May gourmet news

YUM CHA GOES UPTOWN
At a clutch of new-wave dim sum dining opportunities the trolleys are out and top-quality produce is in.
Sunday mornings are looking up. At Billy Kwong in Sydney, har gow made with Spencer Gulf prawns are doing the rounds, along with buns stuffed with Saskia Beer’s pork. At Neil Perry’s Spice Temple in Melbourne, Guangxi pork sliders vie for table-space with crab custard with XO sauce. And this winter, at Sydney’s Mr Wong, a new Merivale group restaurant off Bridge Lane, Eric Koh, the chef lured away from London’s Hakkasan to head the dim sum kitchen, will be turning out the luxe likes of abalone siu mai, king crab dumplings and venison puffs. The difference with this new breed of trolley-less yum cha is taste, says Perry. “So much yum cha, to me, tastes the same. Many places really feel like they come from the same factory.” Koh says making dim sum takes great skill and experience, “so to make dim sum that is considered great by many customers is extremely rewarding… I hope our guests get as excited about our dim sum as we are.”

EXCESS ALL AREAS
Art and food collide in the most tasteful of ways in a smart new installation at Melbourne’s Johnston Collection.
After the Meal: A Taste for Excess sees architect and restaurateur Pascale Gomes-McNabb curating a fanciful take on a series of imaginary meals held in different rooms of the lavish Johnston Collection house-museum in East Melbourne. Collaborating with photographer James Morgan, artist Amanda Morgan, and the museum itself, Gomes-McNabb has created a series of tableaux that “explore the relationship between food and location” with chefs who have designed meals – which are then photographed – to match each room. Breakfast in Bed by Chui Lee Luk of Claude’s sees food captured in a series of photos scattered across the sheets. Blue and white china and a beautiful looped video dominate proceedings at Neil Perry’s brunch in the Blue Room. Bentley’s Brent Savage does lunch in the Yellow Room, Karen Martini’s meal is in the kitchen, while Nicolas Poelaert from Embrasse looks after dinner in the Green Drawing Room. Each meal is captured in various states – the images show plates full, empty and half eaten – which creates the feeling you’ve stumbled into the room just as Mr Johnston and his guests have stumbled out. It’s high art meets fairytale, or, as Gomes-McNabb puts it, “a lot of fanciful fun, just like the house”. After the Meal: A Taste for Excess runs until 22 June. Bookings essential. (03) 9416 2515. MICHAEL HARDEN

THE PRODUCERS: MALFROY'S GOLD HONEYCOMB
A more natural approach to beekeeping in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales results in a cleaner, clearer-tasting honey, writes Maya Kerthyasa.
Who Growing up on a bee farm, Tim Malfroy aspired to giving people the opportunity to taste what was being lost in the homogenisation and pasteurisation of bulk-produced honey. In 2006 he started producing and selling his family’s pure honey­comb and varietal seasonal honey from the Central Highlands and Blue Mountains regions of New South Wales under his own label, Malfroy’s Gold. Today, Malfroy not only produces award-winning honeycomb, but also runs courses on natural beekeeping and practises it himself.
How “In the wild, honeycomb is produced entirely by the bees,” Malfroy tells GT, “so what we’re trying to do is capture this amazing natural process.” He practises what’s called Warré beekeeping, or natural bee­keeping, a method that approaches honey production in a holistic manner, focusing on the health and content­ment of the bees rather than solely on maximising the harvest. The process is simple: the bees, housed in Warré hives, are given a wooden frame, a tiny strip of beeswax, and are then left to do the rest. While conventional hives use foundations to shape the comb and increase honey production, bees in Warré hives are allowed to construct the comb naturally. “Bees are creatures of solitude,” says Malfroy, “and great harm may be done to the colony by frequently inspecting the hive.”
Why The pure honey preserved within the wax chambers of the comb has a distinct and delicious flavour and texture. And because no heat has been applied at any stage of production or harvesting, the honey retains all of its natural elements, so its health benefits outweigh those of regular liquid honey. Enjoy it on its own, as an accompaniment to cheese, or, as Malfroy prefers it, crushed over Greek yoghurt with fresh figs and walnuts.
Stockists Malfroy’s Gold honeycomb sells for $17.50 per 300gm package and $55 per framed comb. 

ON THE PASS: GUILLAUME BRAHIMI, GUILLAUME AT BENNELONG
That’s quite a nice white shirt you’re wearing, Guillaume.
Well, I wear a white shirt every day in the kitchen, but on 19 May everyone can wear a white shirt to raise awareness of ovarian cancer. The Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation’s White Shirt Day is all about awareness and detection – I’ve got three daughters, my wife and my mum to look out for, and if I can help to raise a little bit more awareness, I’m quite happy to do so. I’ll be wearing my white shirt.
You’re opening a new bistro in Perth in September.
We’ve got Bistro Guillaume in Melbourne, and when I got an offer to open in Perth, the opportunity was too good to refuse. You feel like you’re in a resort when you’re in the west – 30 degrees, blue sky and dry weather. I love Western Australian wine, and I love the produce. For me, some of the best truffles in Australia come from WA – it’s a very exciting place to be.
Will the Perth menu differ from what you do in Melbourne?
Absolutely. The philosophy will be the same, but the menu will feel more like you’re in the French Riviera, in a way, so there will be lots of beautiful seafood and less coq au vin.
Is there a particular dish that will whet our appetites?
I haven’t really designed the menu yet, but what I’m thinking about already is beautiful Western Australian marron, just lightly poached with beautiful mayonnaise. My goal, wherever I have a restaurant, is to showcase the fresh produce we’ve got and try not to do too much to it.
Guillaume at Bennelong, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney, NSW, (02) 9241 1999; Bistro Guillaume, Crown Entertainment Complex, Southbank, Melbourne, Vic, (03) 9292 4751; guillaumeatbennelong.com.au. To learn more about the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation or the White Shirt Day campaign, visit ocrf.com.au. MAYA KERTHYASA

SYDNEY, TASTED
This year’s Taste of Sydney festival was ballsier than ever.
The testicles wouldn’t have been our first guess. The queue for Charlie & Co.’s wagyu beef sliders and mini-dogs was impressive, and over at the Four in Hand stand Colin Fassnidge’s roast suckling pig, a spit-roasted feast for the eyes (and palate), was more captivating still. The cocktails and icy-poles went down a treat. But the dish that had everyone at the 22,000-visitor-strong Taste of Sydney festival in March talking, it seems, was the lamb’s testicles on the menu at the Efendy stand. (Never mind that chef Somer Sivrioglu’s superb char-grilled lamb and veal kebab with smoked eggplant and yoghurt took out the Jaguar Best in Taste gong.) Meanwhile, there was plenty of fun to be had over at GT’s Chef’s Table and at the Taste Kitchen, where confidences were traded as readily as cooking tips. And the big news from Taste? This year the Melbourne festival not only moves to November but goes outdoors. Stay tuned for all the details. MAYA KERTHYASA

RESTAURANT NEWS
NSW
Hiding in plain sight in the guise of a milk-bar on traffic-choked Ross Street, El Amigo quietly offers some of Sydney’s best home-style Peruvian food. Drop in for your fix of ocopa (potatoes, eggs and olives in an Andean sauce of peanuts and herbs, pictured), lomo saltado, anticuchos and other Peruvian classics, along with tres leches cake and homemade pies. El Amigo, 35e Ross St, Forest Lodge, 0402 938 007

Dolsot bibim-bap is the name of the game at Bibim, to Mix – the cutest Korean diner to open in the city in recent months. The dish, for the benefit of the uninitiated, is rice topped with six vegetables, your choice of marinated beef, pork or chicken, and kochujang chilli paste served in a very hot, heavy stone bowl. You mix it to your heart’s content, the rice gets a nice crunchy crust on the bottom and all is rejoicing. Bibim, to Mix, 169 William St, Darlinghurst, (02) 8095 9830

Everyone’s chances of landing one of the highly sought-after seats at Momofuku Seiobo have just improved – slightly. No, the restaurant hasn’t changed its perfectly infuriating web-only booking system, alas. But it now opens for lunches on Fridays and Saturdays. The daytime menu, chef Ben Greeno tells us, is completely different from the one offered at dinner. Momofuku Seiobo, Level G, The Star, 80 Pyrmont St, Pyrmont.

Inner-western Sydney’s culinary evolution takes another step forward with the opening mid-May of Hartsyard. American co-owner and chef Gregory Llewellyn counts New York’s Andrew Carmellini and Daniel Boulud among his mentors, and the restaurant combines an eat-in bar, a natural-wine focus and produce sourced from a family property in Sydney’s west to bring a very hip Brooklyn vibe to the Newtown end of Enmore Road.

QLD
The opening of Spencer Patrick’s Bucci Brisbane sees the Port Douglas-based owner-chef’s successful casalinga recipe brought south to James Street. And speaking of James Street, chef Ben Williamson (late of The Euro) has been drafted to head Gerard’s, a Mod-Mid-Med bistro slated to open there mid-May.

SA
Bibu Barossa is a large, versatile space fashioned out of the former Tanunda library on Murray Street that goes well beyond the café brief to function also as a cellar door and popular wine bar hangout. It serves as a shopfront and tasting room for eight notable small wineries, Diggers Bluff, Tim Smith Wines and Tomfoolery among them. The kitchen offers simple lunches – terrines, rillettes, salads – as well as evening meals.

WA
If all goes to plan, David Coomer, marron-fancier and one of Perth’s favourite culinary sons, will throw open the doors to Xarcuteria in June. Don’t expect Star Anise 2.0, however, but a cosy Dalkeith deli trading in all things Spanish. We’re thinking bocadillos at lunch, paellas to go for dinner and Coomer’s addictive chorizo for any time of the day.

VIC
Raymond Capaldi’s latest venture – an all-day café-restaurant in a former pub – combines his love for the experimental (candied mushrooms, duck salad with pork floss) with fine cooking (an excellent wagyu burger, braised lamb with broad beans) and a room (timber, light fittings made from wooden spoons) with just the right amount of cute and cosy. Marmalade and Soul, 162 Queens Pde, Fitzroy North, (03) 9486 2740

Melbourne's Mexican wave continues with Tim Peach, owner of Curtin House (home to Cookie, The Toff in Town and Rooftop Cinema), planning to add a Mexican-inspired restaurant to the art deco building's impressive mix in the second half of the year.

From the team that brought you Pope Joan comes The Bishop of Ostia, a bar next door to its sibling in a former garage given a timber, tile and Astroturf fit-out that includes an excellent shaded deck area with planters full of produce. Bar snacks from co-owner Matt Wilkinson include the unmissable pig’s ear sandwich and textbook pork scratchings. The Bishop of Ostia, 77-79 Nicholson St, Brunswick East, (03) 9388 8858

Overlooking the Richmond rooftops, Union Dining Terrace is a more casual, alfresco version of Union Dining downstairs, with its own bar (wine available by the glass, carafe and bottle) and a grill-focused menu that includes a pork, fennel and chilli “baby burger”, a steak sandwich and spiedini of the chorizo and pickled mushroom kind. Union Dining Terrace, 270-272 Swan St (enter via Brighton St), Richmond, (03) 9428 2988