The marriage of wine and food at Chinese restaurants has nearly always been an afterthought. Wine lists are rarely given much thought, and whether the selections match up with the food is questionable at best. But to have a great restaurant, you need to have a great wine list. This doesn’t mean it needs to be huge, but it needs to offer value, selection and interest. And the wines should work with the food.

Realising this, we set out to create a wine program that was different than those at most restaurants, much less Chinese restaurants. We could have cranked out another run of the mill wine list, but instead we decided to have some fun with it and set up a few goals:

- We wanted the list to be big enough to offer a wide variety of wines, but not so big that you couldn’t get through it and make a selection within a few minutes at most.

- Every wine had to go with the food. This sounds simple enough, but the style of food and ingredients made some wines unworkable, such as tannic Bordeaux wines, high alcohol wines or extremely light and delicate wines.

- We wanted to have wines available at every price level, from inexpensive to celebratory (ie, not cheap).

- To keep things interesting, we thought we’d balance out the list with about half Australian wines and half from the rest of the world.

- We put in a “glass half full” structure, not meaning that we look at life positively all the time, but rather that many of the wines are available by the glass, half bottle and full bottle.

In order to accomplish this, we decided that we were going to limit the wine list to exactly 100 wines. Why 100? Well, it’s a nice round number, and we could just fit 50 wines on a single sheet of A4, thus giving us a two page wine list.

This decision had a big impact on choosing the wines, much more so than we thought initially. First, it really makes you focus on what you are selecting. You can’t just throw another Shiraz on the list without getting rid of something else. Wines that were so-so or not quite good enough got booted off. Wines that really went well with the food, such as Pinot Noirs, got more space, while Cabernets received less.

Through numerous taste trials with the food, we also figured out that in general white wines work better with most of the menu selections. And you get the benefit of cold white wine cooling you off after a big chilli hit if you ordered one of the more spicy plates. So, the list is somewhat biased towards whites and sparkling wines (about 60/40), although we have what we think is a great selection of reds that really work well with many of the dishes.

When you come into Spice Temple, you’ll see our philosophy printed on the front of the wine list. It’s exactly 100 words, so you can read it quickly. It sums up how we feel about wine’s place in our restaurant: something to have fun with and to enjoy, and to make your experience at Spice Temple that much better.

David Doyle

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Merry Christmas and a safe and happy 2009.

I’m sitting here at Rockpool on Christmas Eve, staring out the window to a greyish Sydney day of 21 degrees…tomorrow will be sunny and 26 – about perfect. 

The turkey is getting stuffed today and the pavlova will go in the oven – mangoes, white peaches and cherries to finish.  Wash it all down with a couple of bottles of something very special, watch the kids go mad over their presents…wouldn’t miss it for the world.  Ok, so the turkey is getting cooked sous vide style – 56 degrees for 4 hours…but hey, I’m Neil Perry.  The in-laws wouldn’t be happy with less.

I’d like to say thanks to all our wonderful customers, supporters, suppliers and staff for a great year.  Never a dull moment in the Rockpool family.

We look forward to seeing you here at the mothership in The Rocks in 2009, or down at Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne for those South of the border.  We trust you will be enjoying both Spice Temple and Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney when they open in the very near future – that reminds me…work to do!

Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year to you all.

Neil

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

2009 will be in full swing when Federer, Nadal, Roddick and Sharapova come to town for the Australian Open.  All the big names in tennis graced Bar & Grill at some point during the 2008 Open, with Roger Federer a very regular customer.  This year he ate with us more times than you can count on 2 hands – occasionally even getting a burger sent to his room.  Now that’s commitment!  You’re bound to catch a glimpse of him at the restuarant during the tournament next month, running from January 19 to February 1.

www.australianopen.com

You think Santa and his elves have been busy this festive season???

Well…so far in December my amazing team at Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne have been kept on their toes, bolting around like the proverbial headless chooks.  They have sold…no joke…3940 steaks!  501 Wagyu burgers!  333 pavlovas!  Happy Customers!  Merry Christmas!  Our general manager Vanessa’s shoes fell apart last night!

Apart from Christmas Day, the doors of Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne will be open for lunch and dinner on Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Australia Day – as well as all those days and nights in between (closed Saturday lunches).  Pop in and keep the staff running.

It is getting so exciting now, I’m just about jumping out of my skin.  Only days til the kitchen gets handed over and then the rest of the restaurant.

I had forgotten how exciting, terrifying, brain numbing, gut wrenching, disappointing, thrilling, joyful and cruel building a restaurant can be. Each day one step forward, two steps back, promises kept and promises broken.  Issues are resolved, others pop up.  Workmen standing on each other’s shoulders, or so it seems.  Is it possible to fit one more person in that small space and still be efficient?  I think not.

The builders and contractors are giving blood.  It is amazing to see them work so hard to hit that date, the handover – January 5th.  There must be no worse time to try to finish a project than Christmas, full speed ahead, plenty of speed humps, but still the builders push on.

I am amazed and staggered at how many problems this beautiful building has coughed up, but still we have pushed on.  Opening in June 2008 was a dream, what a nightmare it turned out to be with every approval process along the way a total hand brake.  Converting a heritage building that needs so much infrastructure has almost been impossible.

Its time for me to start getting scared, I have to open this thing and make it work.  Nothing but us doing our best will be good enough, so the building of Spice Temple was hard enough, but in a few days the focus turns to making it happen, to bringing it to life.

But as if that isn’t enough, I have to keep pushing for the amazing Bar & Grill to finish and to bring it to life by March.  I feel like I am standing at the edge.  I only hope I can do this and do it well.  We have the team and the space, we just have to throw everything at it.  It will require every bit of strength, not just from me, but all the wonderful Spice and Bar & Grill team.

In amongst all these mixed feelings and stress I see my new babies.  4 induction woks, the only double-sided Electrolux Therma induction woks in the world, I had them custom made.  I love them, they make me feel like we can do this, they are so beautiful I actually gave them a hug.  It really is feeling like it’s coming together, there doesn’t seem to be a corner in the room that isn’t full of workmen.  But as long as my beautiful woks are there it is going to be alright.

It’s probably a fair call to say it’s a nerve-wracking experience when you get to 4 weeks out from the opening of a restaurant.

At Spice Temple, the carpet is down, the bar is starting to look like a bar (just need a few good bottles to line the shelves) and the kitchen is in.  I actually hope to be in there within a few weeks with Andy, Spice’s executive chef, cooking up the proverbial storm – drying and pickling chillies, making XO and oyster sauce and doing some final testing on dishes.

Catherine Adams, one of the most wonderful pastry chefs I have ever had the pleasure of working with, has been hard at work in the Rockpool kitchen this week, testing and re-testing the new desserts for Spice Temple.  The watermelon granita with ginger syrup is possibly the most refreshing end to a meal I could think of.

We are now officially committed to a January 12 opening.  Bring it on!  If you need to book – give the girls in the office here a hoi on 02 9252 1888.

Spice Temple's Watermelon Granita

Welcome to our blog. Enjoy our recipes, news and random stories on all that we do and love. Don’t forget that you can also connect with us via twitter and our facebook page…Happy reading all and we look forward to hearing from you in the comments!
Neil

A letter written to the editor of (sydney) magazine.

I work in The Rocks and often see early-morning deliveries of produce to Rockpool; half a dozen punnets of perfect raspberries, greens practically with the dew still on them, disappearing into the under-street cellar.  I occasionally see Neil Perry going to work as I depart mine.  He always seems preoccupied, striding down the Suez Canal at the same pace as he must work in the kitchen.  One thing, though, brought home to me that extreme attention to detail has played a part in his success. The first time I saw his back-of-house garbage storage, I was amazed:  the room was spotlessly clean, his staff dressed in immaculate white overalls.  The diners are never going to see the bins, but Perry’s standards are not relaxed even at the back door.

Wendy Raymond, Wyee Point.

Just over 4 weeks to go. It is amazing how quickly things change at this stage of the building process. I wandered up to the site this morning and progress on the Spice Temple kitchen is amazing! Benches and under bench refrigerated drawers are in….there are big circles in place where my beautiful induction woks are getting ready to be placed and the kitchen hand area is about as tidy as it is ever going to look. What I find really incredible, is that the kitchen actually looks bigger with stuff in it than it did without!

As of tomorrow, the real gear starts to arrive – the fridges, the grills….my beloved woks!
Check out the latest pics and stand by for more in a few days. Neil.