roosterchef21

May 15, 2011

God I miss Italy

May 4, 2011

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/the-alist-crowd-20110423-1drqx.html

The A-list crowd
Larissa Dubecki
April 26, 2011
Chef Ben Shewry at Melbourne's Attica restaurant. Photo: Angela Wylie
The World's 50 Best Restaurants list has knocked Michelin off its lofty perch and is regarded as the arbiter of cool, writes Larissa Dubecki.
BEN Shewry knows patience. A chef enamoured of the slow turning of the seasons, he is more than usually accustomed to waiting. But he was unusually anxious last month as he looked out for the familiar sight of the postie.
And he was not alone. A handful of Australian chefs were waiting to see if they would, once again, receive a letter heralding inclusion on the list of S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants.
Mark Best, from Sydney's Marque, was going through the same purgatory. ''I was sweating,'' he admits.
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Intensifying their pain was the knowledge that Peter Gilmore of Sydney Harbour glamour puss Quay had already received his letter, word of which had quickly spread around chef circles.
''I was nervous, for sure,'' says the New Zealand-born Shewry. ''I didn't want to be the guy who gets on the list only to drop off after one year. When you're a chef and your passion is for cooking, these awards mean something. It's lying to say they don't.''
The World's 50 Best Restaurants list - somewhat confusingly it also comprises a B-list of the restaurants ranked 50-100 - was released last week, its 10th iteration. Its status means most readers will have seen in the news pages that Shewry's Attica, in Ripponlea, which debuted last year at No. 73, leapt ahead to No. 53, the only Melbourne restaurant on the list.
Sydney typically fared better on the international circuit: Gilmore's Quay was 26, the highest-placed restaurant in Australasia, while Marque came in at 70 (three down on last year), and Tetsuya's slid from last year's A-list status of 38 to 58.
But everyone's a winner on the World's Best.
At Attica it proved that lightning can indeed strike twice. The phones once again went into meltdown; the website was overloaded with 20,000 hits, and it received hundreds of emails. Last year, three people were hired to deal with the deluge of reservation inquiries, which has now been whittled to one full-timer whose sole task is to administer the bookings - an unusual undertaking for a restaurant that seats a mere 250 people a week.
''Last year when we found out we were going to be on the list, I spoke to staff and told them we might be a little bit more busy than usual. Nothing could have prepared us for what happened,'' laughs Shewry. ''We were better prepared this year.''
The restaurant world has witnessed a mighty coup in the past decade as the awards started by London-based Restaurant magazine and now sponsored by a mineral water company have infringed on the Michelin guides and their august 110-year history. The World's Best has well and truly muscled out the once-venerable Michelin, which has been reduced to the status of dusty old dowager by this shiny arriviste.
The territory was there for the taking. Once the final word in fine dining, Michelin has suffered a decade of relentlessly bad press from a media hostile to its perceived stuffiness and inflexibility, and its inability to reflect shifts in dining trends.
Now, the World's Best has become the final arbiter of the cutting edge: who's hot, who's not, who's on the slide down the rankings and who might be the next big star of the culinary world.
Part of it is thanks to the dark arts of PR. Restaurant magazine has cleverly turned it into a yearly social drawcard, with chefs and assorted food-world bigwigs flying into London for the announcement at the Guildhall. The glamour associated with Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal and Rene Redzepi has seen it dubbed the restaurant world's Oscars.
But it is also a relentless push at relevance that has brought the reversal of fortune. While Michelin has responded to global markets by slowly colonising new ground - it now publishes guides for the US and Asia, although it has no presence in Australia - and has introduced its inspectors to Twitter to occasionally comic effect (''not sure rosewater is my fav ice flavour tho but sour cherry rice - YUM!''), its anonymous judgments from on high are on the nose.
In contrast to Michelin's cloak-and-dagger self-importance, the World's 50 Best is out and proud. Judgment is devolved to a publicised global jury of 800-plus voters, divided into 27 regions, drawn from the ranks of chefs, restaurateurs and critics. Each juror can vote for seven restaurants, three of which must be outside their own region, all of which have been visited in the past 18 months.
But with no verification required, the allegation has been raised that jurors are voting for buzz-worthy places that they haven't visited. Can that many really have visited the ridiculously hard-to-get-into Noma or previous No.1 stalwart el Bulli?
Joanna Savill, co-editor of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and World's Best juror, jokes that it should be called the World's Hottest 50 Restaurants List.
''It's the foodists' list - the destination diners' list,'' she says. ''Most of the jurors, including yours truly, scope out every travel opportunity for where to go eat. And we tend to want to go for the hot [and the] new with a badge of recommendation from fellow food fanatics.''
Geographical bias, anyone? Latin America is not a typical dining destination. Nor is Australia, although cracking the list can certainly be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
''Once we made the list we had a huge number of panel members coming through the place,'' says Mark Best, who adds that it is important not to start believing the hype. ''Given the amount of restaurants around the world, it's still a fickle thing.''
No doubt the people behind the World's Best are acutely aware of the detractors. Restaurant editor William Drew was keen to point out that this year's restaurants ''span an even greater geographical spread than previous years and recognise the influence of fledgling culinary nations such as Peru and Russia''.
But even in this global new world order, Australia is destined to remain on the back foot. We are a long way from the action. And Sydney once again will have the advantage over Melbourne - destination diners are more likely to visit a city with a concentration of ranked restaurants.
Tourism New South Wales has joined the fray, promoting the likes of Marque, Tetsuya's and Quay with free trips to foreign food journalists.
When the merest whisker separates the bulk of the restaurants, this can be crucial.
Former Restaurant editor Nathan Garnett told The New York Times that while the top 10 receive votes in the hundreds, only one or two votes can separate the place-getters between 31 and 80.
According to Jay Rayner, Observer restaurant critic and the awards' British chairman: ''Perhaps it has become a victim of its own success. An appearance on the 50-best does wonders for a restaurant's business … As a result, both restaurateurs and tourist boards have gone out of their way to get panellists in, offering them endless free trips and free meals. I also proposed to the panel that votes for restaurants where the meals had been comped should be worth only half of those paid for. They decided to stick with the status quo. To me, that seems an opportunity missed.''
To believe the World's Best is the final word on the best 100 dining experiences around the world is as absurd as believing Black Swan was the best film made last year. But beyond the jingoistic league-table approach that dominates news reporting of the event, as though it were the culinary Olympics - which, to a certain extent, it is - it is nonetheless a valuable snapshot of where dining is at the moment.
''To say the French Laundry [Thomas Keller's Napa Valley establishment that took top spot in 2003 and '04 but slipped to No. 56 on this year's list] is behind us is bizarre,'' Shewry says. ''It's important to take it all with a grain of salt, and to remember that you can never predict what's going to happen. But I'm a New Zealander, so I'm pessimistic by nature.''

They are kidding right? As a chef, I'd rather Three Michelin Stars. As a reviewer, I know which one I would prefer to work for. Restaurant reviewers these days seem to want to be seen and be known. Everyone knows who they are, what they look like and where they are going to be. How can we take them seriously? At least with the Michelin inspectors you will never know who they are. Anyone else have any other thoughts on the whole thing?

April 20, 2011

I really don't like lists that try to rank how good restaurants are. This comes from a few things. Firstly, food is always subjective, and one place which is incredible to one person may well be terrible to someone else. I know reviewers claim to be objective, but I think that is nigh on impossible when it's a scientifically proven fact that food evokes an emotional and physical response. The methodology of The World's 50 Best voting is reasonable, but I think it leaves a lot to be desired.

Next, when eating at a restaurant of the standard required to make a list such as The World's 50 Best you are talking about some very high calibre staff indeed. At any given time, any one of those restaurants can produce a meal that is truly the world's best. The difficulty of ranking them when this is the case shouldn't be forgotten. There are thousands of restaurants in the world capable of making that list, and only a handful of reviewers. If a reviewer misses going to a restaurant one night when they do something great, or go to a restaurant one night when they do something wrong, can change the situation entirely. Again, the voting system is reasonable but it leaves a lot to be desired.

Another point is the "What about?" factor. Given that food and restaurants are so subjective, I often look at lists such as these and go "What about <insert restaurant here>"? The cynic in me wonders about politics and hype in a consumer/capitalist society when it comes to choosing restaurants, but it probably has more to do with not enough reviewers doing their best to complete a massive task. They can only do so much with what they have available.

Finally, I wonder why some restaurants make the list when so many people that have eaten there think it is overrated or even terrible. I'm sure it's happened to you, but there have been times where I have been totally bewildered as to how a restaurant made it on to the list, or worse, into the position it did. I wish I knew the rationale behind each one.

Having said all of that, anything that generates excitement about the restaurant industry is a good thing. For me, the great restaurants are the ones who have been consistently great over a long period of time. That to me is what makes a World's Best Restaurant list. But again, my taste is entirely different to yours isn't it?

March 5, 2011

So so glad I am out of that godforsaken industry. Love food but it is one of the most backwards industries I have ever come across, filled with a good number of animals who skipped evolution.

The worst incident I ever saw was during service one night. It wasn't particularly busy, but one section and one chef was getting nailed that night. As with anything, once you start getting too busy the mistakes start creeping in. A few little mistakes had being noticed - nothing major, and easily fixed. The head chef was getting antsy about it, and we could all see him ready to explode. This time something was different though. We could see it in his eyes and his body language. He wasn't going to shout.

So service continued for a while and we all tried to help our poor little friend who was doing his best, but probably wasn't capable enough to handle it on his own. I don't think any of us were actually. And there were some very capable chefs in that kitchen who had had success in some of the best restaurants in the world. The head chef was getting closer and closer to exploding. He yelled at us to stop helping him which we did, to try and calm him down. The maitre'd offered to help and tried to calm him. We all did. Finally it happened. That poor guy overcooked a scallop - not by much mind you - and the chef exploded. He ripped out the circle of the target top, grabbed the guys arm and branded him. Held him there and branded him. I've never seen anything so terrifying in my life. I still remember that stench of burnt flesh to this very day.

I think that was probably the beginning of the end for me. I walked out after that happened, and after the court proceedings and all that, I tried to get back in to a kitchen. The very next kitchen I worked in may not have been rough, but it sure felt rough. Maybe I was tainted from last time, but there certainly were some very rough characters in that place. The usual half drunk, half drug fucked losers, all full of testosterone trying to outdo each other in everything. There was at least one fight a week, and at least half a dozen people would quit by the end of a fortnight. I didn't last long there, only about 3 months. After that I just couldn't get motivated to get back into it. The kind of hours you work, for the kind of pay you get, with kind of people in that crowd makes it very difficult to justify, especially when you have a family you want to see and you are getting on a bit.

January 18, 2011

The giant pepper grinder. Actually the pepper grinder in general. If the food isn't seasoned well in the kitchen...
George Carlin addressed this in "Brain Droppings" -- When the pepper-guy comes, tell him to keep grinding. And grinding. And grinding. For 10 to 15 minutes. Then send the dish back, saying, "This has too much pepper on it."

LOL!

January 17, 2011

The giant pepper grinder. Actually the pepper grinder in general. If the food isn't seasoned well in the kitchen...

January 17, 2011

I don't have a problem with texture at all. It's more about the flavour with me. Some things can be hard to approach at first, such as offal or unusual ingredients. That's for foods on their own. My biggest qualm with texture though is at restaurants. A one dimensional dish is a deal breaker for me I'm afraid. As well as service, technical issues etc etc.

January 16, 2011

This is what I do:

But really, I carry most of my kit in a hard metal case to protect it from damage. And I've got my pastry stuff in a metal toolbox for the same reason.

January 14, 2011

On the contrary, growing up with monotonous and unremarkable food could send you on a path of personal culinary enlightenment.
To suggest that one can never be an expert because they don't have the right family background is absurd and offensive.

That's me in a nutshell.

January 14, 2011

Bentley was good rather than great. My biggest problem was texture and temperature again. Went for lunch, and almost everything was silky smooth and cool. That's a good thing in moderation, but at the end I was sick of it. Bloody cheap though for the quality you get.
That may be a lunch thing or what you ordered. We were there the other night and none of the dishes could be called cool. Moreover, Brent Savage seems to deliberately add textural elements to the dishes so I'm not sure where the "silky smooth" comment comes from (in my experience, yours may have been completely different).
Given the price for what you get, as you remarked, may I recommend a visit in the evening? It could move your opinion up a notch.

It may well be that it was a lunch thing. My wife commented a couple of days later on her experience and said a very similar thing. Might just have been the menu we had. It's not a terrible restaurant by any means, and is probably at one Michelin star level. I just felt that a little more texture would have been nice.

January 14, 2011

Nope. I tend to think a lot of it is just a big money spinner for our supermarkets.

January 14, 2011

Here's my thoughts. Quay is a must in my opinion. With the usual debate about how high an Australian restaurant would rank in the Michelin Guide, this is the one that would most likely get three stars in my opinion. It's not at that "great" three star level of a place like L'Arpege or Gagnaire (when he is "on"). But it is very very good. Food wise, Nicholas Le Bec's food has it just over him, and so does Chistian Le Squer. Service wise, it's almost as good as Gagnaire, but not quite as good as Ledoyen. It's probably a good two star restaurant at it's best, although I think that view would probably get them their third. The congee is a definite Three Star dish, as is the seven texture chocolate cake. The snow egg is up there with the best desserts I've ever had, in the same league as L'Arpege's apple tart.

Becasse I found terribly overrated. Poor timing of dishes, slow service and not that great food. The food to me seemed to be stuck in an era past, sort of around the 2003-07 era if comparing to our European friends. Good for Australia, but not good comparatively. It's at a good price though.

Rockpool I found to be brilliant. Since Phil Wood took over, the place has really lifted to another level. The service was rough at times and probably needs a good kick up the arse, but the quality of food was right up there. The abalone, chirashi zushi, marron and the Baked Alaska are classy dishes that wouldn't look out of place in most three star places.

Tetsuya's is a bit one dimensional. Look, it's a cracking restaurant and a definite three star when it's "on", but the service can be poor, it does look dated and the desserts really let the place down. His savoury dishes can be one dimensional in texture, but are still amazing dishes. Tets probably needs to sit down and refurbish the place, hire a great pastry chef and get some textural and heat differences on the menu here and there. It's worth a visit, but it can be a love hate relationship.

Est I find particularly underrated. It probably isn't the quality of Quay and Tetsuya's, but it is right up there with the very best. He's got this whole Asian/French thing going on, but entirely different to Tetsuya. His balance with food is amongst the very top echelon of chefs around. His dishes can lack punch and texture though. Not all of them, but you might find one or two. If you could only visit three in Sydney, here would be a strong option.

Yet to try Marque. Not sure about Pier any more since he handed back his stars. He's changed the style of restaurant so... The desserts have definitely taken a backward step since Katrina Kanetani left which was the last time I went. But I haven't been since he handed his stars back. Katrina Kanetani is the best pastry chef in the world as far as I'm concerned. Her style, sense of balance, textural strengths and sheer quality made the Quay snow egg, Pierre Gagniare's Le Grande Desserts and L'Arpege's apple tart look like they were made by rank amateurs. I dare say that she was worth two of the three hats at Pier when she was there.

Bentley was good rather than great. My biggest problem was texture and temperature again. Went for lunch, and almost everything was silky smooth and cool. That's a good thing in moderation, but at the end I was sick of it. Bloody cheap though for the quality you get.

Adriano Zumbo's pastries are okay, but they sure as hell aren't of the quality of Laduree, Herme, Ong, Balaguer etc.

November 11, 2010

Monsieur Roux was right it seems. You can't maintain standards if you spread yourself so thin and put your mug on TV. Michelin has been rumoured to want to take away his third star in the past. If they do so, then I think that's the end of him, if it isn't already. Once that third star has gone, his reputation as a top class chef has gone. His one key commodity that will continue to sell is his reputation as a chef. Once that reputation and exclusivity leaves him, then all he has left is his temper and philandering ways. No stagiere wants to work with him, especially when there are better restaurants and better chefs around who are in the restaurant regularly. Sure, two Michelin stars is good, but three is that much better. And since his restaurant is barely two now...

November 9, 2010

I think it may end up been the end of him and his empire. His father-in-law has left him, who by all accounts kept the business afloat. His proteges such as Hartnett, Sargeant, Atherton and Wareing have all deserted him. You need great chefs. His flagship restaurant is nothing like it was. Not even on the same planet. The public are sick of his foul-mouthed ways. The media have begun highlighting the "extra-curricular activities" with his mistress and the poor relationship with is wife and kids. He's offended pretty much everyone from here to Mars and back. He's missed charity events and from all accounts has lost his touch in the kitchen - and from what has been said hasn't stepped inside his restaurants for any great period of time for a very long time. The knives are out. And it's not just in the tabloids. It's worldwide in some serious papers. For example, over here he made The Australian - which is what The Times is to England - with a few comment pieces all in a negative light. You can search on Google for articles on him in the past month and they haven't been positive.

July 29, 2010

Scallops freshly grown on the lakes of Siberia.... Mmmm....

Not fresh don't use it. Plenty of other seafood around.

July 28, 2010

Lamb brains....

July 28, 2010

Ramsay, Ramsay, Ramsay... The nail in the coffin for GR@RHR?

July 25, 2010

Pretty much everything on the Rockpool Bar and Grill menu... :biggrin:

July 23, 2010

Macerate them in a sweetened Armagnac, Cognac or brandy. Or try the same with port, muscat or tokay.

Grill them in a pan with some butter and add brown sugar or vincotto. Or maybe honey.

July 19, 2010

Nice to hear comparisons. Until the Michelin guide heads down this way, we have to make our own assumptions what sort of level they would be at. Not to mention my own morbid curiosity...

July 19, 2010

How did they compare to other restaurants you have been to of a similar or better standard?

July 19, 2010

Was there a small crack/thin piece in the pastry you didn't see? Might have cooked quicker then the rest or didn't have the strength to hold the insides errrmmm... inside?

July 18, 2010

Could NOT live without it. I'm way too clumsy to be trying to trim produce with my chef's knife. I personally like having 10 fingers and opposable thumbs. They sorta come in handy....
Hulling, coring, cutting the ends off carrots, scallions, celery, getting the ribs out of bell peppers, all that kind of stuff. If I had better hand/eye coordination, maybe I would feel that way, but like I said, I'm sorta attached to my fingers.
4 knives for me...3&1/2" paring, 8" chef's, 10" bread and 6" boning/filet knife. I have others, but those are the ones I use. Chef's & paring daily, at least.

What they said.

July 14, 2010

Isn't half the fun translating some of these books? Makes me feel like I am in <insert country here>.

July 14, 2010

lol! This could turn into a living in Australia thread. Mostly it's not the things I can't get but the cost of the food I covet.
But stuff I miss includes year round limes, reduced fat Oreos (so shoot me - I like them better), Swiss Miss fake-hot-chocolate (gee I'm really sounding like a boor), Triscuits, Goldfish, whole wheat tortillas, decent decaf coffee except from the Victoria Market in Melbourne, those red tins of sweet paprika (and the yellow tins of hot paprika I've only found in Pennsylvania), decent Swiss cheese (but I have found goat cheese), Tilamook cheese in general but especially monty-jack, blue corn tortilla chips (oh how I miss those!), wild salmon, and decent tasting orange juice.
I'm sure I'll think of more.
eta: ok, the junk food doesn't count as ingredients, sorry.
Yeah, not an ingredient, but I am with you on triscuits at least (and I would add stoned wheat crackers and graham crackers)! Every once in a while I think I'd like to order some, but the prices drive it out of my mind. But I like the orange juice here (it beats the frozen concentrate I grew up on), and good cheese is more widely available than it was 15 years ago.
For blue corn tortillas/chips, check out the mexican ingredients in oz thread. Fireworks Foods carries them. And I'm not sure what kind of swiss you are after, but you might check out Fromart. And Heidi Gruyere is meant to be very good.
Now, can anyone tell me if it's possible to get sulguni cheese here? I know that it's being made in New Zealand, but I haven't come across it here. I would love to make a couple of recipes using it from Darra Goldstein's Georgian Feast.

Have you tried Simon Johnson?

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