It’s a steamy Thursday night in Sydney and the Sex and the City discussion pops up. “As everyone gets older, they end up wanting to become Samantha. Essentially we work our way through these female archetypes until we all become cougars” The Second Wife says. There are four of us girls having dinner one night in Surry Hills and indeed it does feel a bit Sex and the City but with some of us wearing thongs having punished our feet all day in high heels (oh would Carrie approve?). We’re volunteer a SATC personality for the evening and The Second Wife confesses to feeling a bit Samantha, Tess claims Miranda quickly and Naomi takes Charlotte.  I’m Carrie but hopefully less annoying and self centered (hopefully!).

We’re ensconced in Fico, a very dark, very subtly signposted bar where people that aspire to eat at Il Baretto huddle over glasses of wine and flirt amongst the flatteringly dark lights. We nibble on some baby calamari fritti and some chicken and mushrooms on skewers but it’s too dark to photograph. “Charlotte” has ordered these because when you walk into Il Baretto at 7:30pm asking for a table, you know you may be waiting for some time. Thankfully her phone rings after a short time and they tell her that there was a cancellation and that a table is ready if we leave now. We take our barely touched bottle of mineral water with us and they don’t bat an eyelid – Fico and Il Baretto are owned by the same people.

We take the short walk to Il Baretto and they’re getting the tables ready. Space is a premium here and we look on in horror at a table clearly for two being set for four diners and we worry that it’s our table. There’s a bar style section at the front side where diners can gaze out towards the street rather than at each other. Thankfully we get a table out towards the back where a breeze blows through on this hot Summer’s night.

“Charlotte” and “Miranda” battle each for the attention of the waiter but true to form, he is busy flirting with The Second Wife aka Samantha. We have to choose their signature dish, the Duck Ragu with Papardelle. I look around and the pasta dishes are huge. I sniff the air and get very hungry “I want that smell” I say.

Duck Ragu with Papardelle $26

Click here to read the full story

“I lufe-a sfeen’s svedeesh peezza. bork. bork. bork.” – The Swedish Chef.

So begins the website menu for Sven’s Viking Pizza. Yes you read right, Vikings apparently eat pizza.

Mr NQN’s colleague just given him with a slice of this Viking pizza and he was a fan of it from the first bite. So on Mr NQN’s tastebud’s recommendation, Queen Viv, Mr NQN and I head there one rainy Summer’s night – Valentines Day to be exact but let’s not stand on ceremony.

We walk in and it’s dimly lit with candles and it’s busy. On the right are individual tables and on the left there is a large wooden communal table made of a thick, nubbly wood. Mr NQN’s Scandinavian heritage comes out and nods his head in quiet approval. On the wall there’s the plushest reindeer skin – it had to be felt to be believed as it’s plusher than any other hide we’ve stroked.

Reindeer skin – has to be touched to be believed!

There is a Swedish armour next to it and a shield which I rather foolishly mistake for a lighting fixture before medieval studies student Queen Viv points out that it is a shield. The menu has a selection of “Swedish Classic” pizzas including toppings such as rib eye with bearnaise, a doner kebab pizza topping and then there’s a section with meat, fish, chicken and vegetarian pizzas all with names representing pieces of Norse mythology. Pizzas come in two sizes: 11inch and 13 inch and half and half pizzas incur a surcharge of $2.50.

“Crumpled” water glasses

We sit down and watch as other tables are brought their meals. The pizzas are huge and thin crusted and the salads are platter sized. We elect to order three half and half pizzas so we get to sample six toppings. When we ask the waitress about the most popular topping she answers with certainty-the #1 aka the “Frö“.

Left: #1 Frö – Worshipped as a male fertility god and Right: #3 Embla- The First Woman on Earth $28

The Frö

Click here to read the full story

Chef Paul Brown with Prince Albert of Monaco at the Royal Palace in Monaco

When I read my fabulous friend’s interview with Paul Brown, the former Executive Chef to the King of Bahrain on her blog She Goes, I was so fascinated by the idea of being the chef for a Royal that I left this comment:

“What an interesting job! I’d love to see what it is like behind the scenes of a royal kitchen so I’d probably talk the poor man’s ear off “

Which led my wonderful friend to asking me whether I’d like to talk to Paul Brown myself and find out a bit more about working for a Royal and not just any Royal but a Middle Eastern Royal! Now the Executive Chef at Stamford Grand in Glenelg, Brown created one of the signature desserts featured in every Sir Stamford, the Chocolate Implosion and later Mr NQN and I got to try one of those too.

So, how did you arrive to be the Senior Executive Chef for the King of Bahrain?

The general manager of palaces was asked by his majesty to find a new Exec Chef. He wanted an Australian Executive Chef because his son the Crown Prince had one and he was very impressed by the way he turned the kitchen around. He asked who are the up and coming chefs in Australia and my name was dropped into the hat.

Club Des Chef Des Chef with chefs from Germany, Greece, Bahrain (Brown) and Canada

Was it a long process?

It was a very long process. It took months and months. First of all were the interviews and everything was agreed and then we were asked to come over. I resigned my position and we were waiting around and one month goes by, two months goes by and three months goes by and we’re wondering “What’s going on?”. I thought this isn’t going to go through so I actually accepted another job back in Sydney. So I was back in Sydney and I got a lease on a house and then they rang me up and said “OK we need you tomorrow”.

Tomorrow?

So I said no problems at all, chucked in the job and you have to lose 3 months of rent on the lease. They said you’re leaving on these flights and we pick up our tickets from Gulf Air because His Majesty owns Gulf Air and they said “No that flight left yesterday”. We changed over our first class tickets to bummy economy just to get over there!

Then we meet the General Manager of Palaces and he said “Welcome to Bahrain, Our Majesty is about to go away on a Summer vacation. We’ll be back in contact soon”. A month went by and we were staying at the Sheraton. They said everything is looked after you just have to pay for alcohol. One month went by with no contact from anybody at all. My wife was starting to stress and we’re wondering “Do we have to pay for this hotel room?”. Our hotel bill was $25-$30,000 but it was a short time later that I got the call saying “OK we need to sort out your medicals and we’ll send a driver around”.

Obviously there had to be background checks. Do they probe deep?

Yes they probe very deep, a lot deeper than you’d think they’d probe. They obviously look into the places you’ve worked for and family background.

Did you travel with the king?

The majority of the we didn’t travel with the king. The kitchen had its own planes so we would travel separately so we’d try to be a day in advance at least or at least half a day in advance. We’d try and get to the destination and have everything ready for when he arrives. We would have multiple teams running to try and always be one step ahead of him. We had lots of planes we could use from the kitchen point of view.

Tell me about the King.

Click here to read the full story