The Ultimate Team

Neil Perry

Tetsuya and Guillaume

 140 fantastic generous guests and the next thing you know we have a fab night and the Starlight Children’s Foundation is more than $200,000 better off.

We are doing this great event again with the help of Qantas.  Heston and Thomas have also agreed to another date in March 2011, can’t wait!

Ultimate Dinner Samples

Back to school of the seafood kind with the upcoming Neil Perry class at the Sydney Seafood School on Saturday 28th  November from 11am until 3pm.

When Rockpool opened in 1989 (the same year as Sydney Seafood School) ‘modern Australian’ cuisine was in its infancy – and many credit Neil with its inception. Since then he’s championed premium Australian seafood, revolutionised modern Asian cooking and steakhouses, written cookbooks, made television shows and revamped Qantas in-flight menus. At this hands-on lunch class you’ll master the techniques and flavour combinations that make his cooking as revolutionary now as it was 20 years ago.

Coming soon (flying as of 1 December 2009) to a Qantas premium cabin menus is Spanner Crab Omelette with Oyster Sauce.

This omelette, in its’ wok fried version, is a Rockpool classic and appeared on the restaurant menu for many years.   The texture of the crab, egg and bean sprouts, and the perfume of the sesame oil make this a truly wonderful taste and texture treat. The crispy exterior, melting interior, and the crunchiness of the bean sprouts all work so well together.  Make sure the oil is very hot and smoking so that the eggs do not soak up the oil.  

It is served with steamed fragrant rice, bok choy and a spoonful of oyster sauce. This recipe is enough to feed one but is best served as part of a banquet style meal. 

SPANNER CRAB OMELETTE WITH OYSTER SAUCE
 
Vegetable oil
3 small free range eggs, gently whisked
100g steamed spanner crab meat, free from any shell
100g bean sprouts
50g snowpea sprouts
6 no. Chinese yellow chives, washed & cut in 5cm lengths
Broth (see recipe below)
Steamed Jasmine rice, to serve
Bok choy, to serve
Oyster sauce, to serve

Preparation
Heat vegetable oil (about 6-8cm deep) in a wok. When oil begins to smoke, add egg. The egg will puff up and bubble immediately, hit the egg bubbles with an egg slice to knock out the air, cook for 10-15 seconds or until base of omelette is golden.

Remove from heat then drain excess oil from wok. Spoon crab along centre of omelette and top with sprouts and chives. Roll one side over filling and roll omelette over to form a cigar shape. Pour in broth and place wok back onto heat. Allow to simmer for a minute to heat through crab and soften vegetables.
Remove the omelette from the wok with an egg lifter and place on a board.  Trim off the ends.

BROTH
2/3 cup fresh chicken stock
1 teaspoon light palm sugar, grated
2 table spoons yellow bean sauce|
Two drops of sesame oil

Preparation
To make the broth, combine all ingredients except sesame oil in a pot. Bring to boil, ensure sugar has melted and remove from heat. Check balance of seasoning then add sesame oil. 

To serve:
Serve with freshly steamed Jasmine rice and bok choy. Place omelette in a large deep bowl, pour over the hot broth and top with oyster sauce.

Rockpool inspired menus showcasing the best seasonal produce on offer are what you can expect next time you stop by the Qantas International First Lounges in Sydney or Melbourne.  Written by Jessica Sly, Rockpool Consulting Food Consultant

Just when you think there might be time for a breather things keep on getting busier out at QANTAS land. As with the restaurants we change the menus in the International First Lounges with the seasons and have recently implemented spring menus in both Sydney and Melbourne. We have a great selection of signature dishes that everyone knows and loves so we never change these – things like the Club Sandwich, Chilli Salt Squid and our amazing organic egg breakfast omelettes. Some of the new dishes we have introduced to suit the warmer weather and make the most of the new seasonal ingredients include a baby beetroot salad with soft feta, candied walnuts, vino cotto and olive oil – a terrine of rabbit and quail with citrus and watercress salad – and one of my favourites – an incredible piece of the freshest grilled fish (this changes daily according to market availability) served with a cumin spiced eggplant puree and sweet grape tomatoes dressed with  a myriad of the freshest herbs, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil – it just awakens the senses and reminds you of what good food is all about. We are blessed with these lounges because not only are they considered some of the best in the world, but we have incredibly smart a la carte dining which means our chefs are truly able to flex their muscles and strut their stuff – menu design here is certainly a whole lot less complicated than it is for in the sky!

Speaking of the sky I was lucky enough to fly to Hong Kong last week to consult with the team who will be managing our soon to be opened new Business Class Lounge up there. The aim is to tie it in with the recently upgraded First and Chairman’s Lounges in Sydney and Melbourne by improving the product, presentation and service all round. For any of you that are lucky enough to have been in these Australian lounges recently you will agree that the food is certainly more fresh and vibrant than it has ever been – with a selection of light simple options well suited to the season, time of day – and of course complimentary to that you will receive in flight.  It was amazing touching down in Hong Kong – a beautiful city drenched with neon lights and surrounded by mountains and water – three of my favourite things! The team took us out to one of their beloved local Cantonese restaurants the first night we were there – cheap and cheerful – just the way I like it – with more neon lights – don’t love them so much in doors – and big round tables with super spinning  lazy susans. We feasted on roast goose – the local specialty which was similar to duck but much fattier and with a darker more robust flesh – delicious. Jelly fish in a very simple sesame oil dressing – I’d never eaten jelly fish before and would describe it as the perfect flavour carrier rather than having too much flavour of its own – although it did have a little bite – was this a hit of chilli or the jellyfishes own sting?! It had great texture – like a super al dente mung bean noodle – cut into ribbons like fettuccine. Delicious coral trout that came flapping to the table for our approval before being steamed to perfection – sweet and sour pork like I have never had before and wonderful sauces to dip fried bits into – whether they be squid, eggplant or tofu – a chilli sauce packed with flavour and just the right amount of heat and something I had never had before a salty shallot water that I just loved…

Neil Perry’s article from The Australian Way Magazine, October Issue -
available on board all Qantas flights.

4 of America’s superstar chefs have opened 3 restaurants in LA over the last few years, really jazzing up the dining scene. It’s starting to look as hot as the weather.

Firstly it was Wolfgang Puck – the mastermind of many American restaurants at every level, from his famous 2 star Michelin restaurant Spago and Pizza Express in the airports, to the fabulous modern steakhouse, Cut, which also has a very cool and well heeled side bar next door to it. The sleek and sexy Richard Mier design goes perfectly with the refined and delicious starters, great steaks and side dishes that Wolfgang has put together. This is a new American classic. The wine advice given by vivacious sommelier, Dana, is an added treat. 

Next, the Cool Hand Luke of New York Italian cooking, Mario Batali, has teamed up with LA supremo baker Nancy Silverton to create Mozza. It comes in two flavours side by side on Robertson  - with a pizza joint and an osteria. Both places are great, as you would expect from two produce driven chefs with great style. This is a place to eat really well. I have dined in both restaurants and adore each of them for their no nonsense cooking and perfect seasoning of beautiful ingredients. Have anything as a starter here and it is hard to go wrong. Amazing antipasto and salumi, great pizza and pasta. Not much more to say other than I love the place. Oh, and get the barmen to recommend a really delicious Italian red – they are there for you every time. 

Last, but certainly not least, is Jose Andres, cooking at The Bazaar at the SLS hotel. This restaurant is a trip. The Philippe Starck interior is a treasure trove of new experiences at every turn. The restaurant and rooms seem to go on forever. At every table or bar people are hooking into the tapas offerings, seemingly content and excited. In typical Starck fashion there are shots of his or someone else’s friends all over the place – a must see for the design junkies. However, to go on about the design would be to miss the best bit. Jose is doing some really cool and delicious food. The menu is split between old and new school tapas and both sections yield fab dishes. Here is a guy who still gets that modern food can taste great too. His playful interpretations of classics like Caesar and Caprese salads are winners as is his potato cooked in sea water with green mojo sauce. On the whole, this is a fun experience and it all needs to go down with some great Spanish wines, of which there are many available.  

Dreamtime 2009

An article by Kate Barker – Menu Planer, Rockpool Consulting

The menus we write for International First and Business Class aren’t done in quite the same way as a restaurant. There is a lot more forward planning involved to get each dish onto the plate. It’s actually quite an amazing process that can begin up to twelve months in advance of the menu flying. I am just in the middle of drafting up the next lot of menus which will start flying from September next year; I write eighteen First Class menus and forty-five Business Class menus which change four times a year, with each new season. 

The first part of this process is research. We scour through pages of magazines, from Australia and other countries, check out what our four restaurants are doing, as well as other restaurants in Sydney and overseas and review any new food books on the scene. Neil has the most amazing cookbook collection I have ever seen. I chat to Neil, Khan and Catherine (from RPB&G Sydney), Phil and Dave (from RP) and lots of other people in the Rockpool family to get a sense of what is inspiring everyone at the moment. My job is to try to reflect that passion in our First and Business Class menus. We also spend time with our suppliers to find out about any new products we might be interested in using as well as constantly be on the lookout for new and interesting suppliers. 

I will be recipe testing through December all the new dishes and ideas I have for the drafted menus. These dishes are presented to Neil and the Rockpool Consulting Team to assess the flavour profile as well as the look of the dish and if it’s appropriate for our in-flight menus. There are some dishes that for various reasons will just never work!

The next few months before testing is what we call ‘presentation season’. Twice a year either myself or Roger, another Rockpool Consultant, head to Los Angeles, London, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. During this time all of the new menus and recipes are presented to us for quality purposes. We need to make sure they have followed our recipes correctly and that premium products are being used. It also gives us a chance to see what’s happening in the local food scene with visits to food markets, restaurants and other suppliers. In-flight, we also have a chance to speak to crew and check on how the food is going. It’s such a wonderful experience to see the crew plating up a beautiful dish which was created up to twelve months earlier!

Our Spring menus from Australia have been running a month now and are getting fabulous feedback. Our First Class menus from Sydney and Melbourne include amazing Australian produce such as Italian salami made from free range pork from Quattro Stelle; sustainable Spencer Gulf King Prawns managed by the South Australian Research and Development Institute; Barossa Valley chicken which is free range and fed on a vegetarian corn based diet; and Rangers Valley dry aged beef which has been grain fed for 300 days with no growth hormones or antibiotics used. All other these products reflect Neil’s passion for food and the belief that the cornerstone of good cooking is great produce. Many of these products are used in his restaurants and are generally regarded by industry professionals as brands that support good methods of manufacturing which is better for the product and also for the environment.

 Here is a quick and easy recipe you can try at home this Spring as the weather warms up and the days start to get longer.

SPENCER GULF KING PRAWN AND GREEN PAWPAW SALAD WITH NAM JIM DRESSING

Plump King Prawns from the Spencer Gulf on Australia’s South Eastern coastline are served as part of a simple Thai inspired salad.  Green pawpaw, cucumber, coriander, Vietnamese mint and shallots, dressed with a Thai style dressing. The dressing has a thick consistency and includes finely chopped garlic, fresh coriander, fish sauce, palm sugar and red and green chillies.

The world’s largest known population of western king prawns is in Spencer Gulf. The South Australian Research and Development Institute together with local fisheries in the area have worked together to become one of the leading groups for managing sustainability of seafood stocks within Spencer Gulf and major technological advances have been made in the way the catch is handled. The prawns themselves are snap-frozen at minus 32 degrees Celsius within minutes of coming out of the water, locking in the freshness resulting in a firm and flavoursome product.

We recommend Healthy Boy or Squid brand fish sauce for this recipe.

NAM JIM DRESSING
3 no. fresh peeled garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 no. fresh coriander root, finely chopped
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons light palm sugar, crumbled
2 tablespoons fish sauce
½ deseeded fresh long red chilli, finely chopped
½ deseeded fresh long green chilli, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, approximately 

Preparation
Place garlic, coriander root and sea salt in a mortar and pound with pestle. Do not reduce to a paste. Remove and place in bowl. Dissolve palm sugar with fish sauce in mortar with the pestle ensuring there are no lumps of sugar. Add garlic and coriander mix back in along with chopped red and green chilli and stir well to combine. Add in lime juice.

Taste and adjust if necessary, to ensure there is a balance of sweet, sour and saltiness. 

GREEN PAWPAW SALAD
12-16 no. cooked Spencer Gulf king prawns, peeled, de-veined and tails intact
2 cups green pawpaw, julienne
½ deseeded Lebanese cucumber, julienne
½ a punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half or quarters if large
1 no. peeled small eschalots, very finely sliced
A small handful of fresh coriander leaves
A small handful of fresh Thai basil leaves
A small handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly torn
About 6 leaves of Vietnamese mint, roughly torn (if available)
nam jim dressing (see recipe above)

Preparation
Mix dry ingredients together. Add enough dressing to wet the salad well and mix through thoroughly. Share between four plates and finish with prawns on top. Serve immediately. 

A quick hop and a jump to Old Blighty ensued for myself to deliver three sessions of training to Qantas crew, in the fine art of food appreciation, cooking and then plating the Rockpool designed First and Business class menus.

Arriving on the Saturday morning, followed by a quick change at the hotel, I promptly made my way to Borough Market to sample some Northern Hemisphere delights and a coffee from Monmouth Coffee Company, arguably London’s best coffee.

After tasting Smoked Salmon from the West coast of Ireland, Stichleton cheese ( Unpasteurised Stilton ) and Wild Mushroom, I went about my day looking for products that could be used on our menus from London.
by Roger Barstow – Qantas Food Quality and Product Consultant for Rockpool

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

With the Qantas A380 due to make it’s inaugural flight out of London in January, I am reminded of just how very lucky I recently was to be invited as part of the team flying home the first Qantas A380 from Toulouse to Sydney.

Qantas A380 Sydney Flyover

We departed France on Friday, September 19 and I really felt that we (all of us on that flight) were experiencing a very important piece of Australian history – and it was a great insight into what a true icon the flying kangaroo is.  What Marc Newson has done with the A380 cabins is spectacular…

Neil and Marc Newson on Qantas A380

Qantas A380 Business Class Stairs

A short time after this inaugural flight the big plane took off from Melbourne on it’s first true journey – to Los Angeles.  Again, I was lucky to be waiting at the other end where I boarded the plane with other Qantas ambassadors, Olivia Newton John and Captain John Travolta – we flew to San Francisco and entertained some lucky guests with a very special cocktail party in the air before returning to LA.

Qantas A380 Neil Perry Window