78 Q A N TA S FEBRUA RY 201 5 FASS

NID

GE

PHO

TOG

RA

PHY

: VA

NES

SA L

EVIS

/BA

UER

SYN

DIC

ATIO

N.C

OM

.AU

; DEL

IA: R

OB

SHA

W/B

AU

ERSY

ND

ICAT

ION

.CO

M.A

U; B

RA

HIM

I: M

ARC

EL A

UC

AR/

BAU

ERSY

ND

ICAT

ION

.CO

M.A

U; C

ALO

MBA

RIS:

GU

Y L

AVO

IPIE

RRE;

SH

EWRY

: SH

ARY

N C

AIR

NS/

BAU

ERSY

ND

ICAT

ION

.CO

M.A

U

FOOD INSIDERS

ReportS P E C I A L

Christy Tania

Orange Explosion at Funky Gourmet, Athens

George Calombaris

Matt Wilkinson

Frank Camorra

Guillaume Brahimi Ben Shewry

Shane Delia

Giovanni Pilu

What do visiting or migrant chefs rattling pots and pans in some of Australia’s leading kitchens miss most about restaurants in

their homeland? As Fiona Donnelly discovers, they get homesick for everything from a simple Hong Kong wonton noodle shop to Rome’s best pizza, Athen’s hippest loukoumades or the perfect crab in Kyoto.

LONGING FOR. . .

Colin Fassnidge

FEBRUA RY 201 5 Q A N TA S 81

ORT

EGA

PH

OTO

GR

APH

Y: N

ICO

LA E

DM

ON

DS/

BAU

ERSY

ND

ICAT

ION

.CO

M.A

U; F

ORE

ST A

VEN

UE:

VA

NIA

PO

ON

PATRIZIA SIMONE

Simones Restaurant, BrightBorn in Perugia, Italy

We have coffee and something sweet in the centre of Perugia, always at Pasticceria Sandri (32 Corso Vannucci, Perugia, +39 075 572 4021, www.sandridal1860.it). For pizza, Pizza Mediterranea (11 Piazza Piccinino, +39 075 572 4021). It’s small and seats only a handful. The best ice-cream is at Gelateria Gambrinus (3 Via Luigi Bonazzi, +39 075 573 5620). As it’s Perugia, try the bacci – lovely hazelnut flavours with light chocolate. In Assisi, La Stalla (24 Via Santuario delle Carceri, www.fontemaggio.it/en/restaurant) is glorious; everything is cooked on a huge open fire – in summer outside, in the winter, inside. You leave smelling like a fireplace, but everything is delicious – from sausages and wild greens to torta al testo, a kind of foccacia cooked over a stone on the fire. And beautiful polenta with wild boar sauce! CHRISTY TANIA

Om Nom Kitchen & Dessert Bar, Adelphi Hotel, MelbourneBorn in Jakarta, Indonesia

Mbah Jingkrak (11 Jl Setiabudi Tengah, Jakarta 12910, +62 21 525 2605) means “happy chap” in English. It specialises in Yogyakarta food, central Javanese dishes. The variety is mindboggling. It looks like an old house, but has a huge courtyard with pools and bridges. You sit on top of the water to eat, an experience in itself. Try a papaya flower stir-fry. They also cook chicken in spice, with different grades of

COLIN FASSNIDGE

Four in Hand & 4Fourteen, SydneyBorn in Ireland

Ireland has really picked up its game. I had the best meal at Forest Avenue (8-9 Sussex Terrace, Dublin, forestavenuerestaurant.ie). Run by a couple of ex-Noma chefs, it has very modern European food, but uses Irish ingredients. It is quite minimal and about technique and flavour. I also like The Pig’s Ear (4 Nassau Street, Dublin, thepigsear.com). Three floors and it’s all about secondary cuts and offal, quite similar to what we’re doing at Four in Hand in Sydney.

BEN SHEWRY

Attica, MelbourneBorn in New Zealand

In Auckland, I love Merediths (365 Dominion Road, Mount Eden, merediths.co.nz). It’s owned by young chef Michael Meredith, who has his own voice. He cooks with his heritage using natural produce. It’s innovative and passionate. I like to be able to feel the personality of the person cooking when I go to a restaurant, and here you can. The venison tartare with fried egg and chlorophyll is a great modern play on the classic, but instead of a raw egg, it has crumbed and deep-fried egg. It’s thoroughly delicious. In Wellington, I love Ortega Fish Shack & Bar (16 Majoribanks Street, ortega.co.nz). It’s owned by my mentor Mark Limacher. I’d be happy to eat there every day – from shellfish and fish to great charcuterie and rillettes, good bread and a good glass of wine. It’s a family business with a true sense of hospitality. �

hotness. Mbah Jingkrak is where Indonesians go after work. It’s mainly a younger crowd.

SHANE DELIA

Maha, MelbourneBorn in Malta

I always go to Nenu The Artisan Baker (143 St Dominic Street, Valletta, nenuthebaker.com). It’s in the old city in Port Valletta. It’s not high-end – it’s a bit touristy, but it serves the best traditional Maltese food, apart from my grandma’s. Nenu does fresh-baked ftira – classic Maltese pizza. It’s like a delicious deep-pan crusty pizza topped with beautiful Maltese cheese and tomato. There is also great Maltese ravioli – quite thick dough, filled with ricotta and served in a spiced tomato sauce. Visiting Nenu makes me think about quality produce rather than technique.

ANTHONY LUI

Flower Drum Restaurant, MelbourneBorn in Hong Kong

I like the simple things in life. Mak’s Noodles (77 Wellington Street, Central) is a little shop well-known for wonton noodles. They don’t take bookings, but the service moves fast even when full. I order the noodles with a side of poached Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. The noodles are super-thin and cooked to perfection; just a little al dente and with a sprinkling of garlic chives. A bowl of wonton noodles when I was growing up was such a special thing that even now it holds a special place in my heart.

Jamaican-style jerk salmon at Ortega Fish Shack & Bar (left); Forest Avenue, Dublin (above)

82 Q A N TA S FEBRUA RY 201 5

QU

IMET

& Q

UIM

ET P

HO

TOG

RA

PHY

: JU

STIN

BER

NH

AU

T/BA

UER

SYN

DIC

ATIO

N.C

OM

.AU

GUILLAUME BRAHIMI

Guillaume, SydneyBorn in France

In Paris, I love Le Comptoir (Hôtel Relaise Saint-Germain, 9 Carrefour de l'Odéon, 6ème, hotel-paris-relais-saint-germain.com) – great charcuterie and terrines. It’s owned by my friend Yves Camdeborde and focuses on Pau in south-west France. I also love Restaurant Jean-Francois Piège (79 Rue Saint-Dominque, 7ème, ejeanfrancoispiege.com). Piege is ex-Alain Ducasse. He uses the best seasonal produce. The desserts are beautiful. His chocolate egg is put in the middle of the table and they break it open in front of you. Wonderful! Benoit, Alain Ducasse’s bistro (20 Rue Saint Martin, 4ème, benoit-paris.com) is one of the oldest Paris bistros and I love its consistency. It’s perfect.

GEORGE CALOMBARIS

The Press Club, MelbourneBorn in Melbourne, but his heritage is Greek

For me, Athens is about all the little cracks and crevices. I love Diporto Agoras (9 Sokratous, Athens, 210 321 1463). There’s no sign; it’s really just one little old man with his casserole and a salad. There’s no menu – you don’t even ask. Last time I had sardines brushed with olive oil and grilled, and chickpeas in tomato sauce. Funky Gourmet (13 Paramithias, Keramikos, funkygourmet.com) has two Michelin stars and extraordinary cooking. P Box (11 Levidou, Kifissia, p-box.gr), owned by my mate Christoforos, is like a Greek version of a New York bagel place. They do baked eggplant with miso and seaweed, so you get Greek, but in a different, creative way. Lukumades (21 Aiolou, Monastiraki, 210 321 0880) is a very cool shop, just selling Greek doughnuts (loukoumades ).

GEORGE FRANCISCO

Roberts Circa 1876, Hunter Valley, NSWBorn in the USA

Oceana (739 Conti Street, New Orleans, oceanagrill.com) blows me away in an authentic, New Orleans kind of food way. It really has a lot to do with childhood memories. The gumbo was exactly how I remembered it. �

FRANK CAMORRA

MoVida, Melbourne & SydneyBorn in Spain

My birthplace is Barcelona and for something really casual, my favourite is Quimet & Quimet (25 Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes, Barcelona, 93 442 3142). It’s a beautiful old place and has no chef. It offers preserved foods – hams, cheeses, fish. The owner, Quim, makes amazing montaditos , little bites of meat and cheese on crispy bread. It’s famous for vermouth and it is traditional to go for a glass of wine or vermouth before lunch on Sunday. It is all about the simplicity. It’s always very busy and there are no bookings and not many tables, so it’s likely you’ll be standing. Granja Elena (228 Passeig de la Zona Franca, Barcelona, 93 332 0241) is another humble place. I remember a suckling pig shoulder, the whole shoulder roasted to perfection – so juicy and crisp, simple and amazing flavours.

ALEJANDRO CANCINO

Urbane Group, BrisbaneBorn in Argentina

Tegui (5852 Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, tegui.com.ar) is always good. It’s a modern Argentinian restaurant run by Germán Martitegui. It has a unique style and he changes the menu so you can have different food each time you go. I like the freedom the chef works with – the menu is him, every day. The food is really great, but the ambience and service are even better.

GIOVANNI PILU

Pilu, SydneyBorn in Sardinia

When I’m in Rome I go to Gabriele Bonci’s Pizzarium (43 Via della Meloria, 06 3974 5416) for pizza al taglio and a Birra del Borgo (beer). It’s Roman pizza, so it’s on a tray – they cut a piece, wrap it in paper and you eat it in your hand. It’s a hole in the wall, very small. They do only four or five flavours and maybe some arancini. The dough is incredible. Bonci lets it prove for 48 hours, so it’s really light and airy. And the toppings! He uses the best of the best – tomatoes from Napoli, seasonal white truffles from Alba. He’s crazy about produce. In Sardinia, S’Apposentu di Casa Puddu (3 Vico Cagliari, Siddi VS, sapposentu.it) is Roberto Petza’s one Michelin-starred restaurant. It’s not far from Cagliari and 80 per cent of the ingredients are local. It’s in an old pasta factory with a small restaurant and a cooking school.

MATT WILKINSON

Pope Joan, MelbourneBorn in England

I love the simplicity of the food in Fergus Henderson’s St John Bread & Wine (94-96 Commercial Street, Spitalfields, London stjohngroup.uk.com). Sometimes we overthink food, so eating the anchovy buns makes you realise simple is good. Eating food like this gives me the confidence to keep pushing.

FOOD INSIDERS

Clockwise from above: Funky Gourmet pastitsio; Quimet & Quimet tapas; Merediths poultry

8 4 Q A N TA S FEBRUA RY 201 5

CH

OPS

TIC

KS/P

ROD

UC

E IN

EA

CH

CO

RNER

PH

OTO

GR

APH

Y: G

ETTY

IMA

GES

; OTH

ER P

ROD

UC

E/C

HAT

UC

HA

K M

ARK

ET: C

HRI

STO

PHER

WIS

E

CHEFS OFF-DUTYWhere do the world’s most-acclaimed chefs

eat? Neil Perry asks celebrated colleagues

to share the dining secrets of their

workplace cities.

Bangkok’s Chatuchak weekend market, and local produce

Australian-born chef David Thompson, of Bangkok’s acclaimed Nahm restaurant, likes to eat on the street.

BANGKOK IS BAFFLING, but there’s more to the city than the craziness and the din – there’s the substance, grace and soul. In fact, the soul and the stomach are two of the most abiding elements of Thai culture. Thais are obsessed with food. If they are not eating it, they are buying it, preparing it or asleep, dreaming of it. Yet one of the great paradoxes of Thailand is that though there is great food and excellent markets, you can sometimes be hard-pressed to find a great Thai restaurant, as most Thais prefer to eat in the markets and on the street.

Or Tor Kor market (Thanon Kamphaengphet) is open every day from about 10am and closes around 4pm, and has some of the best produce in Bangkok. It is modernised, slightly sanitised, but still full of soul and sustenance. Down one end is the fresh produce – fish, seafood and meat. Then comes the most beguiling array of fruits and vegetables, jackfruits, mangoes, lychees and custard apples, basil, tamarind and melons, all tender, ripe and ready to eat. Along

the aisle closest to the street, after several stalls of fruit, the prepared food begins. Curries of all colours and types: rich, sweet and sour Muslim curries; tart, sour orange curries with prawns and Siamese watercress; and the more familiar green and red, wait in pots luring Thais to their fate – lunch with rice. Along one of the cross aisles are a few great stalls that sell the most succulent cured pork sausage, grilled and served with ginger and chillies. The sweets are worth the trip, too. Thais believe their desserts are the pinnacle of the cuisine, and the stalls here are a testament to this faith. There are mountains of sweet, glistening rice with rich coconut cream, paired with mango, jackfruit or, my favourite, durian. Sweet jackfruit dumplings and golden strands of eggs, and grilled bananas beckon. Make sure you have the fresh sugar-cane juice, which is pressed every morning, and repairs, refreshes and prepares you for the rest of the day.

At the weekend, cross the street for the Chatuchak weekend market (chatuchak.org), a wild, crowded jumble of a place �

FOOD INSIDERS SPECIAL REPORT

B A NG KOK

Where do the world’s mo

eat? Neil Perry asks celebratey

to share the dining secrets of th

workplace cities.

Australian-born chef stralian-born ch David Thompson, of Bangkimed Nahm restaurant, likes to eat on the sacclaimed Nahm

BANGKOK IS BAFFLING, more to the city but there’s mss and the din – there’s the substance, grace han the craziness and the din – there’s the substathe soul and the stomach are two of the most I fact, the soul and the stomach are two o

f Thai culture. Thais are obsessed with food. ure. Thais are obsessed wng it, preparing it or asleep, re buying it, preparing it

and is that adoxes of Thailasometimes ucan s

i prefer

the aisle closest to the street, afterfood begins. Curries of all coloMuslim curries; tart, sour oranwatercress; and the more famThais to their fate – lunch wita few great stalls that sell tgrilled and served with gintrip, too. Thais believe thand the stalls here are a

t glistening ricefavou

86 Q A N TA S FEBRUA RY 201 5

PHO

TOG

RA

PHY

: LA

URE

JOLI

ET

FOOD INSIDERS SPECIAL REPORT

with bars, clothes, antiques and almost everything else you can imagine. The plant/flower section has clove and cinnamon plants, durian and jasmine, myriad banana trees and every type of herb. In the late afternoon, as the heat eases and the shadows stretch, the bars spread out and people lounge as the music plays.

I have two favourite street restaurants, one next to the other on Plaeng Naam Road near the inter-section of Charoen Krung in Chinatown. At Nai Mong Hoi Nang Tort (539 Thanon Phlapp-laachai) the oyster omelette is one of the best renditions I have had. A crisp and rich base of eggs topped with an unctuous sauce of oysters and spring onions. Sprinkle it with some white pepper and splash over the Sriracha chilli sauce and you’ll understand why the place has been going for 40 years. All locals would know it, though, as the oyster omelette house. For non-locals, look for the two mirrors on the wall and the dark smoky pan sticking out onto the street. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from around lunchtime and closes at about 8pm. It just has the one dish, but it’s irresistible.

The nearby Raan Kao Dtom Jaesuay shop on Plaeng Naam Road has some of the nicest street food in Bangkok. I don’t think it can be called a restaurant. It’s really just a shopfront with a kitchen at the back and a table filled with various raw ingredients, and plastic chairs and tables spilling along the pavement and onto the street. It’s a casual and easy place that is so typical of the Sino-Thai food of the street – various trays of dishes sitting on ice – squid, scallops, crunchy pork belly along with Chinese broccoli, garlic chives and snow-pea shoots. There is no menu; you point to the ingredients you want and they will tell you how they cook it: crunchy pork with Chinese broccoli; squid with snow peas; bean curd with Chinese sausage. I always order the smoked duck. It’s prepared in the nearby Dtalart Gao market, where it is salted and smoked over sugar cane, resulting in the most delicious mahogany-coloured bird. You should also try the minced pork with Thai olive, and little mussels fried with chillies and coriander.

Apsorn’s Kitchen (503-505 Samsen Road, Dusit, between Wat Rachathiwat and the National Library), also known as Krua Apsorn, is an unprepossessing place, bright, neon-lit and functional, but always full of Thais. They have the best crab stir-fried in curry powder, deep-fried kingfish with green mango, and yellow curry with prawns and lotus shoots – clear, tart and spicy, it is an exemplary lesson in honed balance. I also like the stir-fried pork with oyster sauce and crunchy garlic.

ORI MENASHE

Bestia, Los Angeles

Los Angeles has finally become one of the best cities in the world for great food. For fresh, traditional sushi, I go to Sushi Gen (422 East 2nd Street, 213 617 0552, sushigen-dtla.com). For Thai, I usually head to Night + Market Song (3322 West Sunset Boulevard, 323 665 5899, nightmarketsong.com). Chef Kris puts great flavours and spice in the food. The menu is unique while still staying authentic. For steak, go to Chi Spacca (6610 Melrose Avenue, 323 297 1133, chispacca.com). They buy high-quality ingredients and make great food. �

LOS ANGELES HAS FINALLY BECOME ONE

OF THE BEST CITIES IN THE WORLD FOR

GREAT FOOD... Ori Menashe

LOS A NG E L E S

Night + Market Song (left); and its chef Kris Yenbamroong

g else youve andnana , as rs

s. t

ts d er

ou’ll ears.

melette the wall

eet. It openss closes at abouut ttttt

n Plaeng Naam ok. I don’t thinkshopfront with h various raw ling along the

l h i

88 Q A N TA S FEBRUA RY 201 5 FEBRUA RY 201 5 Q A N TA S 89

SPECIAL REPORT FOOD INSIDERS

CLO

VE

CLU

B PH

OTO

GR

APH

Y: A

LIC

IA T

AYLO

R/BA

UER

SY

ND

ICAT

ION

.CO

M.A

U

COPE N H AG E N

RENÉ REDZEPI

Noma, Copenhagen

Restaurant Amass (153 Refshalevej, 4358 4330, amassrestaurant.com), is run by Matt Orlando, once my head chef at Noma. It’s perhaps one of the most interesting restaurants in the whole region, with a team of young professionals who want to challenge the preconceptions of the fine-dining world. He bends all the dogmas on service, structuring a menu and ingredients. Soon, you’ll have to wake up very early in the morning to book a table.

Relae (41 Jægersborggade, 3696 6609, restaurant-relae.dk) is a modern classic. Chef Christian Puglisi serves some of the most precise cooking in town. His style and aesthetic is emulated around the globe. It’s affordable, vegetable-based and a must. Kadeau has two restaurants, one in Copenhagen (10a Wildersgade, 3325 2223, kadeau.dk) and the other a short flight away on Bornholm island (18 Baunevej, Vestre Sømark, Pedersker, Åkirkeby, 5697 8250). On the beach, surrounded by sand dunes and wild beach roses, you literally taste the place. The food is prepared with fresh

ingredients and cooked so they kiss the border between raw and cooked. There’s a lot of wild food on the menu – fish, plants, roots, berries.

CHRISTIAN PUGLISI

Relae, Copenhagen

For a truly Danish experience, have smørrebrød for lunch at Schönemann (16 Hauser Plads, 3312 0785, restaurants chonnemann.dk). The open-faced sandwich is probably the best in town. Mirabelle (29 Guldbergsgade) is my own bakery, but Carol Choi is one of the most talented people I’ve worked with. Her quest for creating the best possible bread and croissant has made the bakery a huge success..

Geist (8 Kongens Nytorv, 3313 3713, restaurant geist.dk) is flashy and beautiful, headed by the charismatic Danish TV chef Bo Bech. The food is inventive and creative.

LON DON

PHIL HOWARD

Square Restaurant, Mayfair

Isaac McHale is the current “chefs’ chef” in London. At The Clove Club (Shoreditch Town

Hall, 380 Old Street, 020 7729 6496, thecloveclub.com), his fiercely intelligent cooking displays huge creativity and is always wonderful to eat. Isaac trained at The Ledbury, so his appreciation of the importance of flavour is the bedrock for all his cooking, which is full of spirit. Located in fashionable Shoreditch, this is perhaps the finest cooking in London at the moment.

If you want to eat wonderful food in a simple yet buzzing environment, then The River Cafe (Thames Wharf, Rainville Road, 020 7386 4200, rivercafe.co.uk) is the place to head. This is staggeringly good, ingredient-led Italian cooking. The menu is rigorously seasonal and it is a joy to eat here at any time of the year. The River Cafe is where I come if I fancy a piece of fish, often wood-roasted. An iconic London restaurant.

If you want to see what a three Michelin-star dining experience is all about, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (68 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, 020 7352 4441, gordonramsay.com) sets the benchmark. Clare Smyth is now at the helm, and her cooking is both highly skilled and staggeringly delicious. And the service is unequalled, possibly worldwide. A truly exceptional restaurant.

BRETT GRAHAM

The Ledbury, Notting Hill

Sushi Tetsu (12 Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell, 020 3217 0090, sushitetsu.co.uk) serves the best sushi and sashimi in London. It is very small and seats only eight guests. Chef Toru Takahashi clearly enjoys what he does, so let him decide on the menu. Start with a cold beer then a bottle of their superb sake. The only problem is getting a booking, but persevere. Hedone (301-303 Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, 020 8747 0377, hedonerestaurant.com) is worth going to for the bread alone. Chef Mikael Jonsson is a phenomenal cook, and his produce is outstanding. This small, intimate restaurant is without doubt one of the top places to eat in the British capital.

S I NGA P OR E

TETSUYA WAKUDA

Waku Ghin, Singapore

For the finest Shanghai cuisine in Singapore, go to Imperial Treasure Shanghai Cuisine (391 Orchard Road, 6836 6909, imperialtreasure.com). It feels like you are in Shanghai because of

the ingredients they use. There’s a perfect balance in taste, excellent presentation and incredible service. Sky on 57 (Level 57, Tower 1, Sands SkyPark, 6688 8857, marinabaysands.com) has an amazing view of Singapore, and serves local cuisine with a French touch. If you want to be on top of Singapore, this is the place to be.

ANDRÉ CHIANG

Restaurant AndrÉ, Singapore

Sungei Road Laksa (31 Kelantan Lane) is a small hawker food stall that has been going since 1956. They still use charcoal to boil the laksa soup base and the price is still only $SG2 ($1.90). This is where I go for the most authentic laksa flavour in Singapore. The broth is more savoury and lighter in the coconut flavour, so you can really taste the layers of the soup base. Burnt Ends (20 Teck Lim Road, 6224 3933, burntends.com.sg) is a gourmet Australian barbecue restaurant that I part-own and is headed up by chef Dave Pynt. Dave uses top produce in startling combinations. The cooking styles here are straight-shooting: wood fire, elevation grills and so on. Select the ingredients you’re hankering after and leave the cooking to the chef. A hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant,

Jade Palace Seafood Restaurant (583 Orchard Road, 6732 6628, jadepalace.com.sg) is deliciously authentic. They have 20 different kinds of clay-pot rice dishes, all true to cuisine and cooked from raw rice.

N E W YOR K

THOMAS KELLER

Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, USA

New York is a town with so many important and exciting places to eat, it’s hard to narrow down a few choices. Lincoln Ristorante (142 West 65th Street, 212 359 6500, lincolnristorante.com) is where former Per Se chef de cuisine Jonathan Benno serves his extraordinary pasta. A classic favourite is Cafe Boulud (20 East 76th Street, 212 772 2600, cafeboulud.com/nyc). Daniel Boulud’s neighbourhood cafe exudes old-school, old-world New York. Finally, Masa (10 Columbus Circle, 212 823 9807, masanyc.com), which shines as a result of the serious respect chef Masa gives to high-quality ingredients he transforms. At each of these establishments, the chefs and their teams are raising the standards of our profession, and that keeps me going back. A

From far left: The Clove Club: entrance, charcuterie and Madeira