Neil Perry
There are three restaurants that showcase the best of our country, says the chef. Add these to your culinary bucket list.
The chef nominates three great Australian dining experiences
I always tell my team at Rockpool that we’re in the business of creating memories. It not only takes talent to pull the flavours of a place as diverse as Australia together on a plate, it takes a chef with passion and personality to capture the spirit. To me, that’s why these three local restaurants are unforgettable and ranked among the greatest in the world.
Ben Shewry’s Attica (attica.com.au) in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea is a true labour of love. Although born in New Zealand, he has really taken to telling the story of iconic Australian ingredients and culture through an imaginative tasting menu. Shewry’s personality seasons every element of the Attica experience. And it’s an experience. The Happy Little Vegemite, a steamed bun with Pyengana cheddar from Tasmania and housemade Vegemite, is fun and delicious. In another dish, seasoned carrots are cooked for 12 hours and served beside a wonderfully smoked egg and tarragon paste – he simply calls this Chewy Carrots. The meat, pita, cucumber, pickled shallots and garlic yoghurt of his Lamb Souva are all cleverly multifaceted. In lesser hands, such dishes might not be special but Attica operates to a mantra – deliciousness is at the heart of everything. The quality of cooking is flawless but it’s Shewry’s way of serving up a surprise and creating memories that makes him such a great chef. When you eat outside, works by local contemporary artist Tom Gerrard and a loud playlist set the scene. It’s a brilliant nod to the Aussie barbecue.
Out in country Victoria, surrounded by gardens and orchards on a working organic farm in Birregurra, Dan Hunter’s Brae (brae restaurant.com) is a study in local produce – both grown at the restaurant and sourced from farms nearby. All Hunter’s dishes are excellent but I love the main of Sommerlad chicken, a heritage bird that is raised nearby and wood-roasted with zucchini “nose to tail”. You’ll be served the entire bird across a number of dishes on the tasting menu, from roast breast, liver parfait, heart and barbecued legs to pan-fried wings. The accompanying sauces and stocks are made from the bones, neck and feet. The whole zucchini ends up plated, too – the fruit, flower, stamen, petals and stem. The Brae property also boasts beautiful guest suites (each with views of The Otways), a cocktail bar and an all-important record player. It’s all about feeling at home.
Peter Gilmore is the odd chef out here, not being an owner at Sydney’s Quay (quay. com.au). But he reinvented the entire sixor 10-course menu for the iconic restaurant’s reopening in mid-2018 and his delicate touch with seafood is stunning. The Japaneseinspired hand-harvested seafood dish that begins the menu is a lesson in minimal intervention. The seafood is dressed with a mixture of five-year-old aged brown rice vinegar, virgin soy, grapeseed oil and laver seaweed and poached gently in olive oil – it’s pure umami, an explosion of delicate yet intense flavours. For dessert, Gilmore dared to banish the famous Snow Egg, instead innovating the new White Coral, an aerated white chocolate mousse that is frozen with liquid nitrogen.
Whenever I’m asked where to find the most exciting eating in the world, I always say to start in Australia.