zeta bar's 5th birthday

Packed out!

I was lucky enough to attend the Zeta Bar’s invite-only 5th birthday party on Wednesday night.

Zeta is a wonderful cocktail bar in the Sydney Hilton, and over the last few years I’ve had some bloody good cocktail experiences there, even if I couldn’t always get past the bouncers and into the lifts.

In fact, some of my most memorable cocktails have been Zeta creations:
• an excellent Charlie Chaplin served in an antique silver goblet;
• a perfect, huge sphere of ice chilling down smooth Japanese plum wine;
• a caramelised pineapple martini where my fruit had been grilled until smoky, moments before it was served up.

To name a few.

But this time my name was on the list and, after being asked for ID (wow! even at my age), I was in!

The bar was alive, crammed with people and buzzing on the Beach Chic theme. The second we stepped out of the lifts waiters greeted us with our first tasty treat.



Deconstructed Raspberry Mule  (jelly & fizzy sherbet)

 Despite the weather being unseasonably stormy this year, Sydney came dressed in our Beach Best, with a whole lot of colourful maxi dresses, flowing full skirts, tiny shirt dresses, men in indecently scooped V neck shirts and amazing array of sandals and mandals.

The bar shovelled in tonnes of sand, hired models to strut around near-to-naked and projected images reminiscent of Beach Blanket Bingo on the walls.

The crowd starts to arrive

But I was here for the cocktails, and Zeta did not let me down.

No less than 10 alcoholic beauties were offered up for consumption. I drank up every drop, and felt very queasy in the AM.

But it was worth it.

An original Bellini (peach) with Peach Air - DIVINE!

Five types of alcoholic sorbets - I tried them all!

Mojito Sorbet

Piña Colada Sorbet

Belvedere & Tonic sorbet

Tuna with wasabi mayonnaise & cress on cucumber

Seaside Summer Punch in a bucket! made from Belvedere Pink Grapefruit, cranberry juice, elderflower cordial & lychee

Apples soaked in cider until infused then dipped in toffee

Dehydrated Chandon ground into sugar and spun into Fairy Floss

Pink Grapefruit & Ginger Cosmopolitan

white sangria

Roast beef salad with mixed peppers & rum salsa

Raspberry Mule (so intensely raspberry! no skimping on the berries here!)

Fresh Lemonade with Belvedere - DIVINE!

the Wimbledon Martini (strawberries & cream) was a perfect dessert cocktail

the Zeta Espresso

Other items I tried but forgot to photograph included the Long Island ice tea snow cone, Chandon nitro puffs, avocado and egg nori rolls with soy sauce, fried pumpkin and ricotta parcels with passionfruit sour cream, Kohuna ham & pineapple mini pizzas, coconut crumbed prawns with mango mayonnaise, crispy fish & chips with lemon in a noodle box, mini cheese burgers with pickles.

A great night.

celebrating the abundance of middle eastern cooking

Image supplied by Fairfax

An abridged version of this article is posted on sbs.com.au/food

I was bristling with anticipation to see Yotam Ottolenghi in the flesh. His Notting Hill café has been getting rave reviews from London bloggers and I’ve been giving my Ottolenghi cookbook a solid workout ever since I got it for my birthday.

Image supplied by Fairfax

Here I was at the World Chef Showcase watching the inspirational Ottolenghi whose glamorous salads, roasts and cakes are easily within reach for most home cooks, making his food all the more exciting and delicious.

He charmed the audience with his jests, humility and good humour.

Although he claims he’s “not a fusion person”, he did say he likes to take something familiar and give it a little twist. “Where ever it comes from I’m happy to take it as long as the flavours are bold, the colours are strong and it’s not overly complicated”.

For the tasting sample, he made a simple salad of quinoa, dried Iranian lime and feta that was absolutely divine! There was so much flavour: strong tang from the lime, freshness from the herbs, wonderful texture from the quinoa and wild rice and the whole dish was heavily scented with olive oil.

When Ottolenghi arrived in London from Jerusalem, he was horrified by the terrible state of take away food in the UK. He was determined to take food out from behind glass cabinets, bringing it closer to the end user and celebrating it with sensual abundance. His success has revolutionised take away food in London, giving the UK something that the Middle East and continental Europe had always enjoyed.

Later in a discussion between MC Helen Greenwood and food writer Mary Taylor Simeti, Simeti said of Sicilian food “it’s unexpectedly sophisticated. Not so much in the ingredients but in the way they’re combined”. I think this applies to Ottolenghi’s cooking as well.

Image supplied by Fairfax

After Ottolenghi was finished, the stage was dominated by Lebanese foodies Abla Amad (the darling septuagenarian from Melbourne who opened her famous restaurant, Abla’s, in 1979) and Kamal Mouzawak (founder of Beirut’s first farmers markets and a keen culinary activist and foodie).

Abla was so funny. Her unpolished presentation style was refreshing and she oscillated from shy, young girl proudly displaying her tray of baklava to a bossy grandmother admonishing the audience and Mouzawak for not keeping up with her train of thought. It was very amusing, if a little disjointed.

Abla’s baklava was one of the best I’ve ever tasted. Ever. It was perfectly crunchy and not overly sweet. Two sticky thumbs up from me.

She made it in a unique and efficient way, by rolling the filo around cashew crumbs rather than layering it. She also used less butter in the process, but at the end stage pours the butter over the top, causing the audience to gasp at the amount that was used. Alba was humorously indignant at our gasps, protesting in her thick accent “heeey, not eeeven half cup!”.

Image supplied by Fairfax

But for me the dynamic and articulate Mouzawak was the star of this session. He explained how food can be used as positive resistance, a way to bring people together. He called it a gastro-political awakening because everyone eats and no matter whether they are sea or mountain people, from the east or the west, are Muslims or Christians - they all share their love of food in a united Lebanese eating culture.

As he watched Abla make the baklava he said that she was perpetuating her village and its history through the preparation of her food and that she brought the best part of her culture to Australia through her cuisine.

Mouzawak demonstrated two Lebanese desserts with ties to Christian holidays and we were able to taste the strange and colourful Amhyieh, made from cracked whole wheat grains, nuts, dried fruits and orange blossom water.

It was an interesting dessert, quite nice in small quantities, with savouriness from the grains that made it moreish and comforting, like a sweet Middle Eastern porridge with an occasional fresh burst of pomegranate.

Mouzawak’s passion for Lebanese cooking and culture was evident and I walked away pleased that I’d discovered him. I’m positive Kamal Mouzawak is very well known in Lebanon, but I’d never heard of him before and now I’ll follow his movements. I’m sure that these types of discoveries were a goal of the Showcase.

As Yotam Ottolenghi said about participating in the Showcase, “with all the big name chefs that are here, it’s made me feel very special”, and that’s how I’ve felt too.

nature & technology. do they compete in the kitchen?



Image provided by Access PR



An abridged version of this article is posted on sbs.com.au/food

Molecular gastronomy, for want of a better description, has been a fascination of mine since I first saw the weird and wacky creations coming from restaurant kitchens in the early 2000s.

These creations are unachievable for most home cooks, something you can only access through restaurants and the artistry of professionally trained chefs, primarily due to the complexity of the dishes and the expense of the ingredients and equipment.

For me it’s the combination of chemistry and art form that makes it so exciting. I love that I can look at something strange and unrecognisable on a plate, then bite into it and experience amazing and familiar flavours. I love that the textures are confusing but the tastes are clear.

I was a fan from day one and so attending the World Chef Showcase, part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival, to see New York’s WD-50 head chef and owner, Wylie Dufresne, was quite an overwhelmingly exciting occasion and he did not disappoint.Dufresne is articulate and confident talking to the crowd.

He explained that he sees the chemicals, powders, equipment and techniques he applies to his food as a vehicle to trigger memories through flavour. This all became very clear to me when he talked through a video demonstration of his version of Eggs Benedict.



 He took something so familiar (a simple breakfast of poached egg on an English muffin topped with hollandaise sauce and ham), and then he turned it upside down. When I got my tasting plate, instead of egg, muffin and bacon I saw a smudge of fudgy egg, shards of salty bacon and a deep fried breaded cube that, when I cut into it, oozed rich Hollandaise.

It didn’t look like a typical brunch dish, but it certainly tasted like it. Artistic and alien, yet perfectly in tune with the natural flavours of Eggs Benedict and delivering an old classic with a refreshed perspective. Genius.

Dufresne said that cooking is “a little bit of biology, a little bit of physics and a lot of chemistry”. I agree with him whole-heartedly.

Often the chefs that don’t use scientific applications claim they let the ingredients speak for themselves, leaving the rest of us to believe that the additions of xanthan gum, calcium chloride and liquid nitrogen mean drastically altered flavours.

This session got me thinking. Although the ingredients don’t look like themselves when they foam or wobble on your plate, in some ways they taste more like themselves because these chemicals and techniques change the texture of the food in it pure state, dismissing the need for additional ingredients that would water down the intensity of the flavours.

It’s a pretty obvious concept, yet one that hadn’t occurred to me until today.



Image provided by Fairfax



I was completely enthralled and entertained by a passionate conversation between international food writer, Jean-Pierre Gabriel, and Paul Cunningham, chef of Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred The Paul, as they philosophised on these concepts further.

Cunningham explained that kitchen technologies allow him to remain locally focused yet extend his menu possibilities in the Nordic climate where extreme seasons limit produce availability. He can present simple ingredients in a complex ways but still focus intently on their raw, natural flavours.

Dufresne had a similar philosophy “I have a lot of powders, but I don’t have something that makes bad food taste good”.

Gabriel sees chefs as opinion leaders and the New Nordic cuisine (think Noma) as the manifesto bringing us back to nature through technology. With so many of my friends concerned about chemicals added to food in the name of molecular gastronomy, I thought this was an interesting take on recent shifts in modern food trends like the locavore movement.



Image provided by Fairfax



Similarly Brent Savage, from Sydney’s Bentley Restaurant & Bar, touted the use of local and foraged ingredients like wild borage flowers and samphire. For products he sources further afield, he takes an active interest in their production, like Tasmanian mussels from Spring Bay, farmed in deep sea.

Savage is an Australian gem, producing truly delicious creations, and we were lucky enough to try his sous vide bacalao with smoked potato mousse and mussels. Although invented in France some time ago, sous vide is a popular contemporary cooking method (food cooked in vacuum-sealed bags in a low temperature water bath over a long time). It intensifies the flavours of the ingredients significantly. Savage also used xanthan gum to thicken his potato mousse before dispensing it onto the plate through a cream charger.

As the waiters brought our sample, iconic food critic Franz Scheurer leaned over and told me I was in for a treat. After Scheurer tweeted a sneaky snap of me and Lyndey Milan photographing the luscious texture of the mousse, I had my first taste. Exquisite, velvety mousse only lightly smoky and still clearly tasting of potato contrasted perfectly with the salty, barely cooked seafood. The dish demonstrated how scientific cooking can enhance the inherent qualities of the food and doesn’t need to compete with its natural aspects.

Image provided by Fairfax

Another eye-opener.

As Savage explained, the Showcase is a learning experience not only for the audience but it allows chefs to share their knowledge too. All the proof he needed was the army of white chef smocks in the back rows, including Dufresne, Cunningham, Yotam Ottolenghi, Mehmet Gurs, Ben Shewry, Sean Connolly and food critics Scheurer, Matt Preston, Terry Durack and Milan.

Surrounded by so many inspirational food artists, I was in agreement with Dufresne who said “right now I’m having fun and feeling fortunate”.

redzepi & radishes

Last night was the launch of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival and I listened with absolute pleasure to René Redzepi talking through his inspirations founding and building Noma.

I was more than a little proud when Redzepi asked the very same question I had proposed when I reviewed his book: why don’t more Australian chefs become locavores and use native Australian ingredients?

Chefs Ben Shewry (Attica) and Mark Best (Marque) joined food critics Joanna Savill and Terry Durack to discuss the concept of Australian cuisine and the applications of native produce.

From his Victorian property, Shewry had foraged some amazing wild produce including red salt berries; butterfly-leafed wild sorrel; verdant, crunchy sea succulents; and glistening strips of seaweed.

It was impossible not to be inspired by all the amazing and interesting herbs and I was restless watching them from my seat as they tasted each one on the stage. I wanted to taste them too! I already had my own recipe ideas bubbling away!

But we weren’t left out! At each seat was a small packet of leaves which we were encouraged to crush and smell, one by one. It was the first time I had smelt lemon myrtle, anisata or mountain pepper leaf in their fresh state. Normally I see them dried and, while they smell similar, the dried versions take on a stronger yet staler scent. The essential oils in the fresh leaves were simply marvellous.

As Redzepi pointed out, the wild food opportunities in Australia are endless given we have equatorial, tropical, subtropical, desert, grassland and temperate climates!

Redzepi challenged Australians to invent their own cuisine from the amazing array of cooking techniques, cultures and wild foods that we have at our disposal.

I hope some brave young Aussie chef takes up the challenge.

As we filed out of the auditorium, small tables of fresh vegetables and native leaves were a surprise extra gift from Redzepi. Seemingly civilised old women were knocking down children to grab what were really just good quality vegetables, and I almost didn’t bother throwing myself into the fray.

But I’m glad I did because this afternoon, when I sat down on my sofa to read the Noma newsletter and crunched into a small misshapen radish, I was instantly transported back in time to my maternal grandfather’s garden in Coffs Harbour. I would pull up radishes from his vegetable patch, dash into the house to wash off the dirt then bite into the red, crunchy root curling my toes in anticipation of the peppery hit I was about to get.

These days when I eat radish I feel like those memories must have been inaccurate because radishes never taste like much, especially not anything akin to the peppery-spice of my Grandpa's radishes. But when I tasted the radish Redzepi had given me it had an intensity of flavour and, finally, the elusive peppery heat I had been missing all these years.

Noma’s newsletter is predominantly about the early food memories of the restaurant staff, and I found it ironic that this radish had done the same trick for me.

It made me consider my own early food memories, in addition to the radishes:

• Riding my paternal grandfather’s back like a horse as he tended the vegetable patch and handed me exquisitely sweet tomatoes straight from the vine. I have only ever tasted a few tomatoes as good as these ever since.

• Hiding in the back garden when I was sulking and popping peas straight from their pods into my mouth. No wonder when we sold our home and moved closer to the city that I refused to eat the frozen peas my mum started serving me.

• My brothers bringing home trays of stone fruit from their summer jobs in a nearby orchard and my mother asking me to peel the peaches, her favourite fruit, because the fuzzy texture literally gave her shivers of repulsion.

• The smell of lamb chops under the grill and my parents begging me to eat the meat from the lamb chops, whereas I only wanted to eat the fat.

• Sucking overripe blood plums through the gaps of my missing front teeth and dripping deep red juices all over my clothes.

Now that I have a few fresh samples of wonderful Aussie herbs, I think I'll forge some new memories.

Now brace yourself as Crave Sydney International Food Festival begins!

And if you're a food bloggers, send the links to your posts this way!!!

anna in chocolate wonderland

Happy Easter everyone!

In countries where Easter wins you some days off work, this is the time for gorging on chocolate and catching up with the family.

Well, I have stumbled upon a chocolate goldmine! Lindt asked me to join an exclusive group of food bloggers as part of the Lindt Lovers Program.

I do like Lindt chocolate.
OK, so I love it.

Intense Pear, Intense Orange and Intense Mint are my chocolate bars of choice and in most recipes I cook with Lindt 70%.

So when I was asked to be part of this group, I was thrilled and said that it won’t be hard to convince me to love Lindt chocolate!

To kick off the program, the Lindt Lover bloggers were gathered in Sydney for some chocolate tasting and a Gold Class viewing of Tim Burton’s new film, Alice in Wonderland.

It was a great chance to meet the other bloggers as well as Lindt’s Swiss-born Master Chocolatier, Thomas Schnetzler.

Thomas seems to have such a patient, gentle manner which is probably a good thing when you regularly need to temper chocolate. But he’s also very generous with his knowledge and enthusiasm for chocolate and desserts.

New on Lindt’s Australian menu (and the favourite for almost everyone) was the “Touch of Sea Salt”, a flat, shiny 100g block of dark chocolate flecked with crunchy crystals of mouth-watering salt. The combination between the bitter-sweet chocolate and salt is just amazing and should be illegal it’s so addictive.

One chocolate fiend was so enamoured she offered me three blocks of dark chocolate for my one salt block, but being equally won-over I declined the offer. Jonas was pleased with this decision when he popped a square of salty chocolate into his mouth and swooned.

The event was great. There was some hobnobbing, some chocolate tasting, sparkling wine drinking and then a cosy Gold Class cinema chair to watch the movie (which I loved – very dark and quirky). I was surprised when halfway through the film attendants delivered enough food to count as my dinner and dessert.

Then after the film the Lindt team gave us two Lindt gift bags with delicious chocolaty treats and Thomas had prepared an egg for every blogger with our names elegantly pipped in white chocolate.


I went home overloaded with kilos of gorgeous chocolate and a goofy, chocolate-smeared smile on my face.

Too good to be true!!! Can’t wait for the next Lindt Lover event . . . . and another block of that sea salt chocolate.

taste of sydney festival

The Taste of Sydney took place in Centennial Park from 11-14 March this year and was designed as a showcase of Sydney restaurants and food/wine distributers.

I was lucky enough to get two tickets from the organisers for free entry (usually $30pp), so I dragged Jonas along and set out to see what new and exciting products are around.

Poor Jonas was a real trooper. Not only was it a hot day (which makes him grumpy at the best of times) but he was actually suffering from concussion after being hit on the head with a rolling pin on Friday night. No, this was not the result of a domestic dispute and nor was he taking part in a French slapstick comedy. The poor boy was at work when a huge metal rolling pin (that one of the chefs cleverly decided to store on the top shelf of the staff locker!) came crashing down on his skull.

My little sister, Stinky, also joined us which pepped up the mood from Mr Concussion (yes, I’m a harsh mistress on my poor injured Swede).

The stalls were full of interesting products and sample dishes. I was keen on the cocktails and spotted some interesting and tasty liqueurs.

Domaine de Canton was a popular colonial drink in French-ruled Vietnam and is made from cognac, ginger, vanilla beans, honey and ginseng. It had the strong fiery taste of ginger and would make a great thirst-quencher with soda and ice.

I tried it mixed with into a luscious and refreshing Indochine Caipirinha ($10) while Amy did a Pomegranate Caipirinha ($10) based on PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur, which was an alcohol with an unpleasant medicinal aroma but a good, tart and uniquely pomegranate flavour. The pomegranate caipirinha was sweet and definitely tasty too.

I tried another delicious beverage: Le Pere Jules Poire ($6), a French pear cider from Le Pays d'Auge in Normandy. It was moreish and sweet-dry, with a strong pear flavour. I wish I could get my hands on a case!

With his concussion, Jonas couldn’t drink anything so he bought a tasting pack from Otway Estate so when he recovers he can trial six of the microbrewery’s products including a stout, pilsner, wheat beer and a couple of ales.

It was also really great to see all the chefs at their restaurant’s stalls, talking happily to the hungry hoards. I spotted Matt Moran (Aria), Mark Best (Marque), Guillaume Brahimi (Guillaume at Bennelong), Armando Percuoco (Buon Ricordo)and Matthew Kemp (Balzac). And I hear Jamie Oliver was showing up later in the evening for an exclusive dinner event.

Each restaurant tent produced interesting dishes and I managed to try two:

Yellow-fin tuna with sweet pork crackling and ruby grapefruit from Flying Fish ($10)

Fagottini di Carne (home-made sausage) with parmesan and truffle egg from Buon Ricordo ($10)

Unfortunately there were a couple of other dishes I wanted to try but just didn’t have the $$:
- Alba White Truffle Popcorn from Jonah’s at Whale Beach ($8)
- Beef ribs smoked in watermelon with watermelon and avocado salsa from Danks Street Depot ($12)
- Sydney rock oysters with Vietnamese dressing, crispy shallot and baby coriander from Assiette ($10)
- Strawberry Jelly w Champagne Foam from Aria ($8)

My three most interesting discoveries of the day were:

Gorgeous retro Smeg dishwashers and fridges in vibrant kitsch colours. Now all I need is a home to renovate and install them into!

Sexy Cat, a lurid pink marshmallow liqueur. Unfortunately they weren’t giving out free samples so I didn’t try it, but it looked and sounded wonderful.

Diamond Salt which is supposedly fossil sea salt crystals from Himalayan Khewra, an area of the Pakistani Kashmir. These pretty pink crystals come with a grater to season your food.

It was a lovely day, with wonderful weather, and I forgot how pretty Centennial Park was.

I was glad I got the tickets for free entry, since it would have been a very expensive day otherwise. Instead I had a lot of fun and we spent about $30 per person on food and drinks.