Just outside the ski town of Annupuri is the Rakuichi Soba restaurant. This quaint chalet is home to a fantastic noodle experience. You enter and remove your shoes  and don slippers before entering the dining room and sitting at the counter with the menu in Japanese cut into a timber plank. With us speaking no Japanese and them having very little English it is a challenge, but a fun one that ends with you having an amazing meal, worth the effort I would say.

The charming and gracious Midori Rai helps you with your selection, Sam ordered soba with Broth, I the Duck Soba, we split a vegetable tempura to start, a beer for me and a jug of chilled sake for Sam.   Once you place your order chef and master Soba maker Tatsuru Rai takes a small amount of dough out of a large bowl and begins to roll the dough at first like you would pastry and then he wraps it around the timber Dahl and rolls it continuing changing the direction until he has a perfect thin square, then he rolls it and with the knife cuts it into perfect soba nobles, the noodles are placed in a sieve and shaken to remover extra flour.

We then had our tempura of chestnut, eggplant, snow pea, shitake, lotus root, sweet potato and green bean, it was light and delicious and every vegetable had a different texture and taste. The noodles and their broth were both exquisite, soft and tender yet with a biet you only get from fresh made noodles. This is a place where the owners put their charm and skill into every experience. Sam and I will be dreaming of this place until next year, when we will be back without a doubt!!

How lucky are you when you can find great snow, fantastic conditions and amazing food, right there on the mountain.

Boyo-so is a little hut 400 metres up from the base of the gondola at Hirafu, this quaint little place is definitely not run by any large catering organisation employed by the village operator like so many of the places on the mountain. No this is a tiny little place that feels like it has been doing the same thing for the last 50 years and it probably has. The food is simple and really tasty just what you want after a hard morning skiing. Soups come in miso or soy based broth and you can have ramen, soba or udon. Sam had a classic with tempura prawn and it was mighty tasty, I had a special of freshly seared thin pork strips with rice and egg. There’s big bowls of pickles next to the counter and a large spoonful on my egg made this the most delicious and satisfying lunch one could have. Choices include, curry, salmon roe, salmon, chicken and crumbed pork cutlet with rice, all these dishes are served with miso, so with a big bottle of Sapporo black label and your toes warming….what could be better than that???

Hirafu, not happy with having the best snow on earth, has to have the best produce and amazing restaurants to serve it too. We have had great food this week and Kaminura is a terrific meal in any place but amazing in a small ski village. 

Then we had dinner at Sekka Dining, with very good wines, and loved that too! What they both have in common is great respect for the wonderful produce that Hokkaido is famous for and serious craft in cooking. 

We had a fabulous dinner with very good wines the stand out being 97 Rockford basket press shiraz, love that wine . For starters we had a plate of different locally cured hams with local monviso cheese the Barnabas Parma style from Chitose and Gen farm Proscuitto from Tokachi were really delicious but the stand out was the Topen farm Coppa from Akaigawa – this was rich and smoky and I would love to eat it every day.

Another great starter was the Hidaka mozzarella with roasted chillies and semi dried roma tomatoes from Niseko Green farm, local produce creating a lovely light and tasty dish, I think I remember the cheese maker from Will Studd’s Cheese Slices and the taste of the cheese certainly shows the quality of the milk and care in making.

We followed with a signature dish of the Hokkaido dived scallops, with Otaru cherry wood smoked bacon, roast cauliflower, raisins, pine nuts and Pedro Ximenez vinegar , this was complex and the quality of the scallops and the perfect cooking shone through, I could eat the bacon for breakfast every day, and, note to self, I must eat these amazing scallops raw before I leave town.

Our mains were local wild venison with Jerusalem artichokes three ways another great dish and another example of fab produce, the venison deep flavoured and a beautiful tender texture that showed perfect cooking. We also shared the Braised Tokachi beef cheek with potato puree, this is comfort food at its very best. The puree having the great flavour of the local famous potatoes and the beef melting in your mouth, was the perfect pairing with the Rockford. We also shared a bowl of winter greens with garlic, lemon and chilli, this was so yummy i could have eaten ten bowls. Broccoli, shallots, garlic stems all cooked with the perfect amount of chilli.  

Dessert was a shared Organic Nikki berries roasted with Japanese honey and thyme with lemon marshmallow and pistachio made in a tart. The meal ended the way it started with amazing produce beautifully cooked. Kim Wejendorp’s brilliant cooking is backed up by Katherine Bont’s caring service.

Sekka Dining, along with Kaminura, are the two stand outs. It is amazing to see two young Australians in a ski field in Japan totally focussed on bring the best local produce to the table and in Hokkaido you have a land of plenty!

Took a few hours off the slops today as it was pissing down with snow, tomorrow should be a cracker.

We decided to get a taxi to Niseko and go to the Hilton’s Rera sushi bar . Rumour is its the best Sushi bar in the area, it is true. We sat down at the counter for a very entertaining hour and ate great sushi.

When they pull out a block of toro it is really hard to say no, this fish was amazing - fatt and lush with a great flavour all melting in your mouth as you bit into it. The tuna was great as were the other fish. King salmon around here eats beautifully raw and the squid was no slouch either. The cook Hokkaido crab was awesome too.

I love sushi when you feel every grain of rice, but it all hangs together as you use your hands to eat all the great fish, washed down with a little Kokushi Retsu dry sake. What a great lunch. I thoroughly recommend it.

Last night was great at Bang Bang, Hirafu’s best yakitori place. You can sit at the counter and watch the master at work over the grill.  The seafood is amazing and we had the best tuna sashimi to start – the fish sang with freshness and flavour.

It is a cosy place with a great jazz sound track in the background, friendly service and too much quality sake; I remember the taste, but cant for the life of me remember the name of that beautiful drop.

Well best have one more meal before we go. We had king crab and prawn and then launched into chicken, beef and pork skewers – one of each, salt and soy dressed.

The radish salad was delicious and I loved the Hokkaido sausage, a local specialty that is like a frankfurter, but in a really good way. Not the cheapest place in Hirafu, but one of the best and you get the quality of ingredients shining through.

It’s great to have friends in high places and when it comes to America and restaurants they don’t come any higher or bigger than Thomas Keller.

Thomas is not only the owner of two amazing Michelin Three Star restaurants in The French Laundry and Per Se , but he also has Bouchon Bistro in now three locations and the Bouchon bakeries that produce what I believe is the best bread in America. So when I was asked to do a luncheon in LA for Qantas and Tourism NSW and a cocktail party the day before in New Beach, I knew we needed to get some help, at least with ordering fresh supplies. I emailed Thomas and straight away he told me to relax and that Rory Herrmann, executive chef at Bouchon Beverly Hills would help us and organise everything. What a fantastic help they were. They ordered all the food, helped with all the prep and delivered freshly baked bread to the function as we put the finishing touches on.

They were truly amazing and because of that Phil and I were able to do wonderful Rockpool food at the luncheon. We prepped on the Tuesday, Rory sent us off straight after a great lunch of mussels, chips and the famous roast chicken, Phil drove us to New Beach to do the cocktail party (somehow he didn’t fall asleep and kill us, being horrendously jet lagged) and then the next morning we were up and in the kitchen again.

From there to the Consul General’s home for the lunch and I can honestly say, without the huge generosity of Thomas, Rory and his crew it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good and certainly not as much fun!

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.

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!

Lunch with the girls at Sydney Madang just off Pitt Street.

Macy loves the BBQ marinated Short ribs and Indy is  a big fan of the fried Dumplings.

I love it all, but the Squid stir fried with hot Korean bean paste and all the kimchi sides are great. I love anything with Korean bean paste really!

Heston Blumenthal is not only one of the greatest and most curious cooks on earth, but he is also one of the best guys on the planet. Along with Thomas Keller, we do “The Ultimate Dinner” together in Sydney for The Starlight Children’s Foundation and the last two have been a blast. I have been to his wonderful restaurant just outside of London, in Bray, three times, I have been lucky and had the guided tour of the lab where lots of experiments take place. Here is a restaurant where every detail is looked after. It is a charming 1500’s building with a very Heston feel inside, by that I mean comfortable and really hospitable, the staff are full of his enthusiasm and you get the feeling that you are sitting down to something really exciting and rare the minute you arrive….and you are!

The 4 to 5 hour dining experience starts out with a beautiful turn of lime meringue frozen in liquid nitrogen and dusted with green tea. You are instructed to pop the whole thing in your mouth and it explodes with flavour and smoke comes out your nose…your palate is awake and ready for more. Nothing on this long journey is what it seems, but what is wonderful is not only is it entertaining and exciting, but importantly it tastes great. From the lime grove to the red cabbage gazpacho, the snail porridge, the jelly of quail and crayfish crème – it is amazing and delicious, then foie gras and the crazily good mock turtle soup.

From there, onto sounds of the sea – an i-pod is given to each guest to listen to the sea and gulls to get you more in the mood for your raw seafood plate complete with beach! Salmon poached in liquorice is delicate and at the same time very complex as is the Anjou pigeon.

Dessert is a blast and the flavour great and the gags keep coming with the “not so full English breakfast” – parsnips masquerading as corn flakes, the famous and rightly so bacon and egg ice cream and finishing with the hot and cold tea. This is Heston at his most whimsical and playful. The meal doesn’t stop there. It is truly a fantastic experience, take the wine match and let the somms do their stuff.