Seared yellow fin tuna with radish, yuzu, enoki mushrooms, black garlic

Marinated kipfer potatoes, smoked eel, sour cream, blackened leeks, shaved foie gras

Pan seared scallops, caramelised kelp, sugar snap peas, mussels, champagne

Roasted quail with sage, slow cooked quince and glazed turnips

Crispy roast pork belly, calvalo nero, soybeans, dashi

Ox 'tongue and cheek', caper and raisins, carrots, horseradish pomme puree

Hot chocolate and violet fondant, salted almond ice-cream

Coconut and white chocolate pannacotta, mango and black olive caramel

Saucisson Sec - Traditional French sliced air dried sausage with cornichons and pickled onions

Escargots a la Bourguignonne  -12 snails baked in their shells with garlic parsley butter and sliced baguette. Hot and succulant and garlicy...nice.

Souffle au Fromage - Twice baked goats cheese souffle with walnuts and frisee. This souffle was perfect. Soft, creamy and cheesy...

Rabbit with mushrooms - probably my fav dish of the night. juice rabbit with a great smokey flavour.

Bouillabaisse - not the traitional style

Pot au feu - perfect winter stew with oxtail and bone marrow

Venison perfectly cooked

Fondant au chocolat - soft centered dark callebut chocolate pudding with coffee foam and pistachio ice-cream

Crème brulee

The famous reidel glass chandelier at the bar  - over 2000 glasses that are not for use but cleaned periodically. beautiful

The grand room with soaring atrium

Sautéed spanner crab and globe artichoke with soft white polenta and fontina. delicate fragrant and soft flavours. the polenta was creamy and warm. Would have this dish again for sure.

Charcoal roast squid and pork belly. very spicy and full of flavour

Tuna Tartare, Moroccan eggplant, cumin mayonnaise and harissa

Wood fire grilled Prawns with beans, hummus, croutons and yogurt

Cape grim dry aged 36 month old grass fed T bone 400gm 32 days

Seafood stew with spicy mussel and saffron broth

Seared king prawn with goats cheese tortellini, burnt butter, pine nuts and raisins. Soft and beautiful and perfect burnt butter

Wagyu chuck braised in red wine with gremolata and potato puree. Amazing. Beautiful aroma and beef that just falls apart. Everyones fav dish of the night.

Warm rhubarb, strawberry and almond pudding with vanilla sauce. This was amazing and a real surprise. it was soft as a souffle with crunchy bits in it. yum....

Dark chocolate Bark with cashews and sesames

Black forest trifle inspired by The Fat Duck's BFG - big dish with layers of elegant flavours.

The open kitchen

Après is one of the latest to enter the Sydney French restaurant scene. The team from La Grand Bouffe have opened this great restaurant in Potts Point. The restaurant was beautiful. Dim lighting, tables well spaced out, amazing wine display and a semi-open kitchen layout. The staff were extremely friendly and service flawless. Nothing was too hard for Josh and his team. We were given the private dining this night and it was perfect for our group. We stared off with a lovely crusty and warm French bread - perfect for a winters night. The menu was exciting and there was just so many things we would have liked to order...

Amuse bouche of snails with garlic butter - perfectly cooked.

Twice baked goats cheese soufflé with walnut and radicchio salad - I am a huge cheese soufflé fan and if it is on the menu - I always order it. However I must say that this one was a bit too spicy for me. I guess I was not expecting the spice so it probably caught me by surprise.

Duck liver parfait with cornichons - this was divine. Soft and creamy and a beautiful texture. Perfect with our pinot...

Whole Roast Duck with pommes fondant - This dish was to share for two people and was huge. Each of us got two pieces of the duck. One was beautifully cooked and we cleaned it off the bone. The potatoes were divine.

Chocolate Gateau Ménage a Trois with Crème Fraiche Sorbet - Yum :)

Lavender Crème Brulee with Poached Pear

Cauliflower soup in a jar with snapper and cauliflower chips in a test tube

Truffle, chervil, potato, quail egg and borlotti beans.

Glasshouse snails with parsley and garlic. Even the glass plate was warmed. Nice touch.

Southern bluefin with soy, horseradish, ginger and yuzu

Scallop with beetroot and mandarin

Foie Gras with caramelized pineapple, coconut and pain d'epices

Fresh cuttlefish of the day catch with Jerusalem artichoke, salsify and shitake mushrooms

Pork with heirloom carrot, orange and anice

Cheek with celeriac, fennel and onion

Frozen watermelon with gin and tonic

Goats curd with peppers, rice crisps and basil

Fourme d'ambert with apple, walnut and celery

Blood orange, chocolate mousse, coffee jelly ribbon, vanilla

You need to ring a doorbell to enter this small restaurant on Oxford street in Woollahra which has been a highly awarded institution in Sydney since 1976. Claude's has had four owners since and the current owner is an ex-lawyer Chui Lee Luk. We dined there when she first took over the kitchen and the food was very different to what we had this time. The flavours were more delicate back then with soft little touches of flowers and exquisite aromas. This time it was a lot heavier, more asian influence and truly - not really what I expected. It was good but not stunning. I must say though that both the desserts were fantastic. Would like to go back just for the desserts if we could.

 

Saffron and chestnut broth - saffron biscotti

Spanner crab, celeriac griddle cake, chicken with black truffles

Angus fillet cured with mignonette pepper - mushrooms, onions, capsicum

Yellow fin tuna and salt cod

Pork en crepine, fish fragrant sauce

Roast aylesbury duck

Bitter orange souffle

Chocolate hazelnut macarons

I have come to realize that Truffles are by far my most favorite ingredient added to any cuisine. The aroma and taste just add magic to anything they are added to. Eggs, pasta, mash, butter, cheese, foie gras….endless options and sensational. I have always wanted to go on a truffle hunt in Italy or France but was never there at the right time of year. So when I read about Canberra starting their first truffle festival in 2009, I had to make sure we were around for it in 2010. We booked way in advance and planned to spend the full weekend in the southern highlands and booked in for a truffle dinner, truffle hunt and truffle lunch. Check out the dinner we had at Le Tres Bon on this blog. It was by far the highlight of the weekend. The dinner was exceptional and the quantity and quality of the truffles were amazing. The lunch at Restaurant Senso on the Sunday was a bit of a let down. However the hunt was great fun and very educational. Here are some highlights of the hunt and details on the lunch.

Zeta - our truffle hunting dog was fantastic, We managed to find over a kg of truffles in an hour.

Wayne the owner of the truffle farm has just found a huge truffle...

This one is big

and it smells amazing.......wish i could bite into it :)

and another one....smells good

happy :) - wish i could take it with me...

do you think i could change professions too? would love to own a truffle farm!!!! any tips?

Lunch at Senso - Celeriac, snails and bitter orange with truffles. This was the best dish of the day. Snails were perfectly cooked and the truffle was just right for the dish.

Plating the pappardelle

Pappardelle with veal jus and truffles. The pasta was well cooked but the aroma of the lime zest owerpowered the truffle. Would have preferred more truffle for sure.

Wagyu rump, shallots and truffle. This dish was ok. Hardly any truffles and not really worth mentioning.

Not sure what this dish was as the waitress said she didnt know either but we think it was spatzle with truffle. Not very good. Cold and hard and doughy.

Truffles shiraz reduction and beet parfait. For the first time ever I did not finish my dessert. It just did not do it for me. The reduction was way too sour and beetroot? Unfortunately everyone on our table agreed and didnt finish it either.

Overall - I would highly recommend the truffle hunt to anyone nterested. Would pass on senso though. The service was shocking. Everything took too long, the staff had no idea of what they were serving and the food was ok. It could have been a busy time for senso with the festival on and we figured that they may have got temp staff for the sunday. Hopefully that is the case as we feel it does have potential.

The Baroque Bistro at the Rocks not only does great French cuisine but is well known for its amazing macarons. They have just started running a macaron masterclass with Chef Jean Michel Raynaud. It is an all day affair but there is just so much to learn. Jean Michel is amazing and shares every detail of the process with you while you work hands on to make your own macarons to take home! We made dark chocolate and salted caramel macarons today. Made the ganache and the macaron shells, learnt to pipe them, cook them and assemble them. Wow - it takes hours to make them and about 10 secs to eat them. They are amazing though and the masterclass was just fantastic. Worth the experience. Sydney weekender were filming on this day hence the cameras...

It was great watching Justin North on masterchef. Becasse is his famous 3 hatted restaurant in the city and Etch is the little brother but still hatted and lovely. James Metcalfe is the exec chef at Etch and quality local produce is the main feature of this European cuisine restaurant. Really well priced for the city with great quality. Loved the caramel date tart with burnt butter ice cream…yum! Every dish on our tasting menu was a winner...will definately come back.

Salad of green beans, poached pears, witlof, persian fetta, hazelnut. Not a real salad fan but this one was fantastic. The hazelnut puree added a definate great touch.

Spiced Hiramasa kingfish, apple, watercress, bacon vinaigrette. The spice was the surprise element to this dish and really added to it.

Daube of beef, spinach, carrot, red wine jus. The daube was fantastic. Did not need to use the knife at all. perfect!!!

Caramel date tart, burnt butter ice cream, Earl Grey tea syrup. Sensational and beyond words. I managed to have two on the night :) Happy.

Chef Matthew Kemp put on his first ever Game dinner at Restaurant Balzac this week. Each of the six dishes had a different game meat and each one was better than the other. Great innovative dishes and great complimentary flavours with Yarra valley matched wines. The stand outs for me were the venison and the squab and duck terrine. The duck egg and truffled honey brulee was to die for. It was matched to the Punt Road Botrytis Semillon which was amazing. Great meal and great wines and a great concept.

Kangaroo tartare
Emu
Terrine of Squab and Duck with pickled globe artichokes
Rare roasted Venison with a delice of spiced quince
Braised Hare with chestnuts and bitter chocolate
Roast rack of Wild Boar with a cassoulet of confit neck
Duck egg and truffled honey brulee
Single malt truffles