CHEF TIPS FOR FOOD-LOVING CITIES

These HOTEL restaurants in Australia’s top food-loving cities are cooking up LOCAL FLAVOUR and drawing INSPIRATION from near and far.

From Hobart to Sydney, Melbourne to Adelaide, every Australian city has its own culinary personality. Plating up local ingredients and sourcing the best produce from their neighbouring regions, these hotel restaurants are finessing flavours that showcase the best of their state. We asked their chefs to tell us where they go for the must-try foodie finds in their city.

SYDNEY Platform 818, Mercure Sydney

Located on a former part of the historic Goods Line tunnel, which once ran through Sydney and onto regional NSW and beyond, Platform 818 at Mercure Sydney is quite literally built on history.

Executive chef Simon Harris has taken this rich heritage and plated it up by sourcing ingredients once mainly transported by train, such as lamb from Junee and pork from the Murray Darling Basin. Harris also visits the Sydney Fish Market at 4am to source freshly caught seafood. With Sydney being such a multicultural city, he encourages his team to bring their own culture to the kitchen, which plays out on the menu where you’ll find specialties of laksa, steamed dim sims and pork buns.

His advice for visitors to Sydney is to follow their own palate. “The city is known for its exceptional seafood and quality meats. If you dined at Platform 818 today, our four-hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder with whipped Persian feta and pea gel would be a must-try,” he says.

Ten Stories, Swissôtel Sydney

Executive chef John Pugliano of Ten Stories at Sydney’s Swissôtel takes inspiration from his 18-year career spanning the globe, which he blends with a modern Australian culinary vision and uniquely Sydney flavour. “The essence of the Sydney area is artfully translated onto the plate through a philosophy of simplicity and reverence for quality ingredients,” says Pugliano.

One of those ingredients is very local, indeed. Working with Sydney Bee Rescue Group, Pugliano tends beehives on the hotel’s rooftop, the inhabitants of which service the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens. This eco-conscious product lends a distinctly Sydney sweetness to some of the restaurant’s standout dishes, including The Beehive, Pugliano’s signature dessert he describes as an “edible artwork” made from Chantilly sponge, honeycomb gelato and meringue. It’s a must-try for guests and Sydneysiders alike, but if you’re visiting the city, Pugliano also suggests rock oysters and tiger prawns. “Wash it down with a crisp glass of chardonnay, and that’s Sydney!” he says.

MELBOURNE Edwin Wine Bar, Shadow Play by Peppers

“The menu engineering works backwards at Edwin Wine Bar,” explains executive chef Ritesh Patel of Melbourne’s Shadow Play by Peppers. Rather than deciding what he’d like to cook, he first identifies the ingredients that are in abundance and those that are the most sustainable.

“Our menus here are micro-seasonal and we keep locally sourced produce at the heart of what we do,” says Patel.

So diners may find themselves slurping fresh mussels from nearby Port Arlington or savouring cheese from Victorian dairies and aged prosciutto from Daylesford – all washed down with a Victorian-only wine list.

ADELAIDE Luma, The Playford Adelaide – MGallery Hotel Collection

South Australian-born executive chef Cameron Tabe is compelled to use as many local ingredients as possible on his menu at Luma in The Playford Adelaide. But he says with Luma being the Latin word for ‘light’, there’s also a strong European influence at the restaurant.

The two collide in Tabe’s favourite dish, the Mont Rosso soufflé, which uses local artisan cheese from Section 28 to make the French classic. Tabe says he is extremely fortunate to have strong relationships with local farmers that enable Luma to use the highest-quality produce. Be sure to order pastry chef Olga Baranova’s bombe Alaska, which is lit at the table to add a touch of theatre to the final course.

HOBART Tesoro, Mövenpick Hotel Hobart

You’ll take a gastronomical tour of Tasmania when you sit down to dinner at Tesoro in Hobart’s Mövenpick Hotel. The ‘Chef ’s Road Trip’ is the restaurant’s own version of a tasting menu and winds its way through some of the state’s most incredible produce.

While head chef Glen Tilly describes the fare at Tesoro as bringing an “approachable feel to Italian food” with its incredible sourdough focaccia and pizza, there’s no mistaking Tassie’s flavour on the menu with dishes such as a starter of briny, fresh local oysters with gin jelly and shallot vinaigrette, and succulent Cape Grim beef, which has been dry-aged in-house.

While dinner at Tesoro brings the Apple Isle’s flavours to you, Tilly also recommends a Tassie itinerary for gourmands that begins with cheese, honey and oysters, then carries onto lobster rolls washed down with whisky and chocolate. Divine.

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