Welcome to my blog! I trust you will enjoy fossicking through the recipes, news and restaurant updates…and take a look at the renovations diary on the 2 new Rockpool restaurants due to open in Sydney in early 2009. We will keep you up to speed on any progress and look forward to sharing it with you. Happy reading and happy cooking!

FINE WINING AND DINING STANDS UP TO DOWNTURN

Article by Huon Hooke - Good Living - The Sydney Morning Herald.
Tuesday, 10th June 2009

With it’s Art Deco glory and soaring atrium, Rockpool Bar & Grill is probably the grandest restaurant Sydney has ever seen.  It’s a steakhouse, writes Pat Nourse, but not as we know it.

Yes, it’s breathtaking.  Combining Citizen Kane-like scope with detail-work befitting Mad Men, it’s probably safe to say the new Rockpool Bar & Grill is the grandest restaurant in Sydney - and by extension the nation - has ever seen.  An edifice of polished granite and Hawkesbury sandstone, all terrazzo of floor and scagliola of column, Balmain architect Emil Sodersten’s 12-storey Deco dazzler was the tallest building the city had seen when it was completed in 1936.  It started life as the headquarters of the City Mutual Life Assurance Society.  The soaring atrium, with Rayner Hoff’s relief of Benzoni’s Flight from Pompeii set into the ceiling, was known as the Chamber of Assurance, and the name still fits.

Rockpool Bar & Grill does not aspire to challenge or provoke, but to please and assure: it’s a steakhouse.  But what a steakhouse.  The retro-corporate luxe look of the place, admirably executed by Bates Smart, doesn’t really place it high in the date-restaurant stakes, but it’s already a magnet for the great and good of the moneyed world.  Chef and co-owner Neil Perry is one of the trail-blazers of today’s Australian dining, but just to be clear, this isn’t a restaurant dedicated to advancing the cause of gastronomy.  Here they take the simple concept of grilling a piece of protein over a fire and burnish it with care and skill until it shines anew.  At the original Rockpool back on George Street they’re confiting suckling pigs and creating clouds of mandarin and poaching swordfish sous-vide with anchovy and jamon.  At the Bar & Grill, they’re shucking oysters, creaming silverbeet and charring meat.  They’re making drinks and grilling stuff which, at a bar and grill, seems fair enough.

To read the rest of this fabulous review please follow the link to the Gourmet Traveller website.

Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney's soaring atrium

Come in to Rockpool and support Nourish to Flourish.

From the 13th May, in support of producers affected by the February bushfires, Sydney restaurants are showing their support by promoting food and wine produced in the affected regions of Victoria.

Rockpool features a Nourish to Flourish dish on the Oyster Bar menu as well as a Sommelier Focus on our comprehensive wine list.

With all the exciting goings on at Rockpool, Spice Temple and Rockpool Bar &  Grill, Sydney and Melbourne, we’ve not really given Qantas any blog space of late.

Fear not, beautiful meals designed by Neil Perry and the Rockpool Consulting team are still flying Qantas First and Business Class and as Winter draws near we thought it high time we shared a recipe with you, a deliciously warming soup currently flying Ex Sydney and Melbourne.  When you eat this creamy, earthy chestnut soup think of crisp Winter days bathed in pale golden light - food for the soul.

Cream of Chestnut Soup with Thyme
 40g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 cup good quality Chardonnay
800g double peeled chestnuts *(see note at end of page)
4 medium Desiree potatoes, peeled and diced
2 litres fresh chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2/3 cup single (pouring) cream
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
Garlic croutons, to serve (recipe below)
Extra chopped fresh thyme leaves, to serve

In a large, heavy-based saucepan, over a low heat, melt the butter in the oil.  Add the garlic, onion, celery, thyme and salt and cook for 10 minutes until softened.  Increase heat, add wine and simmer for 1 minute.
Add chestnuts, potatoes, stock and bay leaves and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes until potatoes and chestnuts are very soft and start breaking up.
Remove bay leaves, add cream and puree contents of pot until very smooth.  If necessary, add more chicken stock to achieve desired consistency.
Add pepper, check seasoning and adjust as necessary.

Garlic Croutons
3 slices day old sourdough bread
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Trim crusts from sourdough and chop bread into 1cm cubes.  Scatter bread over baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, add garlic, season with sea salt and pepper then toss to combine.  Bake croutons at 200C, tossing occasionally, until crisp and golden; remove from oven and set aside to cool.

To Serve
Ladle piping hot chestnut soup into your favourite soup bowls.  To each bowl add a handful of golden garlic croutons and finish with a sprinkle of chopped fresh thyme leaves.

Chestnut Soup with Garlic Croutons and Thyme

David Lawler, our Head Sommelier at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne, is off to Las Vegas to advance the ranks of the Worlds Master Sommeliers.

The Court of Master Sommeliers was established in 1969 and its Master Sommelier Diploma is considered the highest level qualification available to the sommelier profession.  There are four stages to achieve this qualification; Introductory, Certified, Advanced and finally Masters.  With a 10% pass rate, there are currently on 171 Master Sommeliers world wide. 

In September last year, The Court of Master Sommeliers sent three Master Sommeliers to Australia to run the Introductory and Certified exams in Melbourne and Sydney; there was a lot of support and interest with more than 100 people signing up in each city.  During the three days they covered the world of wine very swiftly, introducing a newly deductive method of tasting, and some of the Courts accepted service standards…remembering, the Court is an examining body; so this was merely to show us what level of knowledge would be expected for us to achieve certification.

I was fortunate to Dux Melbourne, several of the top performers were offered the opportunity to sit the advanced level this year (there is often a waiting list).  I accepted a spot to sit in the October exam…in Las Vegas.  This strikes me as a little torturous; not only is it an intense 5 day exam; but I am in a city that will no doubt try to beckon me away from my focused vinous studies.

Lots of preparation is required; every spare moment of the day is spent reading, I have started several tasting groups to ‘relearn’ a tasting method that allows precisely 4 minutes and 10 seconds per wine!  I have also established communication with several Master Sommeliers in an attempt to glean any handy tips I can.

I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to eat in New York, San Fran and Napa…

David Lawler

Here at Rockpool we, alongside many other Sydney restaurants, are showing support to small businesses affected so greatly by the devastating Victorian bushfires. 

In addition to the Sommelier’s Focus on Victoria’s Yarra and High Country wines our bar menu features a nourish to flourish dish; Jamondul Serrano Ham with Pickled Walnuts, $24.  This dish has been created using produce from Victoria’s pristine High Country and Yarra Valley and by enjoying it you’ll be supporting Victoria’s bushfire affected small businesses.

Sommelier’s Focus

Nourish to Flourish

‘Sydney supports Victorian small businesses after the February bushfires.

Nourish your taste buds to help the small businesses of the Yarra and High Country flourish.’

From the 13^th of May, in support of those regions affected by the February bushfires, Sydney restaurants are showing their support by promoting food and wine from the affected regions in Victoria.

The Rockpool wine team has selected a number of great wines from the affected regions to showcase them on our Sommelier Focus page.

Sparkling                                                                                              120 ml

2004     Yarrabank Cuvée Pinot Noir, Chardonnay Sparkling Yarra Valley          Glass   18.00          Bottle   90.00

Made at Yering Station, this Sparkling wine is made in conjuction with the French Champagne house Devaux. The wine has great poise and balance, aged for 4 years on lees. It has an attractive yeasty nose with blossom, lime and almond. The palate is lively and focused, vibrant, floral and fine textured with a wealth of intensity.

White                                                                                                     150 ml

2007     Gembrook Hill Sauvignon Blanc                               Yarra Valley          Glass   17.00        Bottle   80.00

Winemakers Timo Mayer and Andrew Marks have chosen to make an elegant and textural style of Sauvignon Blanc by fermenting 50% of the wine in old French oak barrels. On the nose the wine is restrained with herbs and fresh grass, reminiscent of a French Sancerre. The palate has a wet stone minerality with prominent citrus characters and a long finish.

2008     Hoddles Creek Pinot Gris                                      Yarra Valley          Glass   13.00        Bottle   60.00

Wine maker Franco D’Anna allows only minimal intervention in the winery, letting nature do its best when making his wines. His Pinot Gris has prominent pear and spice aromas. The palate is clean and crisp with ripe pear and apple characters showing through, followed by a lifted mineral finish.

2004     Yarra Yarra Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon                     Yarra Valley          Glass   23.00        Bottle   110.00

Grown and made by the Maclean family this carefully oaked white Bordeaux blend displays a nose with light herbal fragrance, fresh lemon, gooseberry and melon with dusty vanilla oak. The palate is creamy and mouthfilling with lemon and melon fruit, a slight hebaceous character and tightly knit oak, finishing long and seamless.

2001     Tahbilk Marsanne                                                     Upper Goulburn  Glass   14.00        Bottle   65.00

From Central Victoria, Tahbilk has been producing Marsanne since 1927 and boasts some of the oldest Marsanne vines in the world. This unwooded style is aged, with intense aromas of lemon, peach and honeysuckle. On the palate, the wine has developed beautiful complexity with toast, honey and spice.

2007     Giant Steps ‘Sexton Vineyard’ Chardonnay                Yarra Valley          Glass   17.00        Bottle   80.00

Named after the first solo album of John Coltrane, Giant Steps was first released in 2001. Winemaker Steve Flamsteed is looking for distictive expression of single vineyard sites. The resulting wine is restrained and complex with lemon-citrus, melon and stonefruit characters. Its intensity and persistence is driven by cool conditions and flinty soil.

Yarra Valley and High Country, Victoria

All of these vineyards have been directly affected by the bushfires in some way with loss of tourism, vines and in some cases the winery itself. The 2009 vintage has also been dramatically affected by smoke and heat damage.

All of the featured wines, by-the-glass or bottle are from Victoria’s High Country or the Yarra Valley, and by enjoying them you’ll be supporting bush fire affected small businesses get back on their feet.

Red                                                                                                150 ml

2005     Labyrinth ‘Viggers Vineyard’ Pinot Noir                    Yarra Valley      Glass   19.00        Bottle   90.00

Owner and Winemaker Ariki Hill has the rare opportunity of making great Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley but also in California’s Santa Maria Valley. His Yarra Valley version displays a delicate perfume of raspberries, cherries and restrained cedar/vanilla oak. A palate of juicy red cherry and raspberry finishes with nuances of spice and cedar.

2004     Chrismont ‘La Zona’ Barbera                                    King Valley           Glass   12.00        Bottle   55.00

Winemaker Warren Proft specialises in Italian varietals utilizing sustainable practices. The La Zona Barbera is deep and rich with intense plum and blackberry aromas. A concentration of elegant spicy plum, chocolate, blackberries and toasty vanilla notes on the palate is matched with crisp acidity and soft tannins.

2003     Pizzini Nebbiolo                                                       King Valley           Glass   26.00        Bottle   125.00

Winemakers Alfred and Joel Pizzini have a passion for producing Italian Varietals. The 2003 Nebbiolo has a savoury aged bouquet with mellow leather and earth charaters. The palate is tight and firm with vigorous tannins great concentration of fruit including violets and dried rose petals, liquorice and spice, tar and tobacco.

2003     Yarra Yarra ‘Cabernets’ Cab Sauv, Merlot, Cab Franc                Yarra Valley    Glass        26.00    Bottle             125.00

Ian Maclean owner and winemaker at Yarra Yarra has been making the wine since the first vintage in 1983. You could say that he listens to the grapes and treats them gently. The wine is highly perfumed with violets and red fruit. Generous on the palate with fine grained tannins and a lingering, invigorating violet and spice finish.

2005     Yering Station Cabernet Sauvignon                           Yarra Valley          Glass   13.00        Bottle   60.00

From the site of the Yarra Valley’s first plantings, the 2005 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon diplays aromas of sweet blackcurrant, mulberry, chocolate, mocha and cedary oak. Medium to full bodied on the palate with sweet raspberry and violet undertones. A round and supple style with fine, ripe tannins. Well structured and classically elegant.

2006     Giaconda ‘Warner’ Shiraz                                          Beechworth          Glass   38.00        Bottle   185.00

From the foot of the Victorian Alps, Rick Kinzbrunner has made Giaconda one of Australia’s icon wineries. This vintage is Rhone-like on the nose with savoury charcuterie, graphite and brambles with real depth of aroma. The palate displays fresh spicy Shiraz fruit characters with underlying power and flavour, balanced firm and fine tannins.

Dessert                                                                                            120 ml

2006     Yering Station Late Harvest Riesling                         Yarra Valley          Glass   17.00        Bottle   50.00

The Yarra Valley Riesling grapes in this wine were hand picked late in the season. The berries were naturally sun concentrated. A fresh, light style with amazing balance of viscosity and acidity. Luscious honey and brioche with the freshness of nashi pear and lemon complemented by great natural acidity and minerality.

Fortified                                                                                          60 ml

Campbells ‘Liquid Gold’ Tokay                                            Rutherglen           Glass 18.00

From the Mucadelle grape, Campbells Tokay is made using a solera system. An intense, rich and luscious wine with hints of candied peel, cold tea, toffee, honey and citrus on the nose. The palate is intense with malt and toffee and great rancio characters. A wine of power with a luscious yet clean finish.

Excerpt from the Daily Telegraph on Sunday 10th May - article by Sharon Labi.

AT $89,510, a 1945 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti is Sydney’s most expensive bottle of wine.

And if you order the French burgundy at the city’s newest noshery, Rockpool Bar & Grill, they’ll even throw in a free feed.

The restaurant boasts Sydney’s top 10 most expensive wines and then some, drawn from the private collection of David Doyle, Neil Perry’s business partner in the new venture and the Melbourne restaurant of the same name.

Mr Doyle, a softly spoken American who has twice tasted the 1945 drop and described it as “beyond spectacular”, recommends it be ordered with the $39 free range chicken off the wood fired rotisserie with Tuscan bread salad.

Head sommelier Sophie Otton suggests the $45 wood fired grilled pigeon with roasted red peppers, grapes and radiccio salad.

Whatever the dish, they agree a wine of that complexity and subtlety needs plain food.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE

Romanee Conti, 1945 at Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney

Neil Perry on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald online today. 

What do you eat with a $89, 510 bottle of wine? Click through to take a peek. http://www.smh.com.au/

Also featuring is Simon Thomsen’s review of Sydney’s most beautiful dining room, Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald online

Simon Thomsen Review, SMH Good Living, 05 May 2009

Neil Perry creates a deeply pleasurable dining experience all our own.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.  This is Sydney’s most beautiful dining room.  A breathtaking, thrilling, dramatically gorgeous mix of art-deco panache and sleekly understated modernism with clever lighting, soaring three-storey high columns, shiny dark leather and sculptural towers of thousands of Riedel glasses.  They simply don’t make ‘em like this any more, especially in a city too eager to trash its heritage for a developer’s next shiny bauble.

Even in the open kitchen, the wood-fired grill has an ethereal shimmer as spotlights cut through the smoke.

Thankfully, Neil Perry’s multimillion dollar roll of the dining dice has the brains to match its beauty.  Rockpool Bar & Grill is the expression of a mature wisdom.  It’s about uncompromising excellence, wealth and discernment - perhaps a touch of braggadocio, too.  Money is not an issue.  Roast chook for two $78?  No worries.  This is a defiant stand against the new austerity drive.

It’s also a clever premise:  if you’re loaded enough to blow thousands of dollars on the classic labels on this stupendous 3500-bottle wine list (just 10 percent are under $100), then you don’t want it upstaged by fancy-pants fare.  But what do you eat with an $89,510, 1945 Romanee-Conti, allegedly the world’s greatest wine?  A rival business?

The Rockpool Bar & Grill concept has evolved in Melbourne over the past four years and, like most products, version two has the bugs ironed out.  It integrates Rockpool (fish), Perry’s misguided rebranding of his Rocks restaurant, while the bar and grill part tags it as a steakhouse, with 11 beef cuts as the headline act.  Yet seafood is often the show-stopper.

Perhaps the pony-tailed baby boomer, after three decades of high-pressure and high-wire cuisine, is taking stock.  This expansive 60-plus-dish menu is scattered with childhood reassurances.  Think creamed corn ($9), macaroni and cheese ($9-$11), mushy peas with slow-cooked egg ($9) and onion rings ($9).  The son of a butcher has returned to his roots and nostalgia tastes better than we remember.

Are the steaks any good?  Perry suggests sharing a few, from four producers, grass-to grain-fed, to taste the difference.  However, when priced between $39 and $110 each, that’s an expensive experiment.  All you get is meat, albeit deftly char-grilled, plus condiments.  They’re not always the softest cut but the depth of flavour from the on-site dry-ageing process is revealed in the Blackmore 220-gram wagyu skirt ($39) and Greenham’s grass-fed yearling 480-gram on-the-bone rib eye ($65).

The menu’s alternatives range from wood-grilled quail ($24) with smoky tomato and salty olives to a slightly stringy duck ragu on flabby, wide pappardelle ($19), annoyingly described as “noodles”.

Luminous gravlax-style dill-cured ocean trout ($19) with clove-scented red onion to layer on bruschetta yourself is as delightful as chilli, lemon and parsley marinated king prawns (3 for $30) with a sweetly smoky scent from the charcoal roast.

Even leatherjacket, a criminally underrated fish, is given a new eloquence when lightly battered and served on “crazy water” ($29), a light Neapolitan fisherman’s stew of tomato and garlic, infused with basil.  Tuna tartare with Moroccan eggplant, harissa and cumin mayonnaise ($29) is as smoky, complex and mysterious as Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.  My only disappointment was the black-lip abalone meuniere ($99).  It’s not bad, just insipid in comparison.

It’s surprising to see so many of the old Rockpool team here, including maitre d’ Tom Sykes.  They’re snappily dressed in black and white, with jackets and ties, yet seemingly more comfortable in these surrounds.

On my first dinner, desserts fail to excite.  Second time around, Catherine Adams belts a home run with an apple galette, brown-butter ice cream and candied hazelnuts ($18) that’s pure pleasure.  Black forest trifle ($20), inspired by The Fat Duck’s BFG, is a decadent climax that goes pretty close to causing one.

An artist’s rise is often aided by an indulgent patron and Neil Perry found one in the US multi-millionaire David Doyle, who underwrote this bold $35-million venture, which includes Spice Temple downstairs.  Doyle’s $9.5 million personal cellar underpins this as a world-class restaurant.  It’s not too elaborate, yet it’s deeply pleasurable, which is the point, after all.  And amazingly, it’s ours.

Rockpool Bar &  Grill
17/20
The summary Neil Perry shows the old chef still has a few tricks left with a superb, smoky steakhouse where excellent seafood is a bonus.
Value Reasonable, depending on your economic status, but not cheap.
Chefs Neil Perry and Khan Danis.
Owners Neil Perry, Trish Richards and David Doyle.
Service Sharp.
Food Steakhouse.
Wine A staggering array of costly, global heavy-hitters, spread accross various vintages, plus a strong US presence; 25 by the glass.
Vegetarians If you must.
Noise The electric hum of the power elite.
Wheelchair access Yes.
Prices Entrees $15-$30; mains $26-$110; desserts $6-$19; all cards.
Where 66 Hunter Street, city, ph 8078 1900.
When Lunch Mon-Fri, noon-3pm; Dinner Mon-Sat, 6-11pm.