Bilson’s – homage to Nouvelle Cuisine

A post from No Experts Australian Correspondent

I would suggest to any foodies planning to visit Sydney, that they should try if at all possible, to visit in October. Not only is it the beginning of Spring, but it is also the Sydney International Food Festival, a month long festival, where Sydney celebrates everything good and great about food and wine. From Picnic’s on the Harbour Bridge to 100 Mile meals,  Lunch on Fort Dennison to Market Tours with Celebrity Chefs.  From Shoot the Chef (a photography competition) to Night noodle Markets and Hats Off Diners, this year the festival had over 600 events in one short month!

This year Bilson’s chose as it’s theme for it’s weekly Hats off dinner, a homage to Nouvelle Cuisine. A menu designed to showcase the iconic dishes from Chef’s such as Paul Bocuse, and demonstrate how Nouvelle Cuisine has influenced contemporary cooking. The menu comes with a complimentary glass of champagne, and we decided to go for the option of matching wines, which were without exception sourced from France.

Our first dish, with the deceptively simple name of “Eggs and Caviar”, inspired by Michel Guérard the Godfather of Nouvelle Cuisine, was a complex layering of smoked eel, smoked eel mouse, coddled eggs, creme fresh, asparagus foam topped with chives and caviar, and accompanied with asparagus and Brioche soldiers. Beautifully light, the dish disappeared in a couple of mouthfuls, leaving me wishing for more.

Our second course of Mussels in Saffron Sauce (Roger Vérge) was tasty, a light saffron foam with very fresh mussels. I would question the necessity for the julienne of carrot and leeks underneath. I know it adds some texture to the dish, but I will never understand why is it that Australians have to serve carrot with everything?

The fish course was Salmon a l’Oiselle  inspired Jean and Pierre Troisgros. The Salmon was beautifully pan fried, and slightly pink in the middle, which is just how I like it, however I have to say that the Sorrel sauce was bitter, and while Jean Troisgros has a reputation as the Master Saucier, I would rather this part of the dish had been omitted.  The accompanying green beans were deliciously tossed in butter!

The Main course, would have to be my dish of the evening. Partridge accompanied by peas, lettuce, and salami, lending a  twist on this classic french combination. The partridge was deliciously rich and beautifully tender.  The dish was inspired by Paul Bocuse, and somehow manages to remain light while retaining the original rich earthy flavours from which this game dish is inspired.

I love cheese, and even better than cheese, I love a good cheese souffle.  Our cheese course, Petit Fromage Affiné, inspired by the eponymous Michel Roux Senior, for me was a slice of heaven! In fact if I could die and go to a heaven padded with this fluffy cheese Souffle instead of Clouds, I would be a very happy bunny indeed!

Our last course of Mille-feuille  with Red Fruits accompanied by a Chantilly Cream and raspberry coulis rounded off the perfect meal.  Coffee and Petite Four made a nice finish, and I couldn’t resist a 1959 Armagnac from Darroze.

Service was good, and it appears that all of the front of house staff are either English or Scottish. Initially they seemed a little aloof, but seemed to warm to us eventually. I would also question having just one restaurant manager who is also the Sommelier. Andrew Cullen is a nice guy, however he did seem to be running around, and was very rushed, which is not ideal, especially when you consider that we were dining early and the restaurant was quite empty to start with.

The  dining room is nicely decorated, but at the end of the day, it’s just a hotel dining room. One has to question whether a restaurant of this calibre really needs gimmicks such as a Clock where the hands are made of knives and forks, and re-hydrating wet towels. However they make for a little light entertainment, in what could otherwise be quite a stuffy dining room. Great food, although sadly, as I visited in the same week as dinner at Tetsuya’s, perhaps I didn’t really appreciate the quality of this restaurant as much as I should.  A good excuse to go back and try their normal menu!

Marks out of 10

Food 8.2

Service 7.5

Ambience 7.0

 

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The Wine Show and Masterchef Live 2010

Made good use of a friends free ticket to  The Wine Show and Master Chef Live, bumped into several people I knew, which was nice. Surprisingly sociable for such a huge event.

I spent the bulk of my time at The Wine Show, as the Master Chef Live stands on the whole were very busy.

The event was not restricted to  just wine, as delicatessens such as Gastronomic were there, along with  chocolatiers such as Chocolate and Love.  There was also the rather amusing Mad Cow Fudge company, selling fudge “Made by cows from Yorkshire who like their Huddersfield”. Their Christmas Pudding fudge is a real winner.

On the wine front we tried several very good wines.  Wines of Chile for example had successfully matched their wines with some delicious Benares curries.  I also had an interesting chat with Mark Hellyar of Chateau Civrac on popularising wines from the Bordeaux region, and sampled a couple of  their  full bodied wines.  Chateau Civrac supply wines to several restaurants including Benares. I then moved on to the next stand Cantina Cirotto to try their rather lovely Prosecco. We also had a short presentation on what makes a good dessert wine from Tastour and enjoyed a nice glass of German Eiswein.

The highlight however had to be the Coutts Private Cellar, where Tim Atkin gave his presentation and several high end wine merchants provided samples of their wares. My personal favorite was the Cascina Bongiovanni Barola Pernanne 2004 from Colasanti (£71.50 RPR) . The  food plates from British Fine Foods were a perfect accompaniment – I know where I am ordering my Christmas goodies from.

 

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Iggy’s – missing a little something!

A post from No Experts Australian Correspondent

I have to admit that we chose to go to Iggy’s after much agonising. We had a quick stop over in Singapore and only one real opportunity for fine dining.  I was concerned that my partner who is notoriously fussy about his food may not like the concept  that the only option for dinner was an 8 course tasting menu. My other concern, was with regard to the fact that that Iggy is a Sommelier rather than chef! Nevertheless this restaurant appears as number 26 on the S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list and must be worth it’s salt!  Lastly the restaurant had just reopened in a new location at the Hilton in Orchard Road. We arrived at the dining room to a courteous welcome which the Singaporeans do so very well. We selected a glass of champagne each and matching wines to accompany our taster menu.

The food was absolutely superb! Canapes of chicken skin lollipops were divinely crunchy and perfectly seasoned. Oysters and steak tartar served on a soup spoon, simply melted in the mouth, the beef beautifully seasoned with capers, shallots and  parsley.   My partner commented that if he hadn’t known the dish was raw, he would never have known from the taste.

What followed was a series of divine dishes, however one issue ended up dominating the evening. The kitchen seemed to lack consistency, with dish after dish, well at least in my case,  missing some ingredient central to the dish. You would think that limiting guests to only one choice of a taster menu, the kitchen would at least be able to turn around consistent plates.

Beautiful succulent lobster, with tomato and radish appeared without the radish on my plate, although Mr T seemed to have his intact.  Foie Gras with chanterelle mushrooms, missing the mushrooms completely, and lastly venison with pumpkin and dates, completely missing the dates! In each case Mr T appeared to have a perfect dish, while I seemed to receive the dish with a  missing ingredient. After initially biting my tongue in acquiescence to Mr T, who entreated me with “Don’t make a fuss! Have one of my radishes”. I kept my peace. After all I am I’m not a huge fan of radish anyway, but was keen to see how it complemented the lobster! I am a food blogger after all!

Our-waiter’s response was good, and he immediately whisked away our plates for them both to be made again. A couple of seamless dishes appeared, the pasta with truffles being lovely, and I was just beginning to enjoy myself again, when voilà, venison with pumpkin and dates sans dates! Grr! The dates were added to my plate after a quick duck back to the kitchen. See if you can spot the pictures with missing ingredients.

One can’t help but wonder whether this lack of consistency is  a regular occurrence at Iggy’s. Is it simply down to the fact that I am a food blogger, that I noticed the differences, and if this happens all the time, or was it a one off? Is this symptomatic of the lack of Head chef’s supervision? A casual look at the plates should have made the differences glaringly obvious!

One of the highlights of Iggy’s is supposed to be the opportunity to sit at the Chef’s bar and eat dinner while watching the chefs prepare it.  We were offered the chance to sit at the bar and watch our deserts  being prepared and eat them there. To be honest I was much more comfortable sitting at our comfy table in the dining room. The prep area was freezing, and not at all conducive to a romantic night for two! In retrospect I wish that we has declined this opportunity. The desert of Blueberries with Calamansi and Cream cheese was reminiscent of a deconstructed cheese cake, and pretty as a picture! The after dinner truffles and coffee superb.

A nice gesture from the house was to not charge us for our two glasses of champagne, which was appreciated. The food was superb, but then I wouldn’t expect anything less when the bill was over $800 (£385)  for two (including the matching wines). As to whether I would return, I think with so many other restaurants to try in Singapore, it’s unlikely in the short term, but I would return in a year or so to see how Iggy’s has matured. Gunther’s is high on the list for my next visit.

Marks out of 10

Food 7.5 (This would possibly have been an 8 or higher, if the dishes from the kitchen were consistent)

Service 7.5

Ambience 7.9

 

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Happy Halloween from No Expert

The City Inn has some prize winning pumpkins on display this year, see below:-

First place goes to the Witch
Second place goes to the Clown
The Grim Reaper had my vote

Just as good in daylight I think.

 

 

 

 

UPDATE : November 2010 – The City Inn has been rebranded and is now the Mint Hotel.

UPDATE: January 2011 – The Mint Hotel is now a Doubletree Hilton Hotel.

Gone for a Burton – Blot on the Landscape! (Closed)

We had a quite a  few comments on our posts covering Harveys in Ramsgate, the consensus being that this celebrity chef inspired outpost was really, really bad.

See:-

However unlike the Foliage and Parc des Eaux Vives which also closed this year. Harveys closure was deserved. We can only hope that this prime spot on the harbour does not stay closed for too long.

We have also been cheeky using the tag line “Gone for a Burton” – a play on the celebrity chef John Burton Race’s name.  Isle One got in first with that one, but since they seem to have used one of our photographs without crediting us (tut….tut) it seemed only fair that we copy their tag line.

UPDATE – November 2010

Jacks Cantina on the Marina

Harveys has now been replaced by Jacks (The Cantina on the Marina) . I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why the council gave the go ahead to deface this building situated in a prime location on a Victorian Harbour is beyond me.  This really is in bad taste and we haven’t even tried the food yet!

UPDATE May 2011 – The “Orange Blot” that was Jacks is gone, the building now has a new more suitable paint job. Wonder who will move into this prime spot next?  It would be a great location for Eddie Gilberts if they were thinking of expanding.

 

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Chocolate Unwrapped at Vinopolis

It’s a change of venue for the Chocolate Unwrapped show this year.  Last year it was at the Mayfair Hotel, this year it moved to the rather more interesting Vinopolis.  The new venue though did not work as well for the lectures. Paul A Young‘s talks  for example were averaging about 90 attendees instead of the expected 30.  Fortunately he warned us about the over attendance and we got in early enough to get front row seats. His talk was suitably entertaining,  I was especially amused by the story that his mother still buys him Quality Street for Christmas.

The Chocolate Art work was fun, especially the gorilla. Thorntons Eiffel Tower was hideous though.

There were lots of new stands this year.  Matcha Chocolat with their tea and chocolate combinations were especially interesting.  All the chocolates and the brownie we had from Paul A Young were really good, I even found his new Marmite chocolate unoffensive. I loved William Curley’s Cinnamon Milk Chocolate.

There were some novelties too.  Like Chocri, who let you play chocolatier, choosing toppings and having your name on the bar and the Lebanese company Patchi, who seemed to focus on very ornate packaging for special occasions like weddings, baby showers and embassy do’s – kinda OTT Ferrier Roche!.  Thorntons were there too this year, showing yet again just how big a gap there is between the mass market chocolatiers and the artisan chocolatiers.

This event is definately in the diary again for next year.

 

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