This year Bilson\u2019s<\/a> chose as it\u2019s theme for it\u2019s weekly Hats off dinner, a homage to Nouvelle Cuisine. A menu designed to showcase the iconic dishes from Chef\u2019s such as Paul Bocuse<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Our first dish, with the deceptively simple name of \u201cEggs and Caviar\u201d, inspired by Michel Gu\u00e9rard<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Our second course of Mussels in Saffron Sauce (Roger V\u00e9rge) 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?<\/p>\n The fish course was Salmon a l’Oiselle\u00a0 inspired Jean and Pierre Troisgros<\/a>. 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.\u00a0 The accompanying green beans were deliciously tossed in butter!<\/p>\n The Main course, would have to be my dish of the evening. Partridge accompanied by peas, lettuce, and salami, lending a\u00a0 twist on this classic french combination. The partridge was deliciously rich and beautifully tender.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n I love cheese, and even better than cheese, I love a good cheese souffle.\u00a0 Our cheese course, Petit Fromage Affin\u00e9, inspired by the eponymous Michel Roux Senior<\/a>, 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!<\/p>\n Our last course of Mille-feuille\u00a0 with Red Fruits accompanied by a Chantilly Cream and raspberry coulis rounded off the perfect meal.\u00a0 Coffee and Petite Four made a nice finish, and I couldn\u2019t resist a 1959 Armagnac from Darroze.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The\u00a0 dining room is nicely decorated, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s 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\u2019s<\/a>, perhaps I didn\u2019t really appreciate the quality of this restaurant as much as I should.\u00a0 A good excuse to go back and try their normal menu!<\/p>\n Marks out of 10<\/p>\n Food 8.2<\/p>\n Service 7.5<\/p>\n Ambience 7.0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Return to top page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading “Bilson’s – homage to Nouvelle Cuisine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,323,31],"tags":[404,475,473,471,474,470,472,465,463],"class_list":["post-13605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-gfg-chef-hats","category-australia","category-best-of-the-best","tag-bilsons","tag-fort-dennison","tag-jean-and-pierre-troisgros","tag-michel-guerard","tag-michel-roux-senior","tag-paul-bocuse","tag-roger-verge","tag-sydney-international-food-festival","tag-tetsuyas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13605"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29647,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605\/revisions\/29647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/tn_IMG_03121-150x150.jpg\")
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