Australia, the marvellous trio

(see part one)

I was impressed by the concrete organization of the event, not just the idea. There’s plenty of good ideas, there’s always been, everywhere. Having a good idea, after all, is easy. What’s difficult is making them real. Restaurant Australia, through the dinner on Friday November 14th, focused on three icons in the country’s restaurant scene, between Sydney (two) and Melbourne (one). Indeed it is necessary to point out where they are, if in or outside this continent-nation, because Australian chefs are almost everywhere. I’m thinking about Brett Graham of Ledbury in London, or David Thompson who chose Bangkok, where he shines with Nahm, or Shane Osborn, double star in London before arriving at St Betty in Hong Kong. And Australia too, as we’ll see, is ready to welcome everyone.

Having chosen Tasmania “because it is exploding, thanks to passionate and talented people capable of producing extraordinary food and wine”, Ben Shewry was made in charge of the dinner. Born in 1977, from New Zealand and now at the helm of Attica in Melbourne, he’s a rare case in the Anglo Saxon world of a chef who directs only one establishment. And then there’s Peter Gilmore, nine years older (and 50 kilos larger) than Ben, the round and famous television character, thanks to Masterchef, the executive chef at Quay in Sydney who was proud to announce in Hobart that he has taken over the management of the restaurant inside the Opera House, the top for an Australian. Only the peak of Uluru/Ayers Rock in the middle of the desert and of the country, but also an inviolable sacred place (to the surviving aborigines) could be more prestigious. Finally, there’s Neil Perry, 57 last June, with Rockpool in Sydney, which is the lighthouse, and then seven more restaurants in Sydney (four in total) as well as Melbourne (three) and Perth (the eighth), the design of the menus on Quantas, the country’s flagship, plus books and TV programmes.

Not a yellow-green trio, but one New Zealander and two Australians, it needs to be underlined. Their dishes were the trophies served at the end of the trip. All of the eighty invited testimonials, from Brazil (it’s always a pleasure to meet Rodrigo Oliveira of Mocotò in San Paolo) to the United States (Alice Waters above all), had the opportunity to personalise the programme to their likings. Only one obligation: everyone had to be in Hobart on the morning of November 14th to participate in the presentation conference in one of the many renovated hangar-markets in the port of the capital.

Two very pleasant hours. Then hotel, relax, changing of shirt, a minimal activity for a gala dinner that did not require formal dresses. Not even evening shoes and high heels. Many people found this strange: after all, this was not a barbeque in the port and, besides, it was the government that was hosting. The truth was revealed towards sunset.

The second date was by the water, again in Hobart, on the dock opposite to that in the morning. Waiting for us, beyond curious people, they are everywhere, bubbles from Tasmania, House of Arras 2004 Blanc de Blancs, and three different types of oysters, two local ones and one from Western Australia. As soon as they were sure the group was complete we left, all on board of comfortable and powerful rubber boats, up the river Derwent. It is so close to the sea, with the help of the tide, that at the beginning it is hard to understand where one ends and the other begins. Then you just concentrate on how spectacular this journey is. The destination was the Museum of Old and New Art, Mona for everyone, an extraordinary museum.

2. To be continued