How exciting!

All the Electrolux equipment has arrived for Spice Temple Melbourne. Can’t wait to get these induction woks and the eco top fired up.  This is really exciting, the guys have two weeks to finish the kitchen.

Best they get on to it with only two weeks till the bar opens and only three and a half until Spice Temple opens. I’ll be heading to Melbourne for 6 weeks next week with only a quick visit back to Sydney town to do SIFF events the weekend after next.

Can’t wait to see the kitchen all installed!!!

Saturday morning the girls and I set out for a fun date at the Brassiere Bread company in Botany Road (Banksmeadow) for a cooking class. Michael and his team put these classes on 2 a day on Saturday for free. What a great community effort, and this was well before  the rise of Junior Masterchef.

The kids get to play with dough, make scrolls and pizza and just generally have fun. They go on a bakery tour and see where there breads are cooked. It is really a lot of fun and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Macy had previously been on a tour with the school and when Indy was a little reluctant to go into the bakery itself Macy said ‘come on Indy it is amazing’ and off she went, all smiles on her return…’dad it was really amazing’ she said.

Matt, who was running the class, was fun and patient with all the little ones, there wasn’t anyone who wasn’t having fun. It’s also great for the parents as they can watch and grab a good coffee and a bite to eat that is first rate.

Thanks guys for getting kids’ hands in dough, for making some beautiful bread for us and for Qantas and giving us all such a great place to go with the family.

A quick visit to Perth for the launch of the Western Australian Good Food Guide, all the chefs and restaurateurs seemed happy with the results. Great to see the city getting what it deserves. Lots of wonderful restaurants and fine young chefs and industry professionals out there doing really good things.

This gave me the chance to catch up with Barry and Andrew from Burswood and also with Jack and Brian who are responsible for delivering the project that is Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth. Everything seems on track, we have the kitchen extraction ceilings going in. The entrance-way has been sheeted out and is ready for the timber finish to be applied. The ceiling grid is in and all the electrics and fire control has been done in the roof space. The columns have been removed and all the steel in place. They are still hard at work with the joinery and the kitchen equipment is arriving next month. All in all the progress looks great. I’m confident of a January 24th opening.

Now just need to have a few days in Sydney before heading to Melbourne to open some new restaurants!

Rockpool is expanding and is therefore looking for a unique individual with a flair for numbers to join their accounts/admin team.

No fancy accounts degree required, just bags of common sense, a liking of figures, neatness, and lots of enthusiasm. If you can manage your own accounts and fit the above bill, we will do all the necessary training to get you up and running and looking after your own little bit of Rockpool.

Interested?

Please email sue@rockpool.com and tell us your life story.

Spice Temple Sydney & Rockpool invite visiting chefs into their kitchens for the 2010 Sydney International Food Festival

As a part of the 2010 Sydney International Food Festival, Neil Perry and his teams from Spice Temple Sydney and Rockpool will be presenting two exclusive events with international chefs, Margaret Xu Yuan from Hong Kong and Mehmet Gurs from Istanbul.

Spice Temple Dinner with Margaret Xu Yuan
On Sunday 10 October, Hong Kong’s most acclaimed and original chefs, Margaret Xu Yuan will join forces with Spice Temple’s Head Chef, Andy Evans to present a six course banquet menu. 

Xu Yuan and Evans will combine their love of modern Chinese cuisine and organic produce to create this superb dinner.

Cost is $190 per person including welcome cocktail and matching wines.

For bookings contact 02 8078 1888 (between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday only).

Rockpool Dinner with Mehmet Gurs
On Monday 11 October, Mehmet Gurs will be welcomed into the kitchen of Rockpool where he and Head Chef, Phil Wood, will prepare an extraordinary six-course menu.

Dishes such as Chilled Rock Lobster, Olive Oil Poached Peas & Minted Pea Soup; Tabouleh Stuffed Chicken on Moroccan Eggs; and Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder, Smoked Bulghur, Salted Yoghurt, Mulberry “Pestil” (leather) & Sour Plum Reduction, which highlight Gurs’  Turkish heritage and Wood’s traditional training, will be prepared by the duo.

This is a must-attend event of the Festival.

Cost is $300 per person including matching wines.

For bookings contact 02 9252 1888 (between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday only).

Young Chefs Dinner
Sunday 17th October

In keeping with tradition, the annual Young Chefs dinner, mentored by industry legend Janni Kyritisis, will be held at the Good Food Guide’s Best New Restaurant from the 2010 edition.  This year it is the amazing Rockpool Bar and Grill.

It’s a collaboration between five of Sydney’s most promising young chefs, including the winner of this year’s Josephine Pignolet Best Young Chef award – Jason Saxby from Quay, and our very own Graeme Hunt from the Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney kitchen. The menu will enable you to taste some of Australia’s finest produce and ingredients, along with the opportunity to enjoy a selection of matched wines.

Cost is $170 per person.

For bookings contact 02 8078 1803 (between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday only).

The building has hit fever pitch.

The tiling is done on the kitchen floor, stainless panels in next week.

The exhaust system is going up then the ceilings can go in.

Kitchen equipment arrives on the 15^th.

Spice Temple will be up and running in the next 6 weeks…believe it, yes it will happen!!

The bar is flying…hand over at the beginning of October.

All the jewelled tiles are going up, carpet down next week. Start on the kitchenette next week, and the bar front and table tops have arrived, Lava Stone form France. Hell, the first panel is broken, will we have time to air freight it? Touch and go. I suspect the panel will be being fixed as the first guests arrive. Lucky the furniture is on the boat, hopefully not a slow one!

The Rockpool group of restaurants has done very well, as far as hats and wine awards are concerned, in both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011 awards.

Rockpool in The Rocks received 2 hats and a score of 17/20.

Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney has taken the Brown Brother’s Wine List of the Year, the Favourite Burger award and received 2 hats with a score of 16.5/20

Spice Temple has received 1 hat and a score of 15.5/20 and won the Small Wine List of the Year award.  Well done Spicy T!

Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne received 2 hats and 17/20 in The Age Good Food Guide and also won the Brown Brother’s Wine List of the Year with  David Lawler being awarded the Dom Perignon Sommelier of the Year Award.

Rockpool in the Rocks is a definite 3 Hat experience. Actually, in my book it is probably Sydney’s best restaurant right now. Chef Phil Wood’s total mastery of his craft and the team’s flawless performance on the floor makes a visit to the original Rockpool an exceptional experience.
- Franz Scheurer australiangourmetpages.com

 Our review as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011

Spice Temple, 10 Bligh Street, Sydney
Telephone: 02 8078 1888
1 hat – 15.5/20

From the startling front door with its alluring animated imaging to its starkly pale bar and low-lit, night-clubby, basement dining room, Spice Temple is the modern Chinese place of worship Sydney has been waiting for. A good-looking crowd sits over clever, zodiac-named cocktails and shared regional Chinese dishes (often Sichuan and Hunanese in origin) that can numb the mouth and excite the senses. Cubes of fried silken tofu are dressed with peanuts, chilli, mint and a spiced coriander dressing. Hunan-style pork belly cubes are crisp and fatty-rich, served in a mushroom soy sauce with chillies and diced snake beans. Guaranteed to create a buzz at neighbouring tables is fish drowned in heaven-facing chillies: fragrant leatherjacket chunks in a broth strewn with chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. Chilli-spiced diced quail with steamed egg custard and peanuts is another don’t-miss. A refreshing watermelon granita or another ultra-cool and cooling cocktail will soothe even the numbest palate.

 Our review as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011

Rockpool Bar & Grill, 66 Hunter Street, Sydney
Telephone: 02 8078 1900
2 hats – 16.5/20
wine list of the year

It may be sacrilege to say this in Sydney, but who needs harbour views? Neil Perry’s green-marbled art deco showstopper boasts one of the most magnificent interiors in Sydney, invariably peopled by the power-brokers of the day.

Perry and chef Khan Danis deliver a pleasingly unpretentious menu that traverses everything from accomplished pasta, salads and seafood dishes to meat and fish from the wood-fire and charcoal grill. Kick off with a smoky, earthy combo of charcoal-roasted chorizo with potato and white beans or the fun, Nobu-esque four raw tastes of the sea. Or just go for the steak. An excellent, sizeable rib-eye ‘minute-style’ (forcefully recommended to be served medium rare) with cafe de Paris butter is the most affordable at a cool $65, but prices can soar as high as the towering Riedel glass installation.

Everything is delivered smoothly, if not always swiftly, by legions of floor staff, and the dessert menu is a playful and irresistible list, from chocolate jaffa mousse cake to passionfruit pavlova.