Whether you are Team McLaren, Red Bull or Ferrari. The 2010 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne was an absolutely cracking success! 

I was manning the kitchen for Qantas in the suite that sat nicely above Mark Webber’s tyre changing station…Schumacher about 5 metres to the right and the McLaren boys an arms length the other way. The atmosphere was intoxicating, the crowd completely geed up, and the sound just deafening. 

It was an absolute pleasure as always to be involved with Qantas at such a world class event. Alan Joyce and John Travolta hosted a wonderful crowd. 

The Paddock Club Lounge was the first point of entrance, a mini version of the Qantas first class lounge with bacon and egg rolls with tomato and chilli relish on hand for the early birds, followed by wood fire roasted chicken and waldorf salad, fried squid with 5 spice, mini beef burgers (sliders) and caramel corn.  Flight attendants were on hand to welcome and assist with every need and champagne was flowing at every corner. 

Back in the Qantas suite over the Pit Lane, we were serving up some Rockpool classics to the VIPs for lunch. 

Salad of spice crusted tuna with butter beans, perino tomatoes and rocket, slow cooked beef with modern béarnaise and black forest trifle kept the punters happy, along with cheeses hand selected by Will Studd ~ Delice de Bourgogne, Mauri cave ripened Bonta del bonta and Cravero 2 year old Parmigiano Reggiano. 

Looking forward to 2011 already!

Doing the weekend in Melbourne had two really fabulous must-do’s attached to it. One was the Qantas Grand Prix lunch with John Travolta and the other, a late dinner at the Flower Drum in Market Lane.

This is such an establishment, for years lauded by critics as one of the best restaurants in the country. I suspect those critic have forgotten what great food and service is, perhaps there are not enough foams, purees and chemicals in this food for them to recognise quality when it is right in front of them. 

We started with the King Island crab dumplings with red vinegar and ginger dipping sauce; sublime, delicate and the unmistakeable taste of pure crab. Next came the spring onion cakes and a braised lamb spring roll. The cakes delicate and delicious with a little chilli sauce, the lamb succulent and rich in flavour, dipped into a sauce of reduced braising liquid.

Then the amazing drunken squab, this has for many years been my favourite dish and there are no disappointments tonight. The squab perfectly cooked with the delicate flavour and aroma lifting the dish to new heights.  We chew the flesh and yummy skin from the bones, this is a dive-in-hands-and-all dish.  

The Peking duck with it’s delicate transparent pancakes and crisp tender duck. Oh, please tell me where I can get this in Sydney and I shall be there every week!

Anthony Lau is running the kitchen as he did when Gilbert was around and his team are doing amazing things. Jason, his son, is omniscient on the floor - a young man with hospitality flowing through his veins. Couple that with all the brilliant staff that have been there for years like Tommy, Raymond, Bill – there are lots of them that I remember from my early days at the Drum. What restaurant in Australia can boast that? The service here is flawless and the team do a lot of work at the table, old school perhaps, but I wish there was more of it.

This, to me, is the best Cantonese restaurant in Australia by a country mile, it is one of the best in the world.

 I have heard it said this is expensive for Chinese, what a load of rubbish, any restaurant in the world that uses the greatest ingredients that a country has to offer, has a large brigade of gifted and well trained chefs, a floor team without peers, and such lofty standards will of course come at a cost, but it is simply value. Would I go back? Yes, in a heartbeat. My only regret is that this jewel doesn’t belong to Sydney. Melbourne, treasure it well, as if you lost it you would be losing an important part of what makes your city tick.

Sorry about the quality of the photos in my excitement to get there I forgot my camera.

Wagyu cows come to town
Saturday 20 March

To complement out meat masterclass in Melbourne as a part of the annual Food & Wine Festival, David Blackmore brought two of his prized beauties to town.  A great opportunity for the 80+ participants to see a wagyu cow up close and personal and to hear from David, who is widely recognised as the best Wagyu producer outside of Japan.  

The care that David uses at every level with these magnificent animals is testament to the result of the most magnificent 9 + marble score in the most delicate meat ever. The beef is tender and has a wonderful delicate beef flavour which has made his Wagyu famous.  He is a hallmark producer and produces some of the greatest beef on this earth.

David spent eight weeks breaking in the Mum and her three month old calf, getting them ready for their trip to the city.

As you will see in this pic, which was taken outside Rockpool Bar & Grill, David was encouraging me to get closer but I was quite happy to stay at arm’s length!

As a part of the 2010 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne, will be hosting an exclusive ‘Great Wines of the World Dinner’ in the restaurant’s private dining room this Sunday, 21 March 2010. 

At this once-in-a-lifetime dinner, Perry will craft an exclusive menu using the finest produce to complement a mythical selection of the world’s best wines, hand picked from Doyle’s $40 million wine collection. 

The menu will include:

Goats Cheese Tortellini Pine Nuts and Raisins
Cured Ocean Trout on Brioche
1996 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Champagne

 Crudo of Ocean Trout, Yellow Fin Tuna and Hiramasa Kingfish with Fresh Ginger, Coriander, Finger Lime and Lemon Flavoured Oil
1996 Albert Mann Schlossberg Alsace

 Crab Thermidor
2004 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard Montrachet Burgundy
2004 Domaine Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne Burgundy

 Wood Fire Grilled Pigeon with Figs and Radicchio
2000 Domaine Claude Dugat Charmes Chambertin Burgundy
2004 Maison Camille Giroud Latricieres Chambertin Burgundy 

Lamb Saddle with Pea Sauce, Potato Puree and Cavalo Nero
1997 Guigal La Landonne Côte Rôtie Rhone Valley
1996 Château Haut Brion Pessac Leognan Bordeaux

 Raspberry and Vanilla Mille Feuille
1988 Château d’Yquem Sauternes Bordeaux 

Joining us on the evening will be Andrew Caillard MW, Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions, James Halliday, wine writer and judge, and David Lawler, Sommelier Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne, who will offer a lively discussion about the wines and wine investment. 

Cost for the ‘Great Wines of the World Dinner’ is $700 per person and places are extremely limited.  There are just 3 tickets remaining so get in quick!! 

For bookings contact Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne on 03 8648 1900.

On our last night in Hirafu we decided to venture into Kutchan and go to the highly recommended Torimatsu yakitori restaurant. This is a real local joint and as soon as we walked in were the talk of the restaurant – we even got sent a few sakes just for amusing the crowd!   

There is a menu in English which really helps but it is best to communicate with the love of food. The grill is the hero here, and there is a list of all the fish that has been picked up at the local market that morning.

Our dry chilled sake arrived and was poured into a large cup filled to the top and overflowed into a saucer, it is the way the local drink it and tonight we are in for a lot of fun as well as good food and drink.

Seated at the counter, I can’t take my eyes of the grill master. It is great thing to watch as the room fills with smoke and he twirls and moves sticks up and down the grill, at one stage a whole bunch of small whole fish in cages are cooked for a large table of local business guys. Everyone at the counter is amused and bewildered at us being there and enjoying the food so much. We start with a complimentary dashi soup with shredded egg. It is delicate and delicious, the salmon and local mackerel is beautiful sashimi with the freshness of the fish screaming out. The tofu with shaved bonito and horseradish with slices of spring onion and a little soy is wonderful – I love the silky, creamy taste of the tofu made on the premises.

The Maitake mushrooms are a favourite of Sam and mine, just sautéed they taste so pure and balanced and once finished I longed for another plate, but we had ordered heaps of food. I loved the small chunks of delicate cucumber with a sweet taste and amazing crunch, paired beautifully with  nutty and salty miso. The chicken and pork yakitori were good and smoky but the stand out for me was the local sausage, this was the best I had tried on the trip. The chicken wings were great to pick up and chew with your fingers dripping with juice, smoky, crisp and melting flesh between the bones, I love it!  The grilled onions with shaved bonito were so sweet, a local specialty here and I would love a salad of them just dressed with extra virgin olive oil and Fourm vinegar to go with any summer BBQ. The skate wing was our last dish and by this stage about three cups of sake had gone down, we were really into the smoky roar of the local crowd drinking eating and having fun. We shredded the sweet delicate fish off the cartilage, and although our tummies were bulging, we were having such a great time and wanted more. Luckily sanity prevailed and we arranged a taxi and the bill, it was crazy cheap.  All that food and sake for less than $100, it was so much fun, we will be back for sure.

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!!

The recipe for Rockpool Bar & Grill’s sultry dark and stormy with house-made ginger beer as featured in our March newsletter.

Dark and Stormy 
50ml aged dark rum
10ml fresh lime juice
60ml house ginger beer 

Build the ingredients in a high ball without ice. Be aware, the carbonated ginger beer has a lot of fizz when mixed with ice. Add ice and garnish with a lime cheek and mint sprig. The kick of the fresh ginger combined with the honey and rum is one of the great beverage pairings.

 Ginger beer
600g peeled baby ginger root
4 litres water
600g honey
100g sugar 

Add the finely sliced ginger to the water in a  pot and bring to the boil. Blend the ginger water with a hand blender and return to the heat. Shut off the heat. Add the honey and sugar. Stir well and cover for 1 hour. Strain through a fine chinois or cheesecloth and allow to cool. Transfer into bottles and refrigerate.

Dark & Stormy with house made ginger beer

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.