Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Hallaron

Food

Matt was in the kitchen for our third ‘cook off’ for Chef of the Year 2023

The theme was ‘surf and turf’, perfect for this warm autumn day. Matt was assisted by Mark Bradford who was assisted by Denys Moore.

Canapés

First up were Narooma oysters freshly shucked by our team in the kitchen. Beautiful and salty up front with a long sweet finish. What a treat!

Mark made some chicken liver pâte with VSOP brandy, thyme, orange zest, nutmeg, shallots, butter and cream topped with pomegranate seeds served on top crostini from Italy.

Loved the pâte a good texture, moist flavourful and brandy and you could taste the brandy.

Main

Our main was oven-baked pancetta (Barossa Fine Foods) wrapped Norwegian Atlantic salmon. It sat on a bed of fried brussels sprouts and potato pennies, with asparagus in dill sauce garnished with fried capers.

The sauce was made with lemon, chicken stock, cream, butter, garlic and cayenne pepper, very tasty.

Great robust flavours and perfectly presented. The sprouts were rendered in fat from the pancetta and served under the penny potatoes garnished with lemon zest. Matt pointed out that the pancetta was cured with black pepper, garlic, bay leaf and pink salt.

The asparagus was perfectly cooked, blanched then charred.

The salmon was pink and moist in the middle, where it counts.

A great combination of flavours and texture, perfectly executed as fitting a coty nomination.

Many comments on the quality of food presented today.

Bread Bourke Street bakery bread today, soy and linseed served with the main and semi-sourdough baguette with cheese.

Cheese

Mark Bradford, our Cheesemaster, presented Comté La Couronne a hard cheese from France.

Made from unpasteurised milk, this hard-cooked raw milk cheese is made at small dairies or fruitieres using the milk from several herds of Montbeliard cows. This cheese was matured in the damp underground cellars of Marcel Petite at Fort Saint Antoine high in the mountains that border France and Switzerland in the Franche-Comte. It’s specially selected for Will to wear the prestigious red ‘crown’ of quality based on its rich concentrated nutty texture, elegant caramel sweetness, and lingering kaleidoscope of flavours rather than on how long it was aged.

Mark thought last week’s cheese the Jaarlsberg was a better offering, the Comte was nutty and sweet, showing a little calcium lactate crystal.

Matt served the cheese with seasonal green pears nice and crispy, walnuts and dates.

Wine

The prolonged spell of warm sunny conditions in Sydney over the past few weeks continued with a very warm, indeed hot day for our lunch, the 3rd in the series of our Chef of The Year for 2024. Today the spotlight was on Matt Holmes.  Matt produced a fine lunch with fresh oysters and a delicious pate topped with Pomegranate. The main was Norwegian Salmon baked in Pancetta. See the food review for more details.  In short, a first-rate effort.

The first wine of the day was a most agreeable Pinot Gris from Scorpo in the Mornington P 2023 13.5% The crispness of the wine, showing excellent quality fruit, balanced by firm acid produced an enjoyable wine, blending so well with the two entrees. Picking up comments from around the room, it did seem to me that the wine won universal approval, a rare accolade indeed! Not the world’s greatest wine for a pre-dinner drink, but a solid, if not spectacular wine to kick things along. Well done, Winemaster!

The next two offerings were both Chardonnays, a logical selection for a salmon main. First was the 2018 Bannockburn, a Geelong Chardy at 13.5%. Deep yellow, a big wine with very developed flavours, plenty of oak evident. Lots of citrus flavours are evident with high-quality fruit. A very impressive wine.

The second Chardonnay was a Fraser Gallop, the Parterre from Margaret River 2014 vintage at 12.5%. A good comparison to the previous wine. Much lighter in colour and texture. A delicate wine I really enjoyed. Lovely enduring finish. Superb fruit/acid balance. A great wine, drinking perfectly, at the apex of its development. I hope we have some more in the cellar.

The last two wines did for me present a challenge, two extremes, one a huge Australian red wine, the other a thin, acidic dry white from Italy, with no lingering fruit flavour on the palate at the finish. I was perplexed that these two totally different wines were in the same room, let alone competing for our attention with the cheese.

The red wine would need no introduction, a Hardy’s Clare and Mc Laren Vale Shiraz|HRB D646 2008 at 14%. This is the wine you bring along to an International wine show and in true Bazza McKenzie style demand that all you “purse carrying, Nancy boys, clear the table of your limp-wristed delicate Pinots and get a taste of what a real red wine tastes like”!  Stewed fruit compote, they may reply.

I am not saying the wine was unpleasant, but that it was a throwback to that style of wine popular in the ’60s and '70s where massive fruit, tannin and oak were the drivers of a style of red wine that many still love and good luck to them. Who am I to cast a censorious glance in their direction? But for me, something a little lighter please Garcon. Do you have a Mt Langhi Shiraz back there?

The final wine of the day was a Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2021 at 13%. I am really puzzled as to why this wine was served with the cheese.  Very dry, acidic and has a sharp aftertaste. The Vernaccia grape comes from a complicated and obscure background dating back to the 1200s. The wine is from the town of San Gimignano in Tuscany. My research indicates that the good folk in Italy regard this wine as a simple everyday drink and I can understand why. Unlike Roussanne, a Rhone white we had with the cheese last week which was a great match. Sadly, this wine with its thinness and puckering acidity was not in my view a wine to enjoy with the Compte cheese served.

Irrespective of my comments about some of the wines, I thought Matt Holmes put on a great lunch today for which we should all be grateful.