It’s our birthday this week!!!!

 On Sunday February 28th, Rockpool will officially come of age.

 Turning 21 has made Trish and I reflect on what the future holds for our flagship restaurant. 

When we turned 20 last year, we were immensely proud of how far we had come, and to still be standing strong over two decades later feels like quite the achievement. Rockpool certainly seems to be standing the test of time. 

Moving forward, the future direction of the restaurant will be largely in the hands of our executive chef, Phil Wood. We have had the pleasure of working with Phil for the past 12 months and with his experience in our kitchens as well as The French Laundry and Tetsuya’s, he is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best young chefs this country has to offer. 

Since joining us in March last year, Phil has taken over the reins of the kitchen and thrived on the responsibility. He was recently promoted from Head Chef to Executive Chef and constantly amazes us with his skill and creativity. We have complete confidence in Phil’s ability and while I will continue to be very involved in the menu and as a mentor to him and the team, Phil now has complete creative control of the food side of things. 

Phil Wood (1st left) in the kitchen after a recent function in NZ

We continue to offer a choice of two menus at Rockpool – the four course a la carte menu and the eight course Grand Tasting menu – and we have recently launched our exclusive ‘Chef’s Table’.  Situated in front of the kitchen, it offers private groups a bird’s eye view of all the action and our guests are loving it! 

To celebrate our 21st Birthday, Rockpool will be offering all customers who dine at the restaurant during the week following our birthday, Tuesday March 2nd to Saturday March 6th, a glass of Champagne on us! 

Happy birthday from us,

Neil, Trish and the crew at Rockpool

Great Wines of the World Dinner
Sunday 21 March, from 6pm at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne

A unique opportunity to join David Doyle, owner of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Andrew Caillard MW, Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions, James Halliday, wine writer and judge, and David Lawler, Sommelier Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne for this dinner.

Neil Perry will craft an exclusive menu using the finest produce to complement a mythical selection of the world’s best wines. These wines, now finalized, have been hand picked from David Doyle’s $40 million wine collection:

1995 Veuve Cliquot La Grand Dame

1998 Albert Mann Schlossberg Riesling

2004 Domaine Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne
2004 Domaine Leflaive Batard Montrachet

2004 Maison Camille Giroud Latricieres Chambertin
2000 Domaine Claude Dugat Charmes Chambertin

1997 Guigal La Turque Cote Rotie
1996 Château Haut Brion

1988 Château d’Yquem

$700 per person with only a handful of tickets remaining.  For bookings please telephone Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne on 03 8648 1900.

Last week we put a few new dishes on at Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney and today they are going on in Melbourne too.

Slow Cooked Egg and Braised Greens on Bruschetta with Parmesan: I love the deep rich green flavour of the braised greens on bruschetta with a slow cooked egg, the perfect way to start off any lunch.

Summer Vegetable Passata with Herb Butter and Parmesan: The passata is a summer vegetable puree soup like a summer minestrone, but silky smooth and the lift from the herb butter and added intensity form the parmesan makes it a wonderful, light yet full-flavoured, refreshing summer soup.

Panzenella with Preserved Tuna and White Anchovy: The Tuna and bread salad is a play on the classic Italian panzanella salad.  The grilled bread giving extra depth of flavour; with lots of extra virgin olive oil and Forum vinegar in the bread the salad is simply delicious. The slow confit of the tuna renders it superbly tender and juicy.

Woodfire Roast Chicken and Waldorf Salad: Classic Waldorf with a twist, when you have an amazing woodfire rotisserie chicken and then you add it to the refreshing crisp textures of celery, apple and walnut all you need to do is add fresh mayonnaise to create an homage to a classic that is so refreshing and yummy that you realise why it has been revered for so long.  Its that added smokiness of the chicken that gives you  improvement on perfection.

These dishes are now starring on the menus at Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney and Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne.

Great Wines of the World Dinner
Sunday 21 March, from 6pm at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne

A unique opportunity to join David Doyle, owner of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Andrew Caillard MW, Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions, James Halliday, wine writer and judge, and David Lawler, Sommelier Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne for this dinner.

Neil Perry will craft an exclusive menu using the finest produce to complement a mythical selection of the world’s best wines, hand picked from David Doyle’s $40 million wine collection.

$700 per person.  

Numbers very limited.

For bookings please telephone Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne on 03 8648 1900

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!

Our Chinese New Year feature recipe from Spice Temple - Rockpool’s January 2010 Newsletter