My partner and I recently had a delicious evening at Café Vue. The following is a review that I wrote for some of my friends. It got a bit longer than I intended! -------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes I wonder about opening up a restaurant. How difficult could it be, what with my passion for food, obsession with fine dining and a requisite degree in business? Certainly, I am not alone in such ruminations and every year there are countless additions to Melbourne's fabulous, varied dining scene. There are no less than 3,000 restaurants, cafés, bistros and bars littering the city and its surrounds. How then does one make a culinary splash in a city that has been described as having "too many restaurants"1? In 2000, Shannon Bennett opened Vue de Monde in Carlton because nobody would give him a job. Never mind simply opening up a restaurant; Bennett wanted to create "Australia's best"2 dining experience. After six years, a swag of awards and shifting to a new premises, Bennett occupies an enviable position in Melbourne's restaurant hierarchy. There's no question that the man can cook. But with the closure of such fine dining legends as Hotel Sofitel's Le Restaurant, Federation Square's Reserve and more recently, a handful of swanky eateries on Docklands, one must wonder how sustainable the luxe dining establishment is. Enforced degustation menus are all the rage (see Interlude, Jacques Reymond, Tetsuya's) and with prices averaging $140 AUD per person, they're not something that many people can afford often, or at all. I myself would happily dine at Vue de Monde daily, if I could afford to. And now, I can. The recently opened Café Vue offers breakfast and lunch at very reasonable prices, thereby capturing a slice of the restaurant market that, like me, has to check their credit card debt before making a booking at Vue de Monde. Later this year, Bennett will be opening Bistro Vue for dining a la carte. The three establishments are set to make for a formidable empire in the Melbourne restaurant scene. Not only can Bennett cook, but he understands the different wants of different customers and is set to corner the market at all levels. On a wintery night, my partner and I stepped inside the very shiny Café Vue, looking forward to another dose of Vue de Monde wizardry in the form of the Café Vue Cocktail Evening, running twice a week from August 17th with menus changing monthly. Bennett produces a menu of six small dishes that are matched with cocktails created by some of Melbourne's best bars, including Der Raum, Madame Brussels and the Gin Palace. The informal environment and the copious amount of colourful liquor allows for a fun, frivolous atmosphere. Each of Bennett's dishes were created with reference to a botanical flavour found in Bombay Sapphire gin, the drink currently beaing featured. First up was a French 75, consisting of gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup, topped up with excellent champagne. Each flute had a dollop of white sorbet with green jelly crystals dropped in, as well as a small piece of dry ice. Sweet and well-balanced flavour; the sorbet melted and left the jelly crystals floating in the drink. Out of the kitchen came long, green glass plates with duck cromeski – three balls of succulent, firm duck studded with croutons. I wished someone had warned me of what would happen before I bit into the ball and sent the licorice and angelica jus filling squirting across the bar counter. I took more care with the second and third attempts. The next drink to come out was the Diabola, a grapefruit coloured drink of gin, dubonnet vermouth and a shimmery liquer that ebbed around the ice cubes. Matched with this was a bowl of warm, tender crab sticks encrusted with almonds and served with bright yellow amaretto mayonnaise. Perhaps this is why I'm no chef – it never would have occurred to me that crab and almond could be so delicious, the softness of the crab meat contrasting well with the crunchy almonds. The dish that followed was somewhat of a disappointment. Frozen foie gras powder served atop Sauternes jelly in test tubes, accompanied by charred Juniper bread sounded phenomonal. The foie gras was delicious at first but as it mixed with the jelly liquid, it became watery and difficult to spread on the bread. Comparatively, the matched cocktail was delightful – mandarin and chrysanthemum punch, garnished with chrysanthemum flowers. Time for a palate cleanser: our chef brought out a bowl of liquid nitrogen and squeezed in a spoonful of what appeared to be meringue. She stirred it until it hardened slightly, and picked it up with a Chinese spoon. We were instructed to pop the entire thing into our mouth, as the cold would strip the residual oils and flavours from our mouths, in preparation for the next dish. The expression on the faces of the people nearby was telling: bug-eyed. The meringue was quite cold and had a slight almond flavour. It seemed to expand and then melt against my tongue. After the initial shock, it was very refreshing. I was feeling slightly full when the next course landed in front of us – slow cooked ocean trout that was as tender as salmon, spread with coriander pesto and topped off with crispy noodles. We continued to sip the chrysanthemum punch and marvelled at the trout which fell apart beautifully beneath our forks. A definite highlight of the evening. Following this was two Chinese spoons each, with a preserved lemon and a bitter white powder sprinkled on top – the 21st Century Gin & Tonic. It was sweet, bitter, intense and not exactly my cup of tea. But, when in Rome… The next cocktail was a mouth-puckering Negroni, similar in colour to the Diabola and consisting of gin, red vermouth and Campari. I would have preferred a sweeter vermouth – this was a very powerful cocktail. I drank about half and turned my attention to the lamb kebab dish, with preserved lemon and garlic yogurt. I was interested to see what Bennett's take on a kebab would be. The presentation consisted of half a wrap standing up in a pool of yogurt, stuffed with tiny tomato pieces, shredded lettuce and unfortunately, very little lamb. The taste was fine. Getting to the business end of the evening, my partner and I were not as drunk as we feared we might be. The final cocktail was absolutely delicious. A Ramos Gin Fizz: gin, lemon and lime, topped up with seltzer and finished with a head of creamy meringue and orange blossom. The dessert of strawberry tagliatelle (cold, dark pink ribbons) with Orris root and Grains of paradise, topped with a softened scoop of vanilla ice cream arrived on a white artist's palette and was the kind of thing that people look for when they go to a place like Vue de Monde – inventiveness and wonder. The chef recommended we try and eat it all in one bite, so as to appreciate the layering of the flavours. The orris root left behind a slight, pleasant spiciness. To finish, good, strong coffee and soft-centred homemade chocolates. On our way out, my partner and I made sure to find out when there would be a new menu for us to try. Because I need a Vue de Monde fix every now and then. Shannon Bennett offers something that few of the 3,000 eateries in the city do: genuine surprises. There is the occasional misfire, but I will take the exceptional flourishes of culinary brilliance with one or two ordinary experiments over the mediocre any day. For more information about the Café Vue Cocktail Evening, visit the Vue de Monde website: http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/events_menu.aspx?view=40 1 Barker, A 2005, 'Lygon Street set for restaurant cap', PM, Radio National, ABC, 3 May, viewed 23 August 2006, <http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1359071.htm>. 2 Lethlean, J 2005, 'Cue the new Vue', The Age, 14 June, viewed 23 August 2006, <http://www.theage.com.au/news/Epicure/Cue-...8514953104.html>.
