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.

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

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.

Some years ago Andoni Luis of Mugaritz fame told me it was a chef’s responsiblity to record his travels and influences with photos and words. Since that time I have always photographed everything of interest that I have done or eaten.

It is an amazing way to look back at interesting meals and times from not only travelling but also at home in my own restaurants in Sydney. I was just going through some old shots and noticed these wonderful dishes from the French Laundry. I have been lucky enough to eat at this great restaurant several times, but these photographs are from my last two visits.

Thomas is not only a great man but he runs one of the world’s very best restaurants, well several actually, but let’s focus on “The French Laundry”, with its blue door, wonderful kitchen garden over the road and most importantly, great kitchen staff and some of the very best service you will get anywhere in the world. You start out with a myriad of appetizers, the famous Salmon tartare in pretty cones, the amazing please- can- I- have- one –every- day ‘oysters and pearls’ (love caviar), truffle custards, the list goes on, then into lovely salads, foie gras, lobster cooked sous vide, chicken, quail and beef and quite often a pigeon dish.

Desserts and cheese courses don’t disappoint either. This is wonderful produce driven food cooked with marvellous technique and delivered with such generous and hospitable service that a trip to the Napa is a must. All the shots of these wonderful dishes were taken over a couple of meals, so don’t expect it all when you dine there, however you will be blown away by the number and quality of the dishes, plus a whole vegetarian menu is on offer. On one visit Sam, my wife, was pregnant so she chose it and we spent the whole meal fighting over her dishes as they were so delicious.

It seems so long since I last blogged – you probably think Rockpool Bar & Grill has in fact not opened…oh contraire, we opened with a bang.  Oh but the hell we had to endure to get the builders out of there, finally allowing us to open.

After one and a half weeks of training which was really interrupted by the builders, we only set the restaurant up the day before the soft opening.  So much for a week of running training in a completed restaurant!

In any case it is so beautiful that I have forgotten the pain and into week two I feel that it is really coming together.  We have also put together The Ultimate Dinner, as well as raised $225,000 for The Starlight Foundation, not bad for a new place.  Not easy playing host to 2 of the greatest chefs on the planet plus 3 amazing chefs from Ausralia in your first week of business either, but we did it.  Thank you Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller, Tets, Guillaume and Peter Gilmore.

Spice is going well, Rockpool is cooking some awesome food, and the realisation that I now have to run four restaurants has hit me.  Well, with the teams that I have in each restaurant, I say bring it on!  Melbourne is going great guns and I shall be back down there next week to get some seasonal changes on the menu.

In any case, a picture says a thousand words and we have great shots of opening night at Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney and The Ultimate Dinner right here on the blog.  Check them out.

Dear Starlight team and National Board members,

Last Wednesday night our Starlight Luminary Neil Perry raised $200,000 for our kids and families at the opening of his magnificent new restaurant, Rockpool Bar and Grill, in Sydney.  Neil and his fantastic team organised the most amazing evening called The Ultimate Dinner – the very best food and wine experience you can imagine in his beautiful new restaurant.  Our wonderful friends Qantas , Vittoria Coffee and the Park Hyatt Sydney were the major sponsors.

Qantas flew in Thomas Keller from the French Laundry in the Nappa Valley and Heston Blumenthal from The Fat Duck in the UK and our own Australian chefs, Tetsuya, Guillaume Brahimi, Peter Gilmore, Catherine Adams and of course Neil, gave us a food and wine experience the guests will never forget.

Our incredibly generous friend Stuart Gregor conducted a fantastic auction and Neil’s guests rose to the occasion.

Please join me in sending our thanks and appreciation to Neil, Sarah and his fantastic team, all the generous chefs, Qantas, Vittoria Coffee, Park Hyatt Sydney and Stu Gregor for ensuring many more children and families will receive Starlight’s love, laughter and support.

With my very best regards,

Jill Weekes

Next Wednesday, March 25th, is gearing up to be one of the biggest nights on the Rockpool calendar.  Two of the biggest names in international cooking are headed to Sydney to join us in cooking for The Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck in Berkshire, UK and Thomas Keller of Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in Yountville, California have generously donated their precious time to help out at this dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney.

Joining Neil, Heston and Thomas in the kitchen will be Tetsuya Wakuda, Guillaume Brahimi and Peter Gilmore.

$1000 per head (sold out) buys you a night of fantastic food, great wine and who knows what else will happen on the night.  It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the world’s greatest culinary talents come together in the kitchen for such a wonderful cause – and we thank all the guys for the generous donation of their time, along with some of the wonderful sponsors – The Park Hyatt Sydney, Qantas and Vittoria Coffee to name a few.

Spice Temple's array of chillies

As Spice lays down the chillies the builders are working like crazy upstairs.  My beautiful kitchens are coming together and the dining room is looking like it is going to make the deadline.  Tomorrow the wood-fire and charcoal grills move into position.  It is thrilling at the moment as things change daily.  The builders are doing a fantastic job, every trade is pushing as hard as they can to get changes happening not just daily, but hourly.

Khan and I are working through the menus, the staff and all the suppliers.  I want every station and fridge in the kitchen to be marked so we know what is going in there and which dishes are produced from each section.  We have an ambitious plan, a dining room menu of over 70 items, a wine bar menu (home of the Wagyu burger) with 40 items and a function menu upstairs with two gorgeous private rooms.

No doubt there will be times over the next few weeks where I will wonder why I have done this.  Lots of drama to come, staff training starts in a week and a half, I can’t believe this dream is becoming a reality. 

One week after we open I have to put together the Ultimate Dinner; to have 2 super-star international chefs, in the form of Heston (Blumenthal) and Thomas (Keller), coming in to work alongside our own great chefs Tets, Guillaume and Peter Gilmore, in the Rockpool Bar & Grill kitchen – its daunting!

We will do it – we have a great team, but what a hell of a couple of months we are all in for…