The golden ahem … black ticket!

I look around and survey the crowd standing outside the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom. There’s not a single Chairman Kaga outfit in sight. Despite this lack of frills and puffy shirts, there is excitement in the air as about 300 eager diners holding a ticket enter the waiting area for the Iron Chef dinner, 2010. When I first started this blog just under three years ago, I had won myself tickets to the Iron Chef dinner 2007. It was an event that I thought was brilliant from start to finish and one that I pegged “A once in a lifetime experience”. Little did I realise that only a few years later I would have the privilege of dining at the Iron Chef Dinner 2010 thanks to the lovely people at Chef’s Armoury who specialise in Japanese knives.

Autographed books for sale

Beef and black bean canapes

Pork ball canapes

At $385 a ticket, prices are lower than the previous event we attended (where they were $495) and they’ve managed to fit in a lot more people whereas at the Observatory Hotel, they fit 120 people.  The function staff serve us canapes provided by Sushi Samurai. There are porcelain spoons with deep fried beef pieces in a bean sauce, scallop sushi, salmon roe sushi and oyster tempura with the oyster tempura being the pick of the lot. Sparkling wine and soft drinks are flowing and everyone is excited to start. There are signed cookbooks in Japanese available for purchase for $60 each.

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Taiko drummers

The music starts from inside the ball room. There’s a frisson of excitement throughout the crowd as we sense the start of the event proper. There are taiko drums beating and they open the doors to reveal the space. There are two huge projection screens on each side of the stage and on each one reads a quote:

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“Oh they’re just photographing the celebrities over there” the smiling hostess says “So you can go that way” she says pointing in the other direction. I laugh, yes we’re not famous and apparently the left side is for the celebrities and the right is for the non celebrities. At tonight’s Ferrero Rondnoir event is Jade McRae who is tiny and wearing a column dress and tousled curls, Michelle Bridges from The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Masterchef who is thin with an amazing bottom (yes I noticed!), Charlotte Dawson who is friendly with amazing cleavage (yes I noticed!), Australia’s Next Top Model winner Demelza Reveley who is gorgeous and amazingly tall (it’s hard not to notice that), designer Wayne Cooper, Sarah Marsh, newsreader Natarsha Belling, Konstantina Mittas and Adriano Zumbo and of course Tobie Puttock. Did I mention him? No, well Tobie is putting together a degustation for us based on the Ferrero Rondnoir. And read on later for my Q&A with chef Tobie!

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This past weekend, for the first time ever, Sydney hosted The World Chef Showcase. When I first heard about this Chefapalooza I was excited to be invited to it and chose to attend Saturday’s World session featuring many of the world’s rock star chefs. I’m not simply using that as a trite term but some of them are into their music almost as much as their food. Case in point is the 18 guitar owning Spanish chef Sergi Arola, a disciple of Ferran Adria. He worked with Adria for 8 years in his kitchen and melds music with food with art. Just don’t mention the word “Tapas”…

There are three sessions on this Saturday, the first being Thailand/Vietnam, the second being China and the third being World which I am scheduled for. Each in a different room of Star City’s ballrooms and there is round table style seating with a stage at the front where there are two kitchen set-ups. Facing the stage, on the left is the Australian counterpart for the Overseas Chef. The first session today is with Sergi Arola of Gastro restaurant and Brent Savage of Bentley Bar. Matt Preston is at the microphone with his deep, husky voice booming a greeting to all. There are drinks on the table and mints and writing pads provided. The lighting is a little low (so please excuse the photographs).

Sergi’s Coca with Foie Gras and Capsicum

Sergi tells us of his impressions of Australia which start with his first encounter: The Church’s song “Almost With You” which he listened to for 3 days straight. He says that he learnt English through songs like this and interestingly enough, he even had a band called “Los Canguros” (the Kangaroos). He shows us some images from Gastro where the menu changes monthly and the food is strikingly beautiful. At the restaurant bread is made every day using organic flour and he explains the pictures of the Duck hams hanging in the cellar which drives his sommelier spare. There are photos of two kitchens – there are two, one for service and one for mise en place (where they prepare everything to cook). He then introduces us to Torsten his Swedish executive chef whom he says  hails from “The Swedish part of Spain” and whom he says is more Spanish than most Spanish.

Duck hams hanging in the wine cellar

Now his issue with tapas is related to how he feels about customers and eating. “The main part of the restaurant is the guest, not the chef or anyone else “My ego is big but that as (sic) big“. He tells us that the service is the thing that separates the good from exceptional restaurants. He also tells us that “tapas is a way of life” and for Spanish, it is what you have when you’re with friends. He starts to make his first dish, the Ajo Blanco with Cherry Caviar and Asparagus which is made with fresh almond milk cooked for 12-14 hours. He shows us how to make each item telling us his names for certain pieces of equipment like the siphon which he calls “Devil Machine“. He uses tweezers to place everything on the dish, a rather cheffy thing to do to get the right placement.

“I try and make things more simple. Life is so complicated” he says to much nodding among the audience. He is also involved with the Oceana charity and says that he doesn’t use or eat tuna in his restaurant along with shark or turtle. With the duck liver he uses, he says that he only uses a supplier that treats his animals with respect. He also declares that Spanish olive oil is the best olive oil in the world.

His version of Patatas Bravas

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