Centennial Parklands Dining – Beetroot Macaroon with foie gras Chef: Mark Best. These were a surprise in both taste and texture and one of my favourites of the night, the macaron was surprisingly spongy and light, the foie gras mousse delicate and creamy.
I was rather chuffed to receive an invitation to the Taste of Sydney Media Launch from Prue from the Mint Partners, for not only was the invitation itself exciting, but I love it when PR firms start to take bloggers seriously as part of the media space which is always a good sign indicating progress (thanks too to Christie for arranging our tickets!). The invitation also kindly let us bring partners so my hungry husband is tagging along tonight. And before I forget, I’ve got a surprise for 3 lucky readers, so read on and all will be revealed!
Sailor’s Thai – Prawn Miang served with peanuts and lime on betel leaf. Chef: Ty Bellingham. This was a delicious tangy combination with plump prawns and a favourite amongst many here.
Berowra Waters – A Soignee Truffle Risotto with Mozzarella and a Spinach/ Fennel Rockerfella Sauce. Chef: Dietmar Sawyere. Photo by ChocolateSuze. A delicious Arancini ball of risotto with a mild dipping sauce.
Tonight, we’re gathered at the recently refurbished Centennial Parklands restaurant to sample some of the goodies from the chefs. And it seems like we have the creme de la creme of chefs with food from a list of Sydney’s best chefs.
Longrain – Spicy pork sausage betel leaves & pickled ginger Chef: Martin Boetz. Another betel leaf canape, this time with a slice of spicy pork sausage, strong with pickled ginger.
Ottoman Cuisine – Etli Borek – crisp home made filo rolls filled with braised veal shank, currants & pine-nuts, served with pomegranate and yoghurt sauce. Chef: Serif Kaya. Delicious and slightly crisp, these were salty and slightly sweet with bursts of currants, pomegranate and yogurt.
Flying Fish – Yellow fin tuna with ruby grapefruit and sweet pork crackling Chef: Peter Kuruvita. A little more than a mouthful, the spoon proved a bit of a challenge for one bite eating and required a few bites but was well worth it with a nice pairing of the tuna, grapefuit and unmistakable flavour and texture of pork crackling.
The chefs:
Dietmar Sawyere, Berowra Waters Inn
Justin North, Bécasse & Etch
George Francisco, Jonah’s at Whale Beach
Giovanni Pilu, Pilu at Freshwater
Martin Boetz, Longrain Restaurant & Bar
Ty Bellingham, Sailors Thai
Matthew Kemp, Restaurant Balzac
Jared Ingersoll, Danks Street Depot
Peter Kuruvita, Flying Fish
Warren Turnbull, Restaurant Assiette
Peter Conistis, Civic Dining
Alex Herbert, Bird Cow Fish
Serif Kaya, Ottoman Cuisine
Paul McGrath, Bistro Ortolan
Armando Percuoco, Buon Ricordo
The lineup of chefs
Restaurant Assiette – Sydney Rock Oyster with Vitnamese dressing, crispy shallots and baby coriander. Chef: Warren Turnbull. I’m an Oyster monster and refrained from taking too many of these delicious little morsels.
The four day event is to be housed at the nearby Brazilian lawn which is to be transformed where you can construct your own degustation from dishes offered by the 15 chefs above and pair them with cocktails. There are also 80 food and drink producers in the Producers Markets, a James Squire beer masterclass, taste Wine with Gourmet Traveller Wine and Australian Gourmet Traveller Chef’s Table as well as the Emirates Lounge.
Bird Cow Fish – Celeriac and smoked trout remoulade with ocean trout roe. Chef: Alex Herbert. I knew I’d like this dish as remoulade and ocean trout roe are both favourites and I adored this for both taste and texture.
Restaurant Balzac – Wagyu Beef ‘ Bourguignonne’ Chef: Matthew Kemp. The cleverly packaged rolls were filled with very rich and softest Beef Bourguignonne.\
In order to try these dishes, one buys Crowns ($1=1Crown) and a dish can be had for 8 crowns with drinks at bar prices.
Jonah’s at Whale Beach – Mini vanilla panna cotta with pomegranate molasses and lavender honey Chef: George Francisco
As for the belle of the ball, that was undoubtedly George Francisco of Jonah’s at Whale Beach’s Wobbly Pannacotta. Dubbed the “Porno Pannacotta” or the “Wobbly Booby dessert”, it was as if a tipsy drunk Pamela Anderson was helicoptered in from the sky and took up centre stage with a microphone. No-one could look away, people were transfixed, some women even pleaded with the waiters to stop the pannacotta’s lascivious wobbling. The waiters that brought round the platters seem to enjoy making them as wobbly and jiggly as possible often targeting girls with their edible Agent Provocateurs. As for the taste? Sublime, so soft and wobbly the vanilla bean pannacotta was accompanied by Pomegranate seeds, Pomegrante molasses and lavender honey. And if you want to see the Pannacotta in action, you can watch Suze’s video of her and the naughty Pannacotta here on youtube.
Becasse & Etch – Mini organic grass fed wagyu burger Chef: Justin North. It’s no secret I love their Wagyu burgers having even made my own. The rolls were a bit hard but they were delicious with a lot of creamy sauce (although there wasn’t a lot of caramelised onion).
Civic Dining – Double chocolate hazelnut baclava Chef: Peter Conistis. The sweetness was tempered with the cocoa which raised the richness of this Baklava. I still miss Omega, Peter Conistis’s former restaurant so I would love to go to Civic Dining one day.
As for famous faces, the ones we spotted were Alan Saunders, the food critic from The Chopping Block and Katrina Warren the tv vet. There were some speeches from the founder of the Taste festivals and the Vice President of Emirates Australia and then an introduction to the chefs as well as a photo opportunity outside.
Danks Street Depot – Pastrami of kingfish with smoked oysters and a cucumber and apple salad. Chef: Jarred Ingersoll. An interesting contrast of textures, the oyster slippery against the kingfish.
Chefs wait to be introduced
And as for the surprise that I promised? 3 lucky readers will receive a double pass worth $50 to the Taste of Sydney event so just make you’re available on any of the dates that it is held on and email me:
1. Which dish was your favourite from the ones I’ve posted above
2. Which chef it’s by and which restaurant they’re from
3.Your name and address
Email me the answer on nqn.tasteofsydney@gmail.com. Entries close midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time on the 4th of March, 2009.
The lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry is also giving away 3 double passes so you can enter there too!
In some rather exciting news, Not Quite Nigella has made it into the Top 10 of Australian Women Bloggers!
Check out Crazy Meezer for all of the other great Australian women blogs!
The Taste of Sydney festival will be held at the Brazilian Gardens, off Grand Drive, Centennial Park on the 12th-15th March 2009.
Opening times:
Thursday 12th March – 5pm-9pm
Friday 13th March – 11:30am-3:30pm & 5pm-9pm
Saturday 14th March – 11:30am-3:30pm & 5pm-9pm
Sunday 15th March – 12pm-5pm
For more information see their website.
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31 Comments | Add your own
That’s awesome you received an invite to the media launch – well deserved I reckon! and those beetroot macaroons are so cute
Looks wonderful Lorraine! Can’t wait for the festival
If they have plates that big at the actual festival I am SOOOO there!
Looks like it was a fun evening
I’m so going to go to this now. I thought it was like the good food affare but looking a those dishes and I’m thinking yummo!
Congratulations on being a top 10! That’s amazing considering how many bloggers there are out there!
Interesting use of the Betel leaf. I wonder how it tastes considering I’ve only known it to be used by the older people in my culture- for chewing with medicinal herbs.
can’t wait for the festival ^ ^
thanks for review then I can plan first what I wanna try there..hehe
looks like a wonderful event.
i want to eat one of those macaroons – they look cheeky…it’s ok to assign human qualities to food right?
Talk about living the dream!! What a fabulous event – the food looks too amazing for words!
Congratulations for getting in the Top 10 – next news will be that you are at No. 1!
My dear husband was asked to do this – but couldn’t commit to all of the days. But we have our VIP tickets yay!
oh my!
i could live on those mini-morsels of mouthly paradise!
it all looks SO good.
congrats Lorraine on making the top 10 Aussie women bloggers list!
Great pics from a great night! There were so many great dishes on offer.
Looks like a fantastic day out… and media launches are just soo much fun! love the wobbly boob pannacotta.. hahah
Yum! I am drooooling
Sounds like this was a fun event – good on you for being invited. Alas, I won’t be in Sydney at the relevant times, so I will leave the entries to others. Congrats on being named in the Top 10 Aussie women blogger list!
I’m SO going to go to this! I didn’t realise that the food was like THIS! It all looks so good and tasty. Thanks for letting us know about this.
U R the best! I’ve been reading for a long time (but I have been too shy to comment) but I just want to say that you deserve the #9 spot-actually the #1 spot. Keep up the brilliance!
Hi Kathy-Hehe thankyou! It was rather exciting indeed
Hi Christie-Yep me too! Looking forward to hanging out with you there
Hi Cappucino-Hehe they were platters-unfortunately the plates won’t be quite that big!
Hi Brianna- Yes it seems like a combination of the Good Food Affare plus the SMH Good Food Month fair!
Hi Iron Chef Shellie-Thanks so much!
Hi kate-It’s quite delicious and fairly mild tasting and thin so they seem to use it quite a bit. Good to know that there are medicinal qualities to it too!
Hi Bean Sprout-It’s very exciting isn’t it!
Hi reddoorred-LOL they do look rather cheeky and no, there’s never anything wrong with that
Hi Angela-It was really wonderful food indeed
Thanks, I think I’ve got a long way to go to reach #1 but I can always dream! 
Hi Belinda-Aww what a pity. That would have been great but with VIP tickets you’ll have so much fun!
Hi the projectivist-haha me too. It’s amazing how filling those little mouthfuls can be. Thankyou so much!
Hi Helen-Thanks, yes it was a night full of foodie goodness indeed!
Hi Kirsty-Hehe I still daydream about that pannacotta. The taste that is!
Hi Jen-Hehe thanks!
Hi Cakelaw-Aww did you go to the Taste of Melbourne event? That was held before this one. I bet that would have been fantastic!
Thankyou so much! 
Hi Fontaine-Definitely great food and I’d say worth going to on the basis of the food you get to eat alone. You’re more than welcome!
Hi Jane-Thankyou so much! You are too kind!
Goodness. Your blog makes me want to come to Australia on vacation and eat my way through the continent. Amazing pics and wonderful commentary as always.
Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition.
Hi Ericka-You should! It’s a great city to visit for foodies
Thankyou so much, that’s very sweet of you to say!
Hi Suzie-Thanks so much for your kind words
Man, I wish I could go, but being stateside it’s kinda hard. Chef Francisco of the Wobbly Booby dessert is an old friend of mine and I wish could have been there to partake in some jiggly. Everything looks fantastic. I always enjoy your blog and photos.
Hi Bethie-Oh that’s fantastic that he’s an old friend of yours. That dessert was quite a stunner. If he’s at the festival I’ll try and get a photo of him for you
How exciting, all that food looks fantastic! I would definitely be trying the Double Chocolate Hazelnut Baklava (maybe I should try some of the lovely looking savouries before that though)…
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