Review
Anthony Huckstep delivers his verdict on an original high-flyer.
CHICKEN TWISTIES. It’s all I can think about while on course three of eight at perhaps Australia’s most famous restaurant, Tetsuya’s. It’s Tetsuya Wakuda’s signature dish. Confit of ocean trout with a salad of apple and witlof, and a quenelle of roe, but the dried kombu (salted kelp), chives and sea salt rub on top of the fish is just too distracting. Other food scribes have called it chicken-in-a-biscuit and barbecue shapes, but I’m making the call – it tastes like chicken Twisties. Either way, it’s all a little odd, don’t you think?
Tetsuya’s signature is touted as the world’s most photographed dish, making it nigh impossible to take off the menu. But one can hardly blame Instagram; the dish well pre-dates its emergence. It’s a shame, because it’s tired. Sure, it’s well executed, but it seems stuck in an era that I concede was incredibly important to our culinary landscape. But our food evolution has left it behind. It’s especially evident surrounded by a swag of newer dishes that feel fresh, inspired and crash courses in restraint. But who can blame Tetsuya? Perhaps his hands are tied. A signature dish is the catch-22 of the food world: a drawcard to appease the masses, but the bane of a chef’s existence. Fear of losing an audience combines with guest expectations to demand it stays put on the menu, indefinitely.
Can you ever imagine Armando Percuoco (Buon Ricordo) canning the truffled egg fettuccine or Peter Gilmore (Quay) abandoning the Snow Egg? You might think that’d be heresy, but I’m a bit so-so on signature dishes. They’re a dime a dozen and not necessarily a chef’s best creation. And, in this instance, it’s far from the best dish of the night.
Rather, pickled daikon fashioned like flowers, and crisp, thirst-quenching ice plant add a joyful edge to creamy raw kingfish and rich, salty Avruga caviar. Slivers of Western Australian pearl oyster meat add an oceanic oomph to a moreish morsel of chicken wing flesh. With a slippery twang of pickled shiitake thrown in, it’s the sort of dish you’d be happy to smash a big bowl of. Then charred sugarloaf cabbage hides shimmering flakes of bass groper, while a big, beefy butterball of Ranger Valley Wagyu sirloin, with king browns and crisp kale, delivers a knock-out blow. An interlude disc of yuzu sorbet and white chocolate cleanses the palate before a glossy milk, dark and white chocolate cake that eats like dense mousse has you tapping out before the
petit fours arrive. Tetsuya’s is, rightfully so, an institution that had humble beginnings in Rozelle in 1989 before moving to its current Kent Street CBD site way back in 2000. It still bestows that feel of a secret Japanese haven – chicken Twisties and all.