Gault&Millau's The Yellow Guide launches in Sydney

Sydney is about to be hit with another restaurant guide, awarding hats and scores out of 20 no less. Launched last night at food lovers destination, Salt Meats Cheese, with a crowd of chefs, champagne and canapés, Gault&Millau Australia's 'The Yellow Guide' for Sydney 2014 is the newest kid on the reviewing block.

Gault&Millau Australia's 'The Yellow Guide' Sydney 2014

Hailing from France, Gaullt&Millau (for us Aussies, phonetically pronounced "Go Me-yo") Australia recruited industry professionals and trained them to international Gault&Millau reviewing standards; evaluating more than 1000 meals for the inaugural Sydney guide.

While scores out of 20 are pretty standard, no restaurant scoring less than 10 appears in the Yellow Guide; resulting in more than 300 of what are considered to be Sydney's best published in the guide.

Gault&Millau Australia's hat system

Hats are awarded differently to the current incumbent system, starting with 1 hat for a score of 11 or 12, up to 5 golden hats for a perfect score of 20. The addition of a score/icon for venues with 12 or more cheeses offered is a very French touch.

The restaurant reviews are generally longer than the bite-sized ones in the incumbent guide, with some spanning whole pages but the majority being half pages of a smallish font size.

Gault&Millau Australia's top hatted restaurants

And while there are many similarities up the top hatted end, it's the three, two and one hats in Gault&Millau Yellow Guide that are particularly different; with hats awarded in much greater volumes from three hats and down.

There are currently no 5 golden hat restaurants in Sydney, though I'm not sure that's even a realistic result. It's yet to be seen how Gault&Millau Australia will be received - by restaurants and diners - but another perspective can't be all bad. Congratulations to the Yellow Guide's hats in Sydney.

Five hats (18.5 to 19 points)
Momofuku Seiobo, Quay, Sepia

Four hats (17 to 18.4 points)
Billy Kwong, The Bridge Room, Chiswick Restaurant and Bar, est., Gastro Park, Jonah's Restaurant, Marque, MoVida, Rockpool, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sean's Panaroma, sixpenny, Tetsuya's

Three hats (15 to 16 points)
Altitude Restaurant, ARIA Restaurant, Arras, The Bathers' Pavilion, Bei Amici, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, Bistro Boulevard, BLACK by Ezard, Busshari, Cafe Sydney, Cara & Co (closed), Catalina, China Doll, Clareville Kiosk, Cottage Point Inn, The Cut Bar & Grill, The Devonshire, Fix St James, Flying Fish Restaurant & Bar, 4Fourteen, Four in Hand Dining Room, Fratelli Paradiso, Kitchen by Mike, Longrain, Lucio's, Ms. G's, Otto Ristorante, Pendolino, Pilu at Freshwater, Pony Dining (The Rocks), Popolo, Porteno, Restaurant Atelier, Spencer Guthrie, Spice Temple, Tastevin Bistro & Wine Bar, Tomislav Restaurant, Uccello, Verde Restaurant + Bar, Vini

Two hats (13 to 14 points)
A Tavola, Agape Organic Restaurant, Almond Bar, Ananas Bar & Brasserie, The Apollo, Aqua Dining, Ash St. Cellar, Azuma Chifley, Balla, Bambini Trust, Bar H, Barbuto Restaurant, Baroque Bistro Patisserie, Barrenjoey House, Barrio Chino, The Bellevue Dining Room, Berta, Bishop Sessa, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode CBD, Blancharu, bloodwood, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Bondi's Best, Bronte Road Bistro, Buffalo Dining Club, Buon Ricordo, The Burlington, Burnt Orange, Buzo Trattoria, Cafe Lyon, Chef's Gallery, China Beach, Chophouse, Cipri Italian, Cucinetta Ristorante & Bar, deviate, The Dining Room, The Duck Inn Pub & Kitchen, Dunes Restaurant & Kiosk, Enopizzeria, Felix, The Fish Shop, Foley Lane, Foveaux Restaurant & Bar, Garfish Manly, Ginger & Spice, glass brasserie, Glebe Point Diner, Gowings Bar & Grill, Grecian Blue, Hartsyard, honeycomb, House, Hugos Manly, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, il perugino, Intermezzo Ristorante, Jah Bar, Kabuki Shoroku, Kalevu, Kobe Jones Teppanyaki, Letoile, La Rosa Bar & Pizza, La Tratt, La Trattoria on Norton, Luke Benchmark, Malabar @ Darlinghurst, Manly Wine, Manta, Mexicano, Mission Restaurant and Bar, Morena, Mr Wong, Neptune Palace, Neutral Bay Diner, Nilgiri's, North Bondi Italian Food, O Bar and Dining, Ocean Room, Ormeggio at The Spit, Orto Trading Co, Oscillate Wildly, The Owl House, The Pantry, PaperPlanes, Pizza Mario, Pompei's, Public Dining Room, Red Lantern on Crown, Restaurant 16, Ripples Chowder Bay, Ripples Milsons Point, Ripples Sydney Wharf, Rocket Restaurant, Sails on Lavender Bay, Sake Restaurant & Bar, the sardine room, Signorelli Gastronomia, Sokyo, Spice I Am Darlinghurst, Starfish Avalon, Steel Bar & Grill, sugarcane, Sugaroom, sushi e, tapioca, The Tea Room Gunner's Barracks, Three Blue Ducks, Toko Restaurant & Bar, Ume, Verandah Restaurant & Wine Bar, Wilbur's Place, Wildfire, The Wine Library, Xanthi, Yoshii, Zaaffran

One hat (11 to 12 points)
Aki’s Indian, Angel Restaurant, Antoine’s Grill, BAHBW, Banjo Patterson Cottage Restaurant, Bau Truong, Beppi’s, bills, Bistro Bruno, Bitton Café & Grocer, Blue Eye Dragon, The Boathouse Palm Beach, Booth St Bistro, Brown Sugar, Café Sopra, The Carrington, Cavallino, Chairman Mao, Chat Thai, Chinta Ria Mood for Love, The Cook’s Garden, Courtney’s Brasserie, Danny’s Seafood, Delicado Foods, Din Tai Fung World Square, The Eathouse Diner, Efendy, Emmilou, Fei Jai, Firefly Neutral Bay, Fish Face, 42 Bannerman Trattoria e Bar, Galileo Restaurant, Garfish Crows Nest, Garfish Kirribilli, Gazebo Wine Bar, Golden Century Seafood Restaurant, Grappa Ristorante e Bar, The Grounds of Alexandria, HaNa Ju-Rin, Harvest Store & Kitchen, Hickson Road Bistro, High St Bistro, Home Thai, Hugos Bar Pizza, Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant, Izakaya Fujiyama, Jamie’s Italian, Ju Ge Mu & Shimbashi, Kazbah Balmain, Kobe Jones Sydney, Kujin, La Brasserie, La Grand Bouffe, La Grillade, La Pesa Trattoria, La Scala on Jersey, Lachlan’s Restaurant, love.fish, Lucio Pizzeria, Machiavelli Ristorante, Malabar@Crow’s Nest, The Malaya, Mamak, The Morrison Bar & Oyster Room, New Shanghai, Nostos, The Old Library, Oliveto Ristorante & Bar, Osteria Riva, Palace Chinese Restaurant, Palings, Parma, Pony Neutral Bay, Quattro Paste, Queenies, Radio Cairo, Red Chilli Sichuan Restaurant, Red Lantern on Riley, Rengaya, Ripples Whale Beach, The Riverview Hotel Dining Room, Safi, Sakana-Ya, Seven Lanterns, Spice I Am Balmain, Stella Blu, Stuyvesant’s House, Szechuan Garden Restaurant, Temasek, 3 Weeds Restaurant, Treehouse, The Union Restaurant, Via Napoli Pizzeria, Vicinity Dining, WAQU, Wildwater Grill, The Winery

Food, booze and shoes attended the launch of Gault&Millau's The Yellow Guide as a guest, with thanks to Savannah PR.

Three's a charm at Taste of Sydney

Taste of Sydney 2013, Centennial Park, Sydney

Another year, another filling weekend spent at Taste of Sydney. Blessed by the weather gods this year, I was particularly looking forward to the four days at Centennial Park following a preview 'Taste safari' trip with the organisers and PR firm the week prior.

The chefs of Taste of Sydney 2013

On arrival at the Miele VIP lounge on a cloud-threatened Thursday evening, it was Laurent Perrier champagne and canapés all round as we readied for the Best in Taste awards announcement as part of the opening night gala event - a little 'Oscars' of Taste.

It was chock-a-block in the Miele tent as Kitchen by Mike was awarded the best front of house display. Popolo won third place in the Best in Taste with its pasta offering while Longrain took out second place for its rice noodle dish.

It was full attention for the announcement of the Best in Taste award which went to Taste first-timer Porteño for its wagyu beef brisket, cooked in an American style barbeque which was shipped over especially from the US.

Elvis Abrahanowicz and Ben Milgate from Porteño

Post the awards announcement and a quick bubbles top-up, we made a beeline for the Porteño restaurant stall, which turned out to be a very good idea as they queues quickly grew and stayed that way for most the rest of the festival.

It was all hands on deck with maitre'd Sarah Doyle in charge of distributing plate upon plate of barbecued goodness from the hands of Elvis Abrahanowicz and Ben Milgate.

BBQ wagyu beef brisket with BBQ sauce and pickle from Porteño

The best dish of the festival as deemed by the judges, Porteño BBQ wagyu brisket comprised a few slices of fat-streaked beef, smoked to a point of redness and fall-apart tenderness.

The rich meat was set off perfectly with a subtly smokey BBQ sauce and a pickle, while the crisp and creamy coleslaw mound beneath was a total highlight for me.

Chorizo with chimmichurri from Porteño

I couldn't resist Porteño's chorizo dish either; something I had in mind to try on my next visit to the Surry Hills restaurant.

The chubby and chunky pork sausage burst with flavour and spiced juiciness, and was served a with fresh and herbaceous chimmichurri that was a meat-eater's match.

Jackie M and Poh Ling Yeow at Malaysia Kitchen stall

We scurried towards the unmistakeable spice smells of Malaysia Kitchen feature, where Jackie M, Poh Ling Yeow and a Malaysia Tourism official launched their first year of participation in Taste of Sydney.

A demo kitchen was set up aside stalls selling Malaysian sauces, pastes and snacks, while a different pop-up restaurant was featured every day.

Poh Ling Yeow demonstrates Hokkien noodles in the Malaysia Kitchen feature

Poh did a quick demonstration of Hokkien noodles in a dark soy sauce, which had the tent area salivating at the aromas and queuing for the subsequent samples.

Dilmah tea lounge

Dilmah had quite the luxurious tea lounge on site where free cups of tea were offered alongside a high tea experience.

Biota Dining chef James Viles in the Dilmah Chef's Skillery tent

Also a new feature of Taste was the Dilmah Chef's Skillery which was presenting chefs in a number of up-close sessions demonstrating a particular skill, with a few tea leaves thrown in, of course.

Bowral's Biota Dining chef and director James Viles was good fun to watch as he torched tea leaves to make a smoked tea butter, churned with a KitchenAid and 45% fat content cream from his local dairy farmer, and strained through a (brand new) blue Chux wipe and served on a river stone.

Croquette - Southern crayfish with paleta and Biota garden onions

Biota had a restaurant stall popping-up as part of the Destination Dining feature which this year featured three regional NSW restaurants.

Viles' passion for his sustainable practices, and a few pre-event tweets, had me excited for his croquette offering. The crunchiest golden crumb you ever did see, or hear, held fluffy potato-ey innards with sea-sweet Southern crayfish flesh.

And while it was the crayfish I was most excited to try, I was blown away by the creamy white onion purée served beneath the three croquettes which had sweetness and heat in equally thrilling parts.

Roast Murray Valley prok salad, crisp rice, mint, chilli and peanuts from Longrain

We shuffled next door to the Taste-seasoned Longrain guys whose Thai salads are a never-fail. The topping of triangles of pork crackling bode well for the roast pork salad, with the amazing crackling balanced with fresh flavours of mint, lime and a fair whack of fresh chilli.

Chia seeds with a Nudie crushie

Pasta from Pasta Gallery

Chocolate, yuzu curd, miso butterscotch from Three Blue Ducks

While there was a suitable amount of tasting to be done across the exhibiting stalls, not even including the dozens of wine stalls, we found room for dessert from Three Blue Ducks, drawn in by the promise of yuzu curd.

It was a surprisingly harmonious combination of rather diverse ingredients with just the right amount of richness: chocolate ganache, curd, cake bits, citrus segments lightening the whole lot and even honeycomb from memory.

Taste of Sydney weekend

Weekend crowds at Taste of Sydney

I returned to Taste on the weekend, where a it seems a great proportion of Sydney decided to spend a rare sunny weekend. The stiflingly hot Saturday was somewhat better than the windy Sunday, but in all, it was great outdoor festival weather, and Sydney was loving it.

Cointreau Strawberry and Mint Fizz

Having being introduced to the Cointreau Fizz recently (with Dita Von Teese), it was hard to resist an icy, freshly mixed drink in the heat.

Most irresistible was the plastic Cointreau conical flasks the drinks were served in, with strawberry and mint or cucumber and lime or a number of other flavour combination, and Cointreau and soda water as a base. I'll be able to make my own fizz in a flask at home now too.

Jackie M char kway teo demonstration at the Malaysia Kitchen feature

Over the whole festival, Jackie M and Poh were alternating demonstrations in the Malaysia Kitchen feature. I caught Jackie M doing char kway two with chicken, which she told the audience wasn't exactly traditional but "whatever" - totally my attitude to cooking.

Martin Boetz (soon to be ex Longrain) in Dilmah Chef's Skillery

I also managed to catch Martin Boetz in the Dilmah Chef's Skillery, putting together a smoking mix for a hunk of kingfish. Green tea, various fresh and dried spices, rice and citrus peel made their way into the mix, which Boetz would normally smoke in a wok.

His departure from the Longrain kitchen after 14 years (last day is 30 June) is bittersweet as he moves on to focus on his Cook's Co-op farm: a couple of hectares of land up Hawkesbury way where Boetz is growing produce for Sydney restaurants in an attempt to reconnect chefs to the land, to where food really comes from.

BBQ ocean trout with tangy Mexican street salad from Peter Kuruvita's Seafood Barbeque

Just over at Peter Kuruvita's self-named restaurant stall, the grill burners were pumping out gorgeously fresh dishes of seafood.

The barbequed Petuna ocean trout was cooked beautifully and barring a few bones, it was an excellent match to the 'Mexican street salad' which could also have been named a tropical fruit salad given it comprised paw paw, dragon fruit and grilled pineapple.

Fregola alla zafferano con ragu di Maialino - Saffron infused toasted fregola pasta,
suckling pig ragu

I made a point of trying out Popolo as it's somewhere I've wanted to visit since the restaurant opened last year. Its fregola pasta dish also achieved second place in the Best in Taste awards, probably solely for the mouthwateringly rich suckling pig ragu.

The little pasta is much like Israeli couscous, like nubbins of a thick round noodle, and perfectly textured for the meaty sauce.

Slow braised pork cheek with black fungus relish roll from Claude's

The feasting continued at Claude's where the pork jowl rolls we sampled at the preview were going like hot cakes.

Slow cooked, fatty slices of pork cheek will do that, especially when it's on a scoffable little bun with a relish of black woodear fungus to cut through the fat.

Head chef and owner Chui Lee Luk of Claude's

Twice baked cheese souffle from Claude's

There's none of Claude's chef and owner Chui Lee Luk's Malaysian heritage in the Icon Dish of a cheese soufflé though. It's pure French decadence as we attack the hot, cheesy mound, made to order on site. It's almost an unfair advantage, but it might well have been the best dish I tried at Taste this year.

Chef Mike McEnearney of Kitchen by Mike

The Kitchen by Mike stall was also doing a roaring trade in its fairground themed offerings of sweet corn on a stick and Pluto pups.

Mike's pluto pup (front) and sweet corn with jalapeno salsa (back) from Kitchen by Mike

It was definitely my first battered sausage on a stick in a very long time, and I have a feeling fairground ones aren't this good with a smokey sausage inside golden batter, and a house made to tomato and capsicum sauce - an easy dish to love despite its apparent simplicity.

Cha Begendy - Scotch fillet cha kebap on charcoal spit, eggplant and kashar puree

It was meat central at Efendy's stall, with a couple of charcoal spits fired up over the four days for lamb, beef, eggplants and capsicums.

, The Scotch fillet cha kebap was the easy choice with thin slices of the tender, fully cooked beef laid atop of a smokey eggplant purée I could have eaten by the bowl.

Deboned and roasted sheep's head with local garlic and cherry tomatoes tandir

I wasn't game or too keen on the sheep's head offering which was served deboned - although I had a funny if not ghoulish vision of sheep's skulls doing the rounds at Taste.

By all accounts, there was meat to be had in the head, in addition to plenty of roasted sheep's brain. Eyes were not mentioned.

Mussels and suckling pig on at Four in Hand / 4Fourteen

Wagyu brisket coming out of the barbeque from Porteño



Cheese plate from Salt Meats Cheese

Inside out pizza boxes from Salt Meats Cheese were the accessory of the festival, highlighting the popularity of grazing at reasonable prices.

The generous 'plate' of three cheeses came with copious amounts of thin, Sardinian style crisp bread; and while the super stinky soft cheese polarised some, the hard (parmeggiano or pecorino) was a definite winner.

The Sommelier's Natural Environment session at the Plumm Taste Wine Theatre

We spied some free seats at the Plumm Taste Wine Theatre just in time to join GT Wines' Nick Stock and a panel of sommeliers going through five wines and potential food matches.

It was a very entertaining session with some interesting new tastes and tidbits learnt. The Between Five Bells rose was a fruity, summery highlight I'll need to seek out again.

Chocolate dipped pistachio mastic ice cream from Booza

I finished at Taste with the guys at Booza who were making plenty of friends over the hot weekend weather with their unique mastic ice cream. The authentic Middle Eastern flavours were made modern with a Zokoko chocolate dip and popped on a stick; just perfect for festival strolling and scoffing.

The sesame-based halva flavour was superb although I still can't decide whether I like the rose Turkish delight or pistachio flavours more.

Taste crowds on hot and windy Sunday

As Taste continues to grow and mature, I once again departed the white tented stalls in Centennial Park pretty stuffed, wallet pretty emptied but pretty happy with the state of food and wine in Sydney and beyond.

See more photos from Taste of Sydney 2013 on my Facebook page.

The big pink Taste fork at the entrance

Food, booze and shoes attended Taste of Sydney 2013 as a media guest, with thanks to Stellar Concepts. Food and Crowns were paid for independently.

The inaugural Green Square Gourmet Food Festival and Long Dinner

Crave Sydney International Food Festival signalled the beginning of festival season in Sydney although its end signals a perhaps scary start to the year-end festive season.

A month back now, the sprinkling rain and cold deterred few from the inaugural Green Square Gourmet Food Festival as a part of Crave, so congratulations go to the organisers for a job very well done.

Pony rides as part of the Green Square Gourmet Food Festival, Joynton Park,
Victoria Park, Green Square

Dreamt up and put together by Martin, the outdoor festival in Joynton Park within the Victoria Park complex had both kids and food lovers covered.

There were pony rides, a petting farm, restaurant and produce stalls, a bar and, luckily given the weather, a big marquee with plenty of seating.

Kids' Audi driving track

A llama in the petting zoo

Fruit and vegetable carvings

Paella by Bocata

The festival provided an opportunity for Green Square to feature restaurants and providores from the area and neighbouring Surry Hills, Redfern, Alexandria and so forth - and what a gourmet bounty it was.

Yellow beef curry by Longrain

With Noodle Markets commitments as well, Longrain was in full festival swing in October. Their yellow beef curry was mildly spicy, while the soft beef pieces must have been cooked for hours and hours.

The curry's spicy sauce and fluffy white rice were only enhanced by the vegetable pickle on top.

Penne with beef ragu from Adamo's Pasta

Great value was had at the Adamo's Pasta stall with rich, filling bowls of beef ragu penne for only $5.

Not only was it value for money, it was darn well one of the best pastas I've had - certainly coming from a bain marie into a biodegradable bowl, and even comparing to some eateries - with the impressively al dente penne tubes holding up a very robust tomato and red wine ragu.

Fresh mozzarella being stretched at the Salt Meats Cheese stall

I was introduced to Salt Meats Cheese (which sits next to The Grounds of Alexandria) by Jeremy Martin of Martin, and was glad to be able to sample their goodies at the festival.

Mozzarella is one of my all-time favourite cheeses and having learnt to make it recently, I was only more appreciative watching the guy at the stall stretch the curds into beautiful balls of mozzarella.

Salt Meats Cheese are doing some pretty awesome things with their fresh cow's and buffalo milk mozzarella that take me back to my time spent in Italy - quite a feat for a locally-made cheese.

Cheese sampling at the Salt Meats Cheese stall

See more photos from the Green Square Gourmet Food Festival here on my Facebook page.

Pop-Up Long Dinner

Later in the evening, amid the grey skies and threatening winds, the festivities continued in Joynton Park with a pop-up Long Dinner hosted by Martin.

The chilly weather rather challenged the cocktail dress code - it would have been a stunning set-up were it a balmy spring night. Nonetheless, the themed marquee was a pretty sight in the middle of the park.

Marquee and crowd for Long Dinner as part of the
Green Square Gourmet Food Festival 

Surrounded by high rise apartment buildings, the marquee looked to be holding steady as about 200 people sipped wines by Swinging Bridge (apt, really, given the wind) and Pimms cocktails with natural oysters and peppery prawn crackers to start the night.

Tables set up for the Long Dinner

Three long tables were set up beneath the open-sided marquee while a live music act took the stage at the front. Professional waitstaff added a sense of refinement to the evening while the bottomless bottles of wine was reminiscent of a wedding.

Entrees being plated in the kitchen

I was allowed to sneak into the makeshift tent kitchen where the night's dinner was being prepared by Danks Street Depot, Longrain and The French House (also in Danks Street, Waterloo).

Martin Boetz of Longrain (left) and Jared Ingersoll of Danks Street Depot (right)

Food was in fact being prepared by the the men themselves: Jared Ingersoll of Danks Street Depot and Martin Boetz of Longrain, who also joined the long dinner when they could leave the kitchen.

Bread and butter

Salad of cauliflower, corn and cucumber

Beetroot and carrot salad

Sitting among new faces and couple of restaurateurs, dinner was a meal of shared courses, starting with bread and spring-appropriate salads of cauliflower and corn, and beetroot and carrot.

Charcuterie plate by Danks Street Depot

Next, Ingersoll's generous charcuterie platter of velvety duck liver pâté, orange-hued salmon rillettes and hunk of veal terrine could have been the meal itself, so rich and decadent it was.

I couldn't pick a favourite but the brandy-toned pâté was quite incredible.

Boetz tends to the yellow curry

Boetz headed back into the kitchen to plate and finish the main course: a yellow curry of duck, served with rice and cucumber chilli pickles.

Cucumber pickles

Yellow duck curry by Longrain

I loved that there was a bigger heat kick in the pickle than the mild yellow curry which dressed the impeccably tender and juicy duck legs and breasts.

There was plenty of duck to go around and it took a lot in me to not finish off the shared bowl of curry and rice, and call it a night. A lot.

Assorted mini tarts by The French House

And so there was room for dessert; a huge selection of tarts and small bits from The French House that ensured no one would be tasting them all. The chocolate tart was as good as it was cute, while the white chocolate covered profiterole was a custard-filled delight.

Rain and lightning timed itself well to celebrate the close of dinner and the day overall of the Green Square Gourmet Food Festival.

Many thanks go to Martin for the very well executed event - from music to decorations and of course, the food and booze, it was a long dinner to remember, and not for the free light show at the end either. See you next year!

Food, booze and shoes attended the Long Dinner as a guest of Martin.