All posts by adamhanley

Sepia Restaurant is moving to Melbourne

One of our favorite Sydney restaurants is moving to Melbourne.

Sepia Restaurant in Sussex Street has been at the top of the Sydney food scene for the past eight years.

Good Food reports today that Chef Martin Benn and Front of House manager Vicki Wild will be teaming up with Chris Lucas in Melbourne early next year.

Sepia has been awarded the coveted Restaurant of the Year award, four times.

There have been many great items on the Sepia menu over the years, none better than Forest Floor (pictured).

This dish was first introduced the year after the restaurant opened and has been a staple on the menu ever since.  Some readers will remember the dish from when Benn appeared on Masterchef in season eight.

2016 Young Chef of the Year

Mitch Lienhard has been named the 2016 S.Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year at a gala event in Milan.

The San Francisco-based chef’s signature dish, “roasted duck with spiced orange and yam”, beat out 20 finalists from across the globe as the best Young Chef in the world.

“It’s really exciting,” Lienhard said, commenting on his big win. “I feel like I’ve prepared for this moment, but I don’t feel like I’ve prepared for this moment. I’m ecstatic.”

His winning dish was a reminder of his home state of Michigan, with aromas of burning leaves and maple.

More information at Goodfood.com.au  Photo: World’s 50 Best

S’AGE Bistronomy

We are always looking for inspiration and new menus ideas.  This of course leads to the “occupational hazard” of eating at fine restaurants.

This Friday, we are visiting a new fine dining restaurant in Crows Nest.

S’age Dining opened in July for dinner and will start opening for lunch later this month.

By the look of the images on their website (sage-dining.com), the food looks great.

But as they say on Masterchef, it’s really all about the taste.   Let’s see, and taste on Friday

 

SAGE dining crop

Lamington Milkshake

This week we were asked to create Lamington Milkshakes for a chocolate bar launch.

Coconut milk, chocolate sauce and strawberry topped with Lamington. YUM…

Click on the image below for a close up view.

If you have something in mind for a special event, let us know and we will come up with something for you.

Strawberry milkshake with lamington topping

Heston’s Back

It was great to see Heston back in Australia for the Masterchef Finale.

And what a Dish.

Botrytis Cinerea

 

Botrytis Cinerea

Both Billy & Georgia made fantastic efforts to recreate Heston’s masterpiece.

Congratulations to Billy on becoming the Masterchef champion for 2015.

For more information on Heston’s visit to Avocado Group visit our recent post Heston Blumenthal.

Feedback

We are always looking to improve our catering service.  An important aspect of this is to gain feedback from our clients on our performance at each event.

Today we have uploaded our feedback form so clients can now provide feedback online.

Feedback for here

Heston Blumenthal

It is great to see Heston Blumenthal back in Sydney.  Heston is again appearing on Masterchef as a guest judge.

In March 2011, Heston Blumenthal, the UK’s culinary alchemist and owner/chef of the three Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck in Berkshire, UK, took a select group of food enthusiasts on an intimate, interactive taste journey at his spectacular ‘Evolution of Taste’ lunch event. The event was hosted and catered for by Avocado Group at Sydney’s exclusive Tattersall’s Club.

The super chef, who regaled the audience with humorous anecdotes about his life and multimedia presentations of his extraordinary creations, was a huge hit – as was the stunning three-course menu designed by Avocado Group’s Executive Chef.

From Tattersall’s elegant Chelmsford Room, Heston got his guests to experience his multisensory approach to food with an ‘at–table’ experiment that aptly demonstrated the essence of flavour, (created by the senses of taste and aroma combined). Guests were invited to pinch their noses and begin eating an olive – allowing them to experience the taste of the olive alone. When they released their noses whilst still eating the olive, the full flavour was released, giving them an important insight into how the senses are engaged when eating.

This multisensory perception was further explored with a presentation on one of his latest innovations, ‘Sounds of the Sea’. This novelty treats diners at The Fat Duck to an exquisitely designed seafood dish accompanied by a seaside soundscape from a shell-clad ipod and delivered to their table complete with headphones, to enhance the flavours of the dish whilst eating.

Heston devised ‘Sounds of the Sea’ after collaborating with Oxford University Professor Charles Spence, on an experiment into how sound influences the eating experience. When tested, people who listened to seaside sounds whilst eating seafood said that the flavour of the food was greatly improved. Interestingly, the sea sounds also changed their perception of how salty the seafood was; participants even claimed they tasted more salt when the sounds were played to them. According to Heston, this is due to the sense memories each of us has attached to familiar seaside sounds.

Heston’s meticulous attention to detail, famed love of historical British cooking and theatrical presentation of his food were demonstrated when he talked through his interpretation of the age-old recipe for Mock Turtle Soup, immortalised by Lewis Carol’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Taking days to complete, it involves creating a complicated cold reduction of the consommé, (which forms the basis of the soup) to preserve the full flavour, and culminates with an elaborate ‘Alice in Wonderland’ style presentation of the dish. It is served with a freeze-dried, gold-leafed, consommé watch fob (resembling the Mad Hatter’s in the story), in a bone china cup. The fob is then diluted by the diner with hot water from a bone china teapot, and the resulting gold-flecked, flavoursome soup base is poured over a Mock Turtle egg, made from turnip mousse with swede purée, and little enochi mushrooms (to signify the Caterpillar’s toadstool!).

Being the chef tasked with creating the menu for Heston’s event could be a daunting challenge; but Avocado Group’s Executive Chef lived up to the challenge.

The event was a sell-out success and has gained many positive comments from the guests.