A Press dinner @ The Pressclub
I guess you couldn’t pick a better place to host a Media dinner then at a place called the Pressclub!
There were 2 reasons for me being back in Australia last month, the first one was an invitation to come and cook with my old friend George Calombaris and second was of course to be the Celebrity Chef on MasterChef Australia.
George invited me to come and do a dinner with him where we would showcase our 2 very different styles in the one menu for Media and invited industry VIP’s. I immediately said yes as I love to see the result of the merging of 2 styles.
We ended up with 20 guests of which half were media and the other half were some of Australia’s best Chefs and people whom I respect very much.
So both George and myself went about drafting our own parts of the menu so they would flow 1 after the other for 22 courses, this was all done from our opposite sides of the world (Madrid & Melbourne). So after a month or so of preparing the menu on paper so we didn’t have any repetition of ingredients or techniques we were finally ready to come together to prepare this dinner!
Once in Australia I prepared the menu for 4 days before the dinner with the very professional team both front and back of house in the Pressclub.
On the night we served the whole dinner at a Spanish pace, this means there was not more than 3-5 minutes in between each course. The most important thing about serving menus of this size is Rhythm, if you delay for too long between courses the guest becomes tired as the food is already starting to digest. It is also a technique used to keep up the energy during the meal as you are constantly being stimulated by something new and exciting
You can see the menu below, The Courses in Red are those of George Calombaris and the ones in Black are from me.
Welcome Drink – Rambutan and Finger lime Martini sorbet
Salty soccer nuts (in a test tube and you shot them)
“Mushrooms on toast” (dehydrated feta)
“Seafood sand castle” (octopus, white anchovy on a stick, edible sand over top using tapioca etc)
Salmon & Salmon (Salmon skins and Taramasalata mousse)
Lobster-pop (Lobster pop with rice vinegar gel & Nori)
Choco-gras aero (Bitter chocolate and foie gras fat)
Bubble tea Greek salad
Szcecuan tendon (Braised tendon & Spicy broth)
“Lemon taramosalata” (tarama ball depend in lemon gel, snow pea shoots, potato salad, potato glass)
“Tuna” sashimi (Tinned Tuna, dashi and wasabi flavors)
Carrot salad, olive oil cous cous, Kalamata olive caramel, black olive sponge
Rice Yoghurt risotto (Yogurt, Cummin and lemon)
“Inspirations from Sea Satin” (cured king fish, Attiki dressing)
Miso Salmon with horseradish sorbet (Miso, Salmon & Horseradish)
Lamb neck, smoked yoghurt, seeds, pulses and grains
Teriyaki tongue (Teriaki sauce, Celeriac puree)
“Avgo rhubarb” (baked egg white, rhubarb centre, candied fennel seeds, tomato and champagne consommé)
Caprese (Heinz Ketchup, Mozzarella, Vanilla)
“Aphrodite” (served with soil scent at table) we need smaller mould for this dish
Apple crumble “Cru (Apple, crème Anglaise, sable)
Zen Garden (Fruit salad and Yogurt)
Tags: George Calombaris, Heinz Ketchup, MasterChef Australia, Salmon Miso, Tendon