MELBOURNE FOOD TRENDS 2012

Dear Readers,

Apologies for the absence. It has been an extremely busy end to the year with one too many projects and international travel adventures including a surprise visit back to Melbourne for another project launch. Another year of international adventures guaranteed. On the radar this year- Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Turkey and maybe New York. The new Food Designer site will be launching soon so stay tuned or subscribe to get all the latest news & happenings.

So to start the year afresh, here are my predictions of what you can expect to see in Melbourne.

1 | COFFEE CULT LOYALTY

Ultra snazzy pimped baristas and monstrous coffee machines may not be all that will keep Melbourne cafes afloat. Every corner is now laden with bean-coffee vanguards, imitators and replicators. So who survives? The key word here is ‘authenticity’; in product, in process and in people. Cafe gossip is rife and without doubt, time will reveal reputable cafes over the cons.

2 | SPARKLING FILTERS

London is now being swamped by sparkling water & distilled filter taps for major restaurants and cafes. Saving packaging, time and cost are the biggest factors that have turned owners against bottled water. Ladro one of the first to install these sparkling bubble filters taps.

3 | SLATE SLATE SLATE

Slate boards have shown their mark as uber environmental and uber stylish. Now, companies are expanding their designs and producing slick elegant cuts.

4 | AQUA MARINE GREEN

2011 was the year of yellow&black as key interior design colours. Aquamarine green the new 2012 colour design prediction that is already popping up around town.

5 | RESTAURANT & POP UP GARDENS

It ain’t just the burbs that are embracing additional edible greenery in their gardens. Rooftop gardens, courtyard shrubbery all the rage in and around Melbourne CBD. Rooftop Honey bees prove that anything is doable.

6 | MICRO-GREENARY

For those that have already started cultivating their own backyards, a few international companies have just made growing shrubs, herbs and pulses all the more visually stimulating; micro-green DIY kits.

7 | ECOTARIAN LIVING

Vegetarian cookbooks are set to be the biggest seller this year. Mounting food prices and varying diets have amalgamated one point of view; veggies are best. The new vague of consumption is 90% veg 10% good quality meat equating to ecotarian living.

8 | ICED LATTE’S & ICE POUROVERS

Iced lattes in, ice coffees out. Glass of ice, shot of sublime espresso and refreshingly cold milk splashed on top. All too easy to drink, Iced lattes are popping up and around Melbourne cafes like firecrackers (literally). These ones featured by Liar Liar, The Borough & Monsieur Truffe. Pourovers have lost their pizzazz but over expect to see more and more baristas serving them over ice to make them a little more summer-enticing

9 | CHOCARONS

The diamonds of pastry, macarons were accidently thrown into melted chocolate in Paris and nicknamed ‘chocorons’ by Sadaharu Aoki. Australia’s Adriano Zumbo is leading the way with his new collection of hand-dipped macarons here in Oz.

10 | DE-MYSTEFYING MUSHROOMS

Given the recent unfortunate wild mushroom poisonings, it seems that more and more chefs are taking notice of the risk involved in picking wild produce. Rene Redzepi (Noma) & Ben Shewry (Attica) are world class chefs not only for their ability to plate phenomenal food but their ability to forage. Melbourne is set for even more varieties of wild mushrooms this year with native porcinis, burch boletes and fairy rings popping up along with the usual array of pine and slippery jack mushrooms. Leave picking to the experts and hunt them down at your local markets.

11 | INKER PORCELAIN

Differentiation is what every café owner seeks. This year will see an influx of colour injected porcelain by Inker. Sensory’s onto it and so are a handful of others. baby blue, jet black and pine green my colours of choice.

12 | FINE DINING LIQUIDATION

Restaurants are set for another major battle with consumers showing no remorse for average fine dining restaurants. Gordon Ramsey was prime example in 2011 after leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of Maze suppliers, declaring bankruptcy and leaving Crown yet another vacant space to fill.
The lesson goes to any future restaraunteur; pick your market wisely, look at viability and overheads and given the uncertain times ahead, start small then grow.

 

13 | FROZEN YOGHURT

We all love Blake Lively from Gosspi Girl whom, as a Season 1 school girl, spent afternoons with B at Pinkberry indulging in fat-free frozen yoghurt. So what’s so special about it? Aside from the calorie-less indulgence, Companies like SNOG in London have whipped together a selection of delicious flavours with fruity, chocolatey toppings. Funky, retro and chic, Port Melbourne, Chadstone, Hawthorn & Malvern are the first franchise store spottings around.

FRENCH LAUNDRY POP-UP

The French Laundry at Harrods 

The dictionary defines ‘pop’ as a sudden, sharp and explosive action. Put that in front of the word ‘restaurant’ and you have the most popular dining concept since gastro-pubs. Yet, in all of its spontaneous short-lived nature, London saw one of the most extraordinary and ambitious pop-ups come alive last month; The French Laundry at Harrods. Imagine recreating an entire Michelin-starred dining experience and exporting it across the Atlantic ocean into the world’s most recognized department store, Harrods.

The pop-up nestled into the pre-existing Georgian restaurant with a Moet & Chandon grassed champagne bar leading guests into the infamous French Laundry blue door and through to the linen-clad dining room. No expense spared, the identical interior housed 70 covers and replicated even the more generalist features including Keller’s designer dinnerware range and FL pegs.

Thomas Keller’s ebullience put simply, was infectious to his dedicated Kitchen & FOH team of staff during the 10 days. His overall philosophy beyond finesse and refinement is to “acknowledge there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it”. However, when acknowledged, “the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear; TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY”.

And so they did, to the lucky few who managed to score a prized table and indulge in the degustation that combined both French Laundry classics with symbolic dishes that encapsulated both English and American cuisine. The degustation itself;

Cornette of salmon tartare, red onion crème fraiche in a black sesame tuile accompanied by warm Gruyere cheese goujons.

Canapes were imaginative in their simplicity; BLT bacon lettuce and truffle. Sous vide pork belly, rugola puree and Perigord truffle shaving. Tea & Biscuits an inviting English culinary parody of earl grey jelly and fois gras mousse, crab beignet with a dollop of American ranch dressing and finally a freeze-dried FL cherry tomato served with basil snow and olive oil jam. Now for the actual 9 courses;

 

1

The degustation itself was nothing short of a spectacular culinary tour of America minus the miles. Starting with French Laundry’s infamous ‘Oysters and Pearls’ a scuba diving sabayon of tapioca, white sturgeon caviar and poached Maldon oysters.

2

A salad of Hawaiian hearts and peach palms an ode to the palm tree; coconut & Medjool date bavarois, French laundry heirloom carrots and embryonic red radishes with spots of Madras curry; An enticing play on your stock-standard curry.

3

A large cube of sturgeon, swamped by a creamy chowder mousseline masking applewood smoked lardons and razor clams, adorned the chowder. The vibrant yellow corn dust added a balanced sweetness to the revamped classic.

4

FL garden beets & leeks harmoniously accompanied first-class Fed-Ex shipped lobsters from Maine. Beet essence and potato glass embellished the butter poached tail and claws.

5

Poulard en Brioche, wedged in between freshly baked brioche, moulard duck breast, mousse with lavish shavings of fois gras au torchon. The dish would not be complete without the harmonious addition of apple as well as the more extravagant pairing of truffle. Keller does this in an innovative addition of compressed green apple Perigord black truffle coulis.

6

The piece de resistance is Prime Midwestern calotte de boeuf accompanied by braised brisket, beef tongue under a sauce bordelaise and delicately complimented by a tartare of black trumpet mushrooms and musquee de Provence pumpkin puree. Put simply, meat and two veg at its best.

7

Monte Cristo sandwhich a fried ham and cheese descendent, is vamped up with iberico ham, French laundry garden figs and Pleasant Ridge cheese.

8

A palate cleansing transition to American literature, the huckleberry sorbet with huckleberry muffins and lemon verbena sorbet could easily be deemed a play on the classic novel Huckleberry Finn.

9

To finish off the culinary adventure, nothing could top the night off than a patriotic American campfire dessert of S’Mores. Claire Clark’s creation of caramel and peanut brittle pave, popcorn sherbet, graham cracker crumble and toasted Tahitian marshmallow utterly sublime.

Dinner was complete with mignardises, a tribute to a night at the movies, American style. Featured were Coca cola fruit de gelée, potato crisps, junior mint, root beer truffle and finally a raisonette to end the popping night.

That’s it. French Laundry Pop-Up. You can all ask, what for? To pop, is not just to appear, but to leave a lasting impression on all those that dined and were apart of the project. They leave behind an immutable fact; that they were the most ambitious and exclusive dining experience London ever witnessed.

POP-FACTOR   9/10

WOW FACTOR

First-class Fed-Ex packed live lobsters from Maine

FEATURES

Innovative Keller designed dinnerware and crockery, personal kitchen tours & FL take-

home angel cake

FOH AWARD

Michel Couvreux Head Sommelier at Per Se. Quoted as “One of the great Sommeliers 

in America” by New York Magazine in 2006, the intricate operations of sourcing wines

from the Harrods vault was mastery in itself. He agreed that Henschke Hill of Grace

was better than any other Australian Wine. He gets my tick of approval as one of the

most knowledgeable and charismatic sommeliers in the Michelin dining realm.

IN 3 WORDS  Snap, Crackle & Pop

THE CRITICS SAID

Richard Vines  Bloomberg

Fay Maschler The Evening Standard 

www.frenchlaundry.harrods.com  

POPPING ROGANIC

The London Pop-Up Here To Stay

Nestled off trendy Marylebone High St, Roganic restamps trendy pop-up restaurants as here to stay… at least for another 2 years. It is the creative concept of ex-L’Enclume chef Simon Rogan, head cheffed by Ben Spalding.

The conservative interior of ordinary brown panel chairs and cream walls bipolars the food served at the highest degree. To start with a colourful bang to the degustation, Squidink crisps with an avocado mousseline, linseed & flower petals are served along with the most mouth-watering bread basket ever eaten ( Noma, Louis XV & Quay don’t even come close).

Perhaps, I will be bold enough and say, the breadbasket was THE highlight of the lunch. Not because the other dishes weren’t impressive, but because such a simple and humble side accompaniment was executed to utter over-perfection. The selection included a steaming hot plain  white role, pumpernickel, Scottish soda-bread sweetened with treacle and a rye crisp. Our table rock acted not only as our centre-piece but donned a generous whip of churned butter. Sublime.

Moving on from the ‘simple pleasures’, the first course of wild roasted pom-pom was an eye-opening dish that somewhat shared similarities with offal believe-it-or not. Its meatiness was cut through elegantly with a raspberry vinaigrette.

Next up was wild Balmore Estate deer with Congo 70% chocolate shavings, parsnip puree, crisps & goujons along with silverbeet and mustard cress leaves for a complimentary digestive dish addition.

Unfortunately, dessert was consumed before snapping. The spiced brioche bread was served with smoked clotted cream, salted almonds and orange buckthorn berry curd. Douglas Fur Pine milkshake followed suite and served as an eye-opening transitory palate cleanser triggering nostalgic Christmas sensory memories. Finally, miniature rosehip Victoria sponges dressed with popping candy rosehip cream were an eloquently English way of ending the degustation with a ‘pop’.

POP-FACTOR   8/10

WOW FACTOR  +40 native leaves featured on the menu

FEATURES bold contemporary and originally presented dishes

FOH AWARD  Sandia Chang presenting our first course of pompom and a Pop-Up restaurant French Laundry Expat

IN 3 WORDS  Organically Fresh English

THE CRITICS SAID

The Telegraph

Roganic 

www.roganic.co.uk

19 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DH

Contact: 020 7486 0380

FAT DUCK SERVICE

Simon King on Running an Internationally Acclaimed Brand

It takes two to tango n’est ce pas? A brilliant restaurant nor a memorable dining experience is ever complete without excellent service. The question that any blogger or food critic needs to dabble with, is what defines ‘excellent’ service and what is the benchmark of hospitable love required to be the very best restaurant in the world?

Simon King, Operations Manager from The Fat Duck & Dinner by Heston Blumenthal can answer that:

Hospitality Experience The Ritz, Gordon Ramsey London

Evolving Service Over the last 2 years, FOH has intensified dramatically. The depth of knowledge, level of detail and higher service intensity have evolved at The Fat Duck

Exemplarily Service One that is non-intrusive served by captains with a generally relaxed attitude. It is all about tailoring service to meet customer needs and not only matching but exceeding expectations

FOH Rules Consistency, absolutely crucial. That and also to be passionate and have fun in being apart of delivering once-in-a lifetime dining experience

FOH Memorable Moments Given the intensity and experiential dining experience at The Fat Duck, we have had at least half a dozen guests cry over dishes like ‘Sound of The Sea’.

UK NATIONAL RESTAURANT AWARDS 2011

TOP 100 RESTAURANTS

The Annual UK National Restaurant Awards Ceremony 2011 was hosted last month by UK Restaurant Magazine at the glitzy Connaught Rooms. Put sweetly, la crème de la crème of the hospitality industry were all there. A few worthy mentions; Marcus Wareing, Claude Bosi, US Modernist Cuisine Cookbook Head Chef  Maxime Bilet, UK San Pellegrino Director & Bloomberg Food Critic Richard Vines.

The UK Slow Food Alliance kicked off the soiree with an educational mission to help re-educate UK chefs about the ‘44 native forgotten food list’. The night was accompanied by a humble 3-course dinner matched with Estrella Damm beer, crafted by none other than Ferran Adria himself.

The Top 100 countdown commenced and ran through some well-known London food landmarks including Scotts, The Ivy, L’Atelier, Koya & Nobu. The Full List can be found here. I knuckled down the list to the few must visits if ever in London. Here they are:

25 Polpo, Soho (consider it your authentic Italian staple, well priced)

20 Arbutus, London

18 Hawksmoor Steaks ( Will Beckett shows diners the meaning of excellent steak)

16 Roganic, ( the 2 year pop-up with a focus on native ingredients )

15 Chez Bruce  ( simple classic French executed to perfection)

13 St John London (Nose to tail eating an absolute piggish must)

12 Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (Hotel Restaurant of the Year)

10 Bar Boulud

9 Sat Bains (2 Michelin focusing on 3 T’s: Taste, Temp. & Texture )

8 L’Enclume (Simon Rogan, Chef of the Year serving boundary-pushing dishes )

7 The Square

6 Hibiscus (Claude Bosi continuing to pave his own individualist culinary style)

5 The Sportsman  (Gastro Pub of the Year that churn their own butter & bake egg loaf)

4 The Fat Duck (Gastronomical creativity at its finest)

3 Dinner by Heston (must visit for icecream trolley alone)

2 Pollen St Social (Buzzing central London den of exemplarily contemporary dishes)

1 The Ledbury (Aussie Brett Graham shows London who’ number #1 for yet another year)

For more info about the awards, visit

National Restaurant Awards

www.nationalrestaurantawards.co.uk/

9 GOLDEN RESTAURANT RULES

RULES TO A SUCCESSFUL HOSPITALITY BUSINESS

This is more of a memorable post of some golden rules from restauranteur & hospitality investor Peter Coronica on how to run a successful restaurant. A few years ago, The rules were presented by Peter, most noteable for his success at Richmond HIll Cafe & Larder, at an Innovation forum at The University of Melbourne. I only found them scribbled in a personal diary last week. So here they are with my notes in brackets!

1. Work Backwards (End goal in mind)

2. Define your market (+45 most lucrative)

3. Be objective (do what your market wants)

4. Exceed expectations (over deliver on service & food)

5. Consistency (McDonalds Golden Rule)

6. Uniqueness in concept (don’t imitate, innovate)

7. Knowledge (in setting up & acquisition)

8. People (90% is labour)

9. Longevity (train & retain)

   Please do share your thoughts on other golden rules that spring to mind!

LONDON SUNDAY MARKETS

Marylebone Farmers Markets

 

I made the visitor mistake of strolling down to the Borough Markets on a Saturday. In a nutshell, it was a pesticide manifestation of tourists. The queue for Monmouth coffee ran 80 metres around the corner and the stalls themselves were impossible to maneuver through given the sheer density of happy-snappy bus-loads.

This is one reason why I treasure and value the proximity and the authenticity of the Marylebone Sunday Farmers Market. Locals are there to buy the freshest of the freshest produce and finish shopping with a coffee along Marylebone High St.

SKETCH LONDON

DRINK DINE OR DELIGHT IN AFTERNOON TEA

www.sketch.uk.com

9 Conduit St, London  W1S 2XG

When I was an adolescent teen-bopper on holidays with my dear mother in London, I had escaped out of the hotel one night and found myself in a club with some elitist French poodles chasing Paris Hilton down. NO clue where I was but I remember vividly the interior of the club. It was intoxicatingly beautiful, each room with its own charm and modern design.

I was astounded to stumble into the club yet again only a couple weeks ago, this time minus the poodles and not in pursuit of Paris Hilton. The name of the enchanting bar, restaurant, hotel, lounge & members bar is SKETCH. To say that it has become a favourite hangout is an understatement.

Not only can you lavish yourself with cocktails and apres drinnks, but dine and treat yourself to afternoon tea here. The hot chocolate made from Belgium chocolate, an extensive selection of cakes, tarts and macarons for any 3pm sweet tooth and the classic finger sandwiches and scones are all notable classics to sample. The banana & lime macaron (£1,50), chestnut mousse gateau (£5,50) with poached quince and coconut baba (£5,50) my favourites.

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY LONDON

Chelsea Bloxsome

One of London’s rising food photographers, Chelsea Bloxsome is a prodigy in her ability to capture beautiful, contemporary and innovative creations.

Some of her works in unison with a variety of food stylists and designers are exemplary in their composition, lighting and detail. Finesse is required for macro-photography and below, you can judge why only a handful of photographers venture into snapping up shots such as these.

UK PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

 Seriously Sirieix Service

Michelin stars aren’t just about the extravagant settings and extensive degustations. Front of house is equally important in delivering a unique dining experience not just food on a plate. The man that understands it all and campaigns for excellence in all FOH service is Fred Sirieix. Serious in all of his ambitions to continue to drive change in the industry, he is a key ambassador for one of London’s most popular destination restaurants, Galvin at Windows.