so much global competition how do you ensure Quay stands out?

Peter – We’ve been doing the nature thing for a while; we were one of the earlier ones to do it, here in Australia for sure. Around the same time Rene was doing his thing we were doing our thing working with gardenerrs exclusively and having heirloom vegetables grown. It is being picked up all over the place and I guess the way to move ahead is to continue sourcing  potentially new ideas. I do a lot of research finding heirloom varieties that just aren’t being grown. We were using a lot of flowers five years ago and now everyone’s doing it, which meant I had to move on to other things like using rarer herbs or utilising more beautiful small vegetables and making that the feature of a dish. So it’s taking the development of texture and flavour and looking for nuances that are different.

Where do you grow the majority of your vegetables?

Peter – The majority is grown up in the Blue Mountains about two hours from Sydney and are delivered to us. Because its a cooler climate things grow slower which makes them so much sweeter, even things like French breakfast radishes taste so much better grown in the soil up there. We also work with a few farmers to grow herbs for us and we currently have pea flowers growing in our growing room here at Quay. 97% of what we use is sourced from Australia. We’re lucky to be on a big continent and have a lot of diversity. We’re also lucky in that the availability of local produce is quite vast and translates through the seasons. The strawberry season lasts five months in Australia because it starts up in Queensland and goes right down to Tasmania. So we dont have to buy in things like asparagus from other countries because we can grow it here for longer periods.
John – We are lucky to live in Australia but we’ve got to source from the continent or make it happen. When we started farming six years ago theres was one carrot in Australia – the orange one. Since then Quay has introduced five different varieties of carrot and now I’ll go get my groceries on my way home and there are bunches of purple carrots in supermarkets. But we were the first ones to introduce that to the country.

When you got into farming did you have any idea what you were doing?

Peter – Not a lot. I had started growing things in my back yard two years prior to that, and Nina and Richard, the people we first approached to do this, had a berry farm in the Blue Mountains and we asked them to grow some stuff for us. I spoke to about four or five farmers but they weren’t interested. I asked them to grow pea flowers for garnishing but they didnt understand; they wanted to grow actual peas en masse. But we developed a good relationship with Richard and Nina and it went from there.

How often do the menus at Quay change?

Peter – It depends. Things change with the season so I guess  five or six dishes will change every quarter but new ideas can happen in a week when others can take months. I always have a philosophy to not throw the baby out with the bath water. Some dishes tend to evolve rather than completely change through subtle changes throughout the year. Sometimes a new dish comes along that is so exciting and you want to put it on the menu and you have to sacrifice an old dish. It’s a hard decision and a balancing act – the menu needs to stay balanced.

What is your signature dish?

Peter - There are a few but the pig jowl is a good one, and an example of how my dishes evolve as there’s an old pig jowl and a new one. The old one has a maltose crackling with prunes cooked in pedro ximinez and cauliflower cream, but the new one’s interesting too – a smoked pig jowl with shitake mushroom, scallops, and jerusalem artichoke skins. It’s a lovely dish but the one with the maltose cracking is my favourite.

You released the first Quay cookbook in 2010, but did you envisage it having such a big response?

Peter – I hoped it would do well overseas, but as Australian restaurateurs we weren’t sure because we are so far away from everywhere. But it did well, about 6000 copies sold in the UK. We wanted to do a really beautiful job and represent the food we do here, so it took a year to photograph because we did it with the seasons.
John – It’s a statement about what the restaurant stands for so it was very important to get it right.
Peter – I used the French Laundry cookbook as a model for ours. In Australia we had never heard of the French Laundry and then all of a sudden this book is on the shelves and it tells the story about the restaurant and all of a sudden you want to go there. So I knew ours could potentially have that sort of power if we made a beautiful book, so thats what we did.
John – We didnt compromise on things, like the thickness of the paper and quality of the cover, We wanted the cover to feel like something and in the end they over delivered. It’s such a beautiful piece of work.

What else is in the future for you both?

Peter – At the moment we are looking at a second book, and the possibility of a second restaurant.
John – There’s also a pilot working in the back of my head for a TV show, a concept that ties in with Pete’s philosophy about plants as food and their heritage. Like a history of vegetables. We’ll throw a bucket of money at a pilot next financial year and put it on the web. I’ll do a series of videos for our site and sew them together for a pilot. But we’re still kicking ideas around. The second book would tie in with that too.There’s a shift happening now where we are looking to do something else. Pete and I have dreamt about doing something low-key, a casual restaurant, with a small room for just 40 people. I’m looking at three venues a week for potential sites but it has to be just right.

What better way, then, to savor it than from a divine perch, hundreds of feet above the Caribbean? The rarefied St. Lucian hideaway Jade Mountain just celebrated its annual Chocolate Festival. Cacao production on the island dates back to the 18th century, and Jade Mountain’s organic Emerald Estate rainforest plantation has cultivated the bean for generations on over 1,000 trees, most producing Criollo beans, the most prized of the three varieties for their aromatic properties and lower acidity.

Festival activities naturally follow the cuckoo-for-cacao theme, from chocolate-inspired canapés to cacao-rich spa offerings. It kicked off with a Chocolate-tini bash, accompanied by such palate-pleasers as chocolate fennel crostini. Striking, aromatic pods, saffron yellow or scarlet, bedeck various public spaces with their extravagant views of the twin Pitons, their sculpted perfection showcasing Mother Nature as plastic surgeon.

An equally compelling draw is Jade Consulting Chef Allen Susser, who leads an “alchemy of chocolate” workshop and supervises special chocolate menus. His acclaimed Chef Allen’s restaurant in south Florida helped put Miami on the global gastronomic map and reinforce the trend toward regional cuisine utilizing fresh seasonal indigenous products in a sustainable manner. (Allen has written several well-received books and won such accolades as Food and Wine’s Top 10 New Chefs in America and a James Beard Award – the foodie Oscars – for best Southeast region chef).

Allen dubs his food “New World Cuisine,” yet there are no geographic limitations. Rather his continually evolving fare is really about discovering exciting new frontiers, approaches, and possibilities, with his rigorous classical French training acting as strong foundation. Though he borrows elements from disparate cultures – Mediterranean, Pacific Rim, Latin America, the Caribbean – they share similar landscapes and ingredients: a “giant spice rack,” whose exotic accents enhance one another.

Hence, Jade Mountain creators Nick and Karolin Troubetzkoy gave him free range (pun intended), along with Executive Chef Jonathan Dearden, to redesign the kitchen and dining room to maximize views and facilitate service. “St. Lucia is a chef’s paradise. To be able to cook so close to the source of so many diverse flavors is a fun, exciting, inspirational opportunity,” Allen enthuses. “You’ve got the fresh fish in the sea, big jumbo crayfish in ponds, [our farms’] organic produce, rich volcanic soil. This is MY food. How could I not get excited?”

The Festival’s first full day included a walking tour of Nick’s Emerald Estate (which along with the resort’s other plantation, Anse Mamin, produces and harvests the bounty used in Jade Cuisine’s menus, from avocado to almond, bay leaf to breadfruit, tamarind to tangerine). The more adventurous even tried their hands at pod-picking and fermenting. Chocolate production, it seems, is labor-intensive, meticulous, yet magical as the bitter beans are transformed into a precious commodity. Then the alchemy workshop took everyone from pod to truffle, learning the difference between cacao, cocoa, single bean, milk chocolate, dark, bittersweet, white, cocoa butter.

A live interactive cooking demonstration with Chef Jonathan traced the multi-step process from fermenting to drying, cleaning to roasting and crushing, then mixing with cocoa butter and sugar. I hadn’t known that chocolate contains tryptophan, used to produce serotonin, which in turn stimulates the secretion of endorphins, producing feelings of elation. Yet another neurotransmitter chemical in chocolate, phenylethylamine also promotes feelings of attraction and giddiness by stimulating the brain’s pleasure centers. And its flavonoids thin the blood, helping to prevent clotting and preserve the actual heart muscle. The next day at the spa, therapists explain the bean’s anti-oxidant properties break down free radicals. Really it’s a delicious excuse to bask in warm and cooling chocolate.

Arguably the highlight was a specially prepared seasonal and sustainable five-course dinner, personally created by Chef Allen innovatively incorporating chocolate in each course.

Witness the following recipe and eat your heart out. Until next December.

White Chocolate & Shrimp Mojito
—Serves 4

1 ½ Teaspoons cumin seed
½ Teaspoon black peppercorns
½ Teaspoon fennel seed
½ Teaspoon thyme
2 medium tangerines, zested and juice reserved
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
12 jumbo shrimp, cleaned, peeled, deveined
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Teaspoon minced garlic
2 Tablespoons spiced rum
2 Tablespoons cocoa butter
1 Tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro
1 Tablespoon freshly torn mint
1 Teaspoon dark cocoa powder
In a small pan over medium heat slowly toast the cumin, black pepper and fennel seeds together. When they become aromatic, remove from heat and cool completely. Grind to a rough, coarse ground in a spice grinder. Combine with the tangerine zest, thyme and salt. Generously season and rub spice mixture over the shrimp.

In a medium-size sauté pan, warm the oil over high heat. Just before it starts to smoke, add the shrimp. Stir lightly and add the garlic. Lower the heat, continue to cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until rosy pink and cooked through. Carefully add the spiced rum, and pour in the tangerine juice, cooking for another minute. Then whisk in the cocoa butter. Garnish with cilantro and mint. Arrange on a large white platter and dust edge with dark cocoa. Serve perhaps over nutty basmati rice infused with saffron and golden raisins.

Photo credits: Jade Mountain and Morano PR