There are three things that I forgot to pack on a trip that I made to Melbourne.

1. An umbrella
2. A thick coat
3. Leggings or stockings

I should have known-silly me. I’ve visited Melbourne enough times to be warned about the four seasons in one day!

That morning I had managed a sleep in an sadly bade a farewell to the Park Hyatt, my glamorous home for the weekend. I cabbed it over to see my fabulous sponsors at Sigma Lenses to have lunch with them. We go to nearby Pacific Seafood BBQ house for a meal which was wonderful because it was just what I felt like eating. Don’t you love it when you are in the mood for something and you get to eat it?

Complimentary soup

The soup is particularly welcome in this chilly weather and is given depth from pork bones and vegetables.

Roast duck, pork and suckling pork platter

Now bizarre as it sounds, an as much as I love pork I don’t usually go for the suckling pork at Chinese restaurants. It’s usually too big a piece and too salty. Here it is different and they slice it more judiciously into thin slices and it is very moreish indeed. Also good is the crispy lacquered skinned roast duck an the char siu. Oh how I love a platter!

Lobster with chilli sauce

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If I said the words “Whose cuisine reigns supreme?” I would hazard a guess that most of you would know that I was quoting a line from the television show Iron Chef. You may also know the names of the Iron Chefs who grace our television screens every Saturday night for seemingly the last few decades (do they ever run out of episodes?). The studious may even know which of the three main chefs has the highest percentage of wins over losses (it is Iron Chef Japanese Michiba at 86.5% followed by Iron Chef French Sakai at 83% and Iron Chef Chinese Chen at 76%). And knowing that they have a loyal fan base, each year the Iron Chefs visit Australia to hold some very special dinner. For $485 per person you can snag a place at a table and for $585 you can get yourself a seat at a VIP table within sweating distance of the chefs.

Each year the event always seems a little different and they appear to have heeded some of the criticism of the last Sydney event in which only one course from each Iron Chef was presented. This year diners receive two courses from each Iron Chef plus two courses and canapes from the RACV chef Mark Normoyle. This is Melbourne’s first Iron Chef dinner and expectations are high and diners are excited. Held in the ballroom of the RACV it is a little function room like and reminds me of the Hilton last year although here we do get windows and a view.  I still loved the room at 2007 Observatory Hotel the best for atmosphere as the over the top opulence matches the dramatic campness of the television show.

I wish I could have brought you some pictures of the canapes and they looked wonderful but in the crush every time I spotted a tray heading in my direction, by the time it got to me it was empty! But before I know it we hear the sounds of the taiko drummers and head inside.

There’s something to be said about VIP seating. And when your seat is right in front of the stage at Iron Chef you realise what a whalloping good view you have of the chefs. There are two huge screens with a Brillat Savarin quote “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are” and the taiko drummers have taken centre sage and are beating out a rhythm that gets the crowds excited. This is Melbourne’s first Iron Chef event and diners appear to be thrilled to be there.

Iron Chef Sakai

They’re not mucking about tonight, Simon Thomsen is up on stage in his  black velvet mandarin jacket and he is playing a less flamboyant Chairman Kaga. He bites into a fruit with gusto and introduces Iron Chef French Sakai who takes his place in front of his picture. He stands holding a pear and waves to the crowd who are cheering enthusiastically. Then a cleaver wielding smiling Iron Chef Chinese Chen comes to take a bow to just as much applause then followed by the RACV’s chef Mark Normoyle.

Iron Chef Chen

“Gonna Fly Now” from  Rocky sounds and the Iron Chefs do a lap around the room. I’m convinced Sakai does it just to check out the pretty girls in the audience as he likes to do. The Iron Chefs are ageless and having a read of their bios I am somewhat surprised to learn that Sakai is 69 years old and Chen is 55 yet they look exactly like they did on the television show which was filmed from 1992-1999.

Chef Mark Normoyle

Sakai looking for girls again!

Iron Chef Sakai is reflected on the screen back in the kitchen where we get glimpses throughout the night of the action happening in the kitchen. They tell us that there are 80 chefs working in the kitchen, many who have just come in on an unpaid volunteer basis just to have the chance to work with the Iron Chefs.

Video of the first course being prepared

And Sakai busy at work

Sakai explains the dish that he has prepared and host Mayumi Uchida translates for him. For this dish they have used 9,000 kilos of Western Australian marron and $2,000 worth of caviar and each guest will get about ten dollar’s worth of caviar in their martini glass. They show a short video of the kitchen preparing the dish that was filmed earlier. Interestingly, the glasses are filled while within plastic lined cardboard boxes and with a prompt the tens of white gloved waiters head towards the kitchen.

Iron Chef Sakai: Marron and pearl meat salad on vichyssoise, mango, consomme jelly,  caviar served with 2009 Phillip Shaw No. 11 Chardonnay, Orange

A few minutes later a martini glass filled with Iron Chef Sakai’s dish arrives. There are plump morsels of wonderfully cooked marron-sweet and tender and not chewy at all. The costly pearl meat has a wonderful texture, softer  than marron and lobster and spongier but not wet and it seems to be the ingredient that many are using nowadays. There are waves of delicately flavoured consomme jelly and a creamy cold vichyssoise soup although the mango flavour is mild in mine and I don’t taste much of it. This dish is really an exercise in slippery textures and it is similar to the first course that he made last year in Sydney.

Iron Chef Sakai and Adam Liaw

They scan the crowd for opinions on the dish and they settle upon Adam Liaw and his girlfriend Asami Fujitsuka who are sitting next to me. Sakai appeared on Masterchef and judged Liaw’s dish and he said that it was good but had some way to go. Liaw is diplomatic when it comes to judging Sakai’s dish and says that when he tried it, he realised that he still had some way to go.

It’s game time as all of these Iron Chef events have had an element of games and fun and Iron Chef Sakai peruses for crowd for girls… ahem I mean judges. Thomsen asks for a giggling female and people that can do American accents before Sakai chooses two women and one man to come back into the kitchen to participate in a challenge.

Iron Chef Chen and his son on the left

The screen flickers again and this time it is Iron Chef Chen. If Sakai is girl mad, Chen is golf mad and they ask him what his handicap is (six by the way) and when Thomsen says that is the Tiger Woods of cooking Chen quickly says “No No no Tiger Woods” (although we’re not sure if he is being modest or averse to being associated with the promiscuous Woods!). We watch some video of Iron Chef Chen and his son who travels with him to all of these events. For this dish, they are using a Victorian abalone.

Chen’s challenge to the three contestants is to plate up the next dish. Ever the clown Chen shows us by plating up the liver sauce haphazardly banging the spoon on the plate and making a mess. He then challenges the three to better his work. The three have 30 seconds in which to do it and they all do a great job. He draws out the suspense for the three by stopping at each one and lingering before declaring the gentleman Salvatore the winner. “Salvatore? Sal…va…to…re?” he says in wondernment of the winner’s name.

A very happy winner!

Iron Chef Chen: Abalone fritters with seaweed salad and roe sauce served with  2010 Petaluma Bridgewater Mill Pinot Grigio, Adelaide Hills, SA

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Reams of paper or bytes of data have been written about Melbourne’s EARL Canteen and their pork belly sandwiches- musings and speak that were heard and lusted after all the way from Sydney. Since opening in April 2010, hordes of people have flocked to EARL Canteen, conveniently situated under Movida Aqui in Little Bourke Street for their sandwich fix. The idea for EARL was formed by two waiters who came up with the idea of opening EARL  after watching chefs prepare snacks out of ingredients that were being served to restaurant diners. It was the ultimate staff meal and fancy snack.

“For the first two weeks we wondered what we had done” owner Jackie says. They were surrounded by financial district people, some of whom love their white bread sandwiches. The issue? EARL Canteen don’t do plain white bread sandwiches, they do sandwiches with fillings like organic asparagus with mushy peas, slow cooked egg, tallegio cream and hazelnuts on a baguette and 12 hour slow cooked lamb, honeyed carrots, gremolata on a baguette. A ham and cheese sandwich on plastic white bread barely belongs in the same category.

Originally a takeaway sandwich store there is limited seating because of this. At lunch, lines stretch out the door and owner Jackie takes orders in the queue. I’m visiting EARL on their first “EARL at night” Friday night where they’re doing cocktails and wine along with their sandwiches as an experiment (although I hear that they no longer open at night).

Small pork belly roll $6

The famous pork belly roll features crunchy skinned Otway pork belly with apple, cabbage and fennel coleslaw with wilted silver beet on a baguette. The pork is soft cooked and done so in an oven which cooks it long and slow so that it falls apart. There are two batons of blistered crunchy pork crackling on top to give it texture. The prized pork even sits under a spotlight to keep it warm. There is a note that the baguette is made by Dench and if diners prefer a softer roll they can have one. I personally may have preferred a softer roll as the baguette’s chewiness took away slightly from the soft gorgeousness of the pork (but given the raves everyone has for it I think I’m in the minority). The mayonnaise is made on the premises using “green eggs” which are said to be so sought after that there is a waiting list for these eggs. You put your name down for the eggs and wait for them to call you!

Duck confit with caramelized wild figs, walnuts, onion jam, radicchio, watercress and ciabatta $16

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