Welcome to the Neil Perry and Rockpool blog! Enjoy fossicking through recipes, news, restaurant updates and random stories on all that we do and love. The 4 restaurants in Australia are roaring along and we are now looking forward to a couple of openings in LA, the city of angels, in late 2010. In the meantime…have fun with this and let us know if there is anything further you’d like to hear about. Happy reading till then.
Cheers,
Neil
We have a beautiful new range of teas at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne, Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney, Rockpool in The Rocks and Spice Temple – each restaurant with their own selections. Following is the selection on offer at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne.
After water, Tea is the most consumed beverage on the planet…clearly an important beverage worth of as much consideration as the finest of fine wines.
It is curious that such ‘staples’ can often be overlooked in restaurants. In searching for a tea that has all the delicate detail and unique expressions of fine wine we have found Jing Tea.
Jing sources its exceptional teas from the most prestigious tea growing regions in the world; China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Sri Lanka.
We have selected several teas in the range that we feel offer a broad range of flavours and textures to suit various palates, occasions and dishes.
We have chosen three Black Teas. Assam is the world’s largest tea growing region and is located in the North of India. The Camellia Sinensis Assamica bush yields a robust, malty flavoured, and honey scented tea known as Assam Breakfast
From the Yunnan province in Southern China, comes Yunnan Gold, striking a balance of power and delicacy this tea shows a complex range of brown spices; cinnamon, nutmeg and clove all given elegance by highlights of ginger and liquorice. Earl Grey, Jing source the finest Ceylon tea, season with Bergamot and some Cornflowers to create a richly flavoured, highly fragrant, visually appealing tea that is well suited to the addition of milk.
The Green teas from Jing encapsulate the freshness of the mountains on which they are grown. Dragon Well is one of the most famous teas in China, this one comes from Cedar Hill in the Zhejain Province and is delicate and bright with hints of stone fruit layered with soft floral and earthy tones. Coming from the Jiande area of the same province is Jade Sword, this is as bright and lively as the Dragon Well, but with more earthy, mineral flavours taking centre stage and the delicate floral notes providing a supporting role.
Silver Needle White Tea, is harvested from the first spring buds in the Fuding province. This has gentle honeydew melon sweetness with a delicately astringent cleansing texture, this tea suits a number of our more delicate dishes.
Iron Buddha Oolong Tea is a truly engaging tea that shows the freshness of a Green tea, with the detailed complexity of black tea. This is a journey of a drink with enough volume of flavour and layers of texture to match any Grand Cru glass of wine.
Much work goes into the production of these teas, we aim to protect this work, preserve and heighten your experience. We use specific tea pots designed to hold the perfect amount of water, and highlight the visual appeal of these infusions. We make sure that your Tea is served at the right temperature, poured and steeped at your table so the extraction can be to your liking (although 3-5 minutes is recommended depending on the Tea).
It’s true that many of us have been seduced by coffee, but should you crave a warming drink to match you mood, or food during or after a meal; the satisfaction of the ritual of these leaves will be intensely rewarding.
Coming soon to the ABC…
POH’S KITCHEN
Poh Ling Yeow secured her own cooking show on the ABC after her hugely successful run on Masterchef.
Production of the new series Poh’s Kitchen started in November 2009 in her home town of Adelaide. The year-long series will see her travelling across the nation trying new recipes. Neil will join her on her adventures in Episode 4.
ABC from Feb 1, 2010
Last week, Phil Wood, Executive Chef of Rockpool and I were in LA to do a lunch for Qantas and NSW Tourism. We were lucky enough to be helped by Rory Hermann and his amazing team at Bouchon Bistro, but more about that in a later blog. This is all about the beautiful food we ate at Thomas Keller’s brand new Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills, where Rory is Executive Chef.
This is a stunning, classic looking restaurant that has a wonderful feel about it when sitting there and enjoying a meal. The detail and well crafted finishes make this a special place. Add to that the buzz of lots of people enjoying the ambience, food, wine and service and this really is a great experience.
The restaurant menu features classic after classic, that Thomas and Rorys’ team have cooked with such passion and craft that it transcends your expectations of a bistro or brassiere. It is opulent and sophisticated, and as usual, everything you would expect from a Thomas Keller restaurant. The guys here are doing approachable food amazingly well. This is the type of food that you could eat every day and keep coming back for more.
We started with a wonderfully fresh grand platter of seafood, moved on to a generous plate of charcuterie, a blend of house made and best hams in the world, a lush salmon rillette, a light and delicious white bean puree, some gorgeous foie gras, the texture that only Thomas seems to get with pistachio cream, followed by roast figs, sunchokes and blood orange, then a crisp skin snapper cooked to perfection, and to finish, a pave of lam leg with roasted vegetables and panisse. Well we thought we were finished, then Scott the pastry chef spoiled us further with a number of incredibly textured and flavoured sweet treats. Among them, crème caramel, pot a crèmes, chocolate slice, lemon tart, doughnuts and chocolate bouchons. A truly wonderful and indulgent meal – completely looked after by great friends.
The next day, we returned for a quick lunch before setting off for a function I needed to speak at in Newport…a bowl of mussels with saffron and chips and one of the specialties, Roast chicken. As expected, it was yummy and once again displayed the quality at work in the kitchen.
Come and join our team!
Are you passionate about what you do? Are you looking for that perfect job that will offer you a great working environment and the opportunity to learn and grow in your career?
Rockpool, Neil Perry’s flagship fine dining restaurant, is seeking experienced floor staff and staff with superior wine knowledge to join their exceptional team. We have numerous positions available including Senior Floor Waiters, Wine Waiters, Cashiers and Bar Staff, so if you are looking for the perfect opportunity to provide fantastic service within an amazing environment … apply NOW!
The General Manager is seeking experienced staff who have:
If you feel that you would be right for one of these positions please apply today. We are looking for Staff who have passion for what they do and who want to be part of a successful team. Full-time positions available, all applicants must be available Tuesday to Saturday. Only experienced staff will be considered for these roles.
Please email your application to Penny – penny@rockpool.com or fax us your cover letter and resume to 02 9252 2421.
Only successful applicants will be contacted.
Hirafu and Hanazono are two of the best places to ski on earth. They are on the Island of Hokkaido. The winds blow off Siberia over the sea and dump crisp dry snow on the island almost nightly. The view from the plane landing on snow-covered Sapporo was spectacular. I had never seen blue ocean giving way to white snow and a city underneath before.
We were so lucky to find Suiboku to stay in – a marvellous modern and comfortable block of luxury apartments in Hirafu. They were so comfortable that we never wanted to leave; lucky the snow was so good it lured us out daily. The town is well serviced by bars and restaurants and the food is fantastic but more about that in a restaurant blog I will post later.
More on the snow though… it is so dry you can’t even make snowballs and we were skiing in fresh powder on groomed runs and off piste tree runs most days. The kids loved the ski school and sledding every afternoon.
The onsen culture is well and truly entrenched in the area and in Suiboku, we were lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful private onsen in our apartment; the whole family could relax in it each evening as we looked out over spectacular Mt Yotie, the volcano. Of course, there are lots of onsens in the village and around the local towns as well. We had such a great time the whole family is heading back next January.
An insight into part of the Qantas menu planning process by Aimee Bower, Rockpool Consulting’s Menu Planning Assistant.
An astonishing amount of co-ordination happens behind the scenes of putting a meal on a plane. A major focus of Rockpool is creating food that will be fresh, extraordinary and flavourful whilst holding up to all the necessary steps for food on International First and Business Class flights. It’s a lengthy process of research, inspiration, planning, testing, sourcing, creating, apportioning and flying the many hundreds of superb dishes, which land on plates of salivating passengers, miles high around the globe.
For Rockpool’s Kate Barker, much of this consistently innovative task sits on the weight of her shoulders, with the help of a remarkable collaboration between teams at Rockpool and Qantas.
This summer our test kitchen is heating up, as we are in the exciting and delicious recipe testing phase! Kate, with the help of a number of Rockpool and Qantas chefs and the discerning and thoughtful palate of Neil, are creating and baking to find what will taste best and fly freshest for the next round of in-flight menus that are underway.
Here we are exploring numerous different poultry and seafood dishes. A sweet corn and Barrossa Valley chicken chowder, Pan fried Suzuki Mulloway fillets, served with freshly steamed asparagus and a crushed Kipfler potato salad. Finished with a disc of olive butter that melts over the fillet, infusing a delicious salty olive flavour.
Seared sea bass, lemon thyme butter, roast salsify and steamed spinach and a refreshing Asian inspired salad of rare southern Bluefin tuna with its exquisite taste and rich texture. Tuna slices are layered over tatsoi leaves, micro herbs, cucumber, daikon radish and edamame soy beans and finished with a sashimi style soy and rice vinegar based dressing.
Much to our delight the presentation of this round of tested dishes was a roaring success, with a few tweaks here and there to the recipes and accompaniments. We can’t wait to get these exciting new features onto the menus and off the ground.
Part of our job with Qantas sees us look at lots of different manufactured products. Some good, some not so good and every now and again a real star!
We generally get the team at Rockpool and Kate’s fine palate together to assess these things. Just recently we had a look at a range of readymade curry sauces by Eurng Luang out of Thailand – they exceeded expectations by some way. It was amazing to see a shelf stable curry sauce display all the character of a fresh made sauce. We tasted 7 varieties including; Green curry, Red Curry , Panaeng Curry , Chu-Chee Curry , Massaman Curry , Yellow Curry Thai Style , Honey Chilli Sauce.
I made the comment that there are many Thai restaurants in Sydney not serving such delicious curries. I’m sure we will be using them in some way this year. Hopefully we will find some more products as good as this one.
Lotus Bar and Bistro in Potts Point is a really great neighbourhood restaurant and bar. Like all of the Merivale group of restaurants it is contemporary, stylish and really comfortable. It is also home to Lotus Bar where some of the very best drinks in town are being mixed by drinks doctor Petr Dvoracek in a groovy, sexy space out the back, really cool how you walk through the restaurant and find the hidden bar, very New York.
Dan Hong is also out the back rattling the pans in fine fashion. The menu’s taste and feel reflects his work history, his travels and his rich family background. Dan is a young man going places and I can’t help but feel, that when more of his Vietnamese heritage creeps into his food at a heightened level, Sydney had better watch out!
The tuna with wasabi, the spanner crab, dashi custard, corn puree and crab consommé were delicious. The fish was cooked to perfection with a light ginger and shallot sauce just thickened with Xanthan gum (sorry forgot to take a photo, too busy eating) and the Duck flavours were balanced wonderfully.
A young man cooking modern, well-balanced food at good prices in lovely surroundings, what more could you want? Well, I bet one day Dan would really love a brigade of 14 or 15 cooks behind him so he can really let loose!
A couple of Sundays ago we did a fund raiser for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
It was great fun – Crabfest, a crab eating comp. Right up my alley as I love those little Muddies like no other.
It was one of the most fun ways to raise money and most importantly I won!!! Which just goes to show you can back an Aussie over 2 Frenchies and old Italian any day. Lots of love Armando, Guillaume, Manuel, and Peter Evans - don’t cry there is always next year!
Thank you to all the people that came along and gave generously.
