Attica Restaurant, Melbourne - World Class!

Recently a Melbourne restaurant was voted #73 in the San Pellegrino World's Best Restaurant Awards, this is some achievement and something for all of us in this country to be rightly proud of. Attica restaurant in Ripponlea is an exciting restaurant headed by an exceptional chef in Ben Shewry, and we were very excited when we were invited by Ben himself to try his cuisine. Ben Shewry and Attica have had an amazing 12 months with the restaurant being awarded 2 hats in the Good Food Guide Awards (should be 3 in our opinion!), and Ben being the first Victorian chef to present at the prestigious Madrid Fusion. We have known Ben for a while now and know that his food is world class and this was highlighted at the recent dinner we had at Attica. We dined with our good friend and chef Adam Melonas who was visiting Australia from Spain on a promotional trip, including an appearance on Masterchef Australia. Ben prepared a special menu for us above and it can only be described as sensational. I would like to focus on the desserts presented that night but you can read more on the other dishes on the links below, including Ben's famous potato dish (final image) which he demonstrated in Spain earlier this year. It is truly one of the best dishes we have eaten in a long time and the recipe is included in the links below. The desserts however were brilliant, these are the best desserts we have eaten for some time and it is amazing that there is no pastry chef at the restaurant as Ben creates all of the dishes himself. His philosophy in food, apart from using the freshest, seasonal and sustainable ingredients, is to create dishes with maximum taste, contrasts in texture and temperature as well as astounding presentation. The dish at the top of the page is Ben's "Terroir" it is a fabulous symphony of flavours and texture. It includes the following components: 

• Beetroot & Organic Almond Cake
• Dried Fruits - including Cranberries, Cherries & Raspberries
• Freeze Dried Fruits
• Wild Sour Clover
• Sorrel Sorbet
• Murray River Salt
• 4 Spice 
• Toasted Barley

This really was such an interesting and more importantly, delicious dish. It has opened up avenues of possibilities for us to explore in our plated dessert work and we can't wait to try some of the flavour combinations out ourselves. The final dessert was brand new, hence no image as yet. Ben explained the dish to us and it was a heavenly mix of Autumnal flavours, perfect for a chilly night. A custard flavoured with black olive, molasses and anise was topped expertly with freshly grated celery, a granny smith apple distillation, grated pink lady apples and an apple skin made from biodynamic braeburn's from the Mornington Peninsula. The dish was topped with the most amazing 'shredded wheat' crumble that added a delicate toasted edge to the acidic tones in the dish. The custard brought it all together and it was a joy to eat. This really was a great dining experience and Ben deserves all of the accolades that come his way. His dedication is superb, as he and his team forage for most of the wild shoots and seaweeds that adorn most of the dishes at Attica and his knowledge of these areas is second to none. Please try to visit Attica if you get the chance and check out these links below for more information, including Adam's blog of the night. Thanks Ben and we hope to work more closely with you in the future.

Useful Links:

• http://www.madridfusion.net/chefs_detalle.php?id=0000000222#activo - Bio Madrid Fusion
• http://www.madridfusion.net/recetachef.php?id=0000000222&idr=0000000510 - Potato recipe
• http://www.madridlab.net/melonas/2010/05/attica-restaurant-melbourne/ - Adam on Attica
• http://www.attica.com.au/ - Attica website
• http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/51-100-winners - World's Best list 51 - 100
• http://www.benshewry.com.au/ - Ben's new site, under construction
• http://www.colinpage.com/ - Link to Colin Page the photographer of 'Terroir'

Also just a quick mention of the excellent, warm and professional service at Attica - thank you!

Congratulations..........NOMA - World's Best Restaurant 2010

Well the list is in and the honours go to the talented Rene Redzepi and his team at Noma, well done! We can't wait to get over there ourselves and see what all the fuss is about. Here is the full list.......

1. Noma, Denmark
2. El Bulli, Spain
3. The Fat Duck, UK
4. El Cellar de Can Roca, Spain
5. Mugaritz, Spain
6. Osteria Francenesca, Italy
7. Alinea, USA
8. Daniel, USA
9. Arzak, Spain
10. Per Se, USA
11. Le Chateaubriand, France
12. Le Colombe, South Africa
13. Pierre Gagnaire, France
14. Hotel de Ville, Switzerland
15. Le Bernardin, USA
16. L'Astrance, France
17. Hof van Cleve, Belgium
18. D.O.M., Brasil
19. Oud Sluis, Holland
20. Le Calandre, Italy
21. Steirereck, Austria
22. Vendome, Germany
23. Chez Dominique, Finland
24. Les Creations de Narisawa, Japan
25. Mathias Dahlgren, Sweden
26. Momofuku Ssam Bar, USA
27. Quay, Australia
28. Iggy's, Singapore
29. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, France
30. Schloss Schauenstein, Switzerland
31. Le Quartier Francais, France
32. The French Laundry, USA
33. Martin Berasategui, Spain
34. Aqua, Germany
35. Combal Zero, Italy
36. Dal Pescatore, Italy
37. De Libriji, Holland
38. Tetsuya's, Australia
39. Jaan par Andre, Singapore
40. Il Canto, Italy
41. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, France
42. Oaxen Krog, Sweden
43. St. John, UK
44. La Maison Troisgros, France
45. wd~50, USA
46. Biko, Mexico
47. Die Schwarzwaldstube, Germany
48. Nihonryori, RyuGin, Japan
49. Hibiscus, UK
50. Eleven Madison Park, USA

There you go, do you agree? Any notable omissions? More on this and the Aussie contribution to the world scene later on this week.

How To Get A Reservation At Elbulli

If you want to be one of the lucky few to dine at the world's best restaurant, then you have to give yourself the best chance possible. Every year close to 2 million people request one of the 6000 seats available, amazing odds that can be shortened with a few tips.

First:    

Check the website for the official reservation request time. Elbulli only consider requests that they receive in the specified time. This year it's 1st Jan to middle of Jan, so you need to get in quick!!

Second:

The email address is bulli@elbulli.com and the man in charge is Senor Garcia.

Third:    

Don't be demanding - you are less likely to get a reservation if you specify a particular date, time or anything else. Best to ask for a table at any time and date for 2 persons.

Fourth:  

Keep the email short and be polite.

Fifth:    

Cross your fingers and hope for the best, they will get back to you regardless of the outcome probably by March.

Good luck, it's worth it!!

Beautiful Desserts At Aria Sydney

We just wanted to say what a lovely lunch we had at Sydney's Aria Restaurant this week. The restaurant is stunning and we enjoyed all of our courses and the interesting wine matches. Obviously we made sure we had a special look at the desserts and we report that they were beautifully presented and packed with flavour. Well done the boys and girls at Aria, we look forward to returning very soon.

Dessert At ElBulli 2009 - Pond

This dessert was fantastic, cool and subtle in flavour, so different texturally from any other dessert we have had. Check out the video for a closer look.

Dinner At The Tippling Club In Singapore

Ryan & Matt's Menu GourmandTippling Club getting ready for another mad night.
Onion 'Calamari' With Olive Puree
Matt Bax's Original Singapore Sling
Ryan Clift's Champagne Soup
On a recent working trip to Singapore, Burch & Purchese caught up with Ryan Clift and Matt Bax at their stunning restaurant The Tippling Club. The restaurant is cutting edge and each artfully crafted dish is paired with the most innovative cocktails you will see anywhere in the world. Singapore is a very lucky city to have two such talented professionals creating food and drink pairings as good as anywhere we have seen around the world. This was a flying visit for us and we plan to return in October for a longer period having secured a consultancy position, we will certainly return to The Tippling Club where menu's change regularly and especially because of the friendship between ourselves and Ryan & Matt. Congratulations boys and we recommend to anyone to pay the restaurant a visit on your next trip to Singapore. http://www.tipplingclub.com/

Great Dessert And Wine Pairing! Inopia Restaurant - Barcelona

Albert Adria's 'Egg Custard Of The House'
A glass of Castano Dulce Monastrell 06Really fantastic combination, we just thought you should know.

Dinner At El Cellar de Can Roca

Anticipation of entering this legendary restaurant.

Darren with Joan (left) and Jordi (right)

Our 'Feast Menu' - click to enlarge
The A la Carte Dessert menu.
'Green Chromatism'

'Caramelized Apricot part 1'

'Caramelized Apricot part 2'
'Milk Dessert' - Milk Caramel, sheeps milk ice-cream, sheep's curd cheese foam

Petits FourAt dinner at this superb restaurant, I (Darren) was treated to the exceptional talent and artistry of acclaimed pastry chef Jordi Roca. The meal as a whole was outstanding with Chef Joan and sommelier Josep pairing exquisite course after exquisite course, with touches of flair from Jordi more than evident throughout. The 'feast' menu was delivered and enjoyed thoroughly by myself and my wife and we were delighted with the service and execution. The desserts though were a standout, the dessert menu is included above for your interest and most of them were tried on the night in addition to the 'feast' menu as Jordi sent out three extra desserts for us to try. The picture above of the apricot was a superbly lifelike blown sugar ball which resembled the freshest apricot you have seen, inside was smooth sorbet of apricot and it tasted delicious. A truly memorable night was capped off with Sommelier Josep guiding us into the superbly renovated kitchen to meet the chefs who were extremely hospitable despite a language barrier. In the coming weeks we at Burch & Purchese will look more closely into these dishes and explain the thought and technique behind them, but for now we will leave you to drool over the pictures.
http://www.cellercanroca.com/PORTADA/intro.htm

Interesting Omelette Dishes

During our dinners at El Cellar de Can Roca and El Bulli in Spain last month we noticed two similar dishes on both of the menus. The top photo shows the 'Omelette Surprise' at El Bulli and the next two photos show El Cellar's 'Herring Smoked Caviar Omelette', both of these dishes were very interesting. On first inspection these both looked like a classic omelette, but bot were not as they seemed. An outer membrane held a liquid substance which burst upon piercing. Both dishes were amazing in presentation, technique and were most importantly delicious in flavour. We are always interested in techniques and new applications on classic dishes and wanted to share these with you.

ElBulli Menu 2009 - Click On Menu To Enlarge

Just back from an amazing food tour of Spain. Lots to write about in the coming days and weeks but here is a sneak peak of this seasons menu at ElBulli - amazing experience. We will post more on this and other interesting subjects later.

Food Cocktails - CLICK HERE FOR THE TIPPLING CLUB http://www.tipplingclub.com

Burch and Purchese love to experiment with different aspects of food and photography and it's not always limited to patisserie. Our good friend Ryan Clift of whom we have worked with in the past has opened his own restaurant in Singapore along with his partner Matt Bax. Ryan is a talented chef and Matt is the owner and master barman of the award winning cocktail bar Der Raum here in Melbourne. The Tippling Club is a product of Ryan and Matt's vision is to find a natural synergy between food and beverages. They pair interesting and often unconventional combinations and they are on the road to great success if they carry on what they have been doing. Above is a link to their website and we recommend you visit next time you are over there. These photos shows two variations on cocktail 'flights'. We especially are fond of the four variations of Bloody Mary, each with a different and complementing component. Burch & Purchese had great fun experimenting with this and we hope to do more soon.