Third post of my Taste of Melbourne 2010 fun is mostly about sitting in for Nicolas Poelaert‘s Taste Kitchen and trying his menu at the pop-up restaurant of the day, Embrasse!
The crowd was starting to build up 30 minutes before the scheduled cooking class was meant to begin…
The list of Chefs that were participating in the Australia Gourmet Traveller Taste Kitchen
Regal Pure Indulgence, being one of the sponsors provided…
The guests with a delicious king salmon hors d’oeuvres
*nom nom nom*
There were many seats kept “reserved” for VIP guests (who paid extra), but people weren’t following orders and were seating on the places anyway… *Tsk* *Tsk*
Ta-dah… Chef Nic is demonstrating how to use a Kitchen Aid to make frangipani (almond meal filling)
How to roll dough (and make fresh)
Chef Nic explaining how to clean fish (and kill bacteria) by soaking it in brine for about 10 minutes (water, salt and some sugar)…
Preparing the herbs and getting ready the sorrel leaves to pass round to the audience…
Voila! 15 minutes and the pear tart is ready!
Because I forgot to take down notes (I KNOW!).. all I remembered was, this was a deconstructed dish of something…
With mussels, king fish, cauliflower, purple cauliflower, sorrel and flowers
Quite beautiful isn’t it?
The aftermath…
The people that converged upon the cooking area once the demo was done…
On Sunday, for the first 10 people to get into the Gourmet Traveller Chefs Table, they had Nic in there having an informal chat with wine and canapes and talking about his food and Embrasse…
The crew at Embrasse (Camm, Wife and the whole team, including art work) was at the show!
The crowd waiting to sample the food…
They closed Embrasse for the day to provide their full attention and dedication to catering for the event!
Embrasse was running a competition with the winner getting a free 5 course degustation for 2!!!
John Dory cooked in squid ink served with a burnt carrot puree and heirloom vegetables (10 crowns) – it was the first time I’d eaten anything cooked in squid ink. The flavours were very light and subtle… a great dish to start with…
Mr. Donati’s crispy Pork Belly, peas and wild sorrel coulis, purple potato, fromage frais and garden herbs (10 crowns) – super duper good value, and we had a version of this when we dined at Embrasse for their Slow Sunday Lunch
Hazelnut & Chocolate parfait on forest floor (12 crowns)… worth… every… penny!!!
Plus I had an extra one courtesy of Chef Nic =)
For details on how to get to Embrasse, check out my other post on their Sunday Lunch =)
What gorgeous looking food! That last dish looks like a mushroom at first glance! I sometimes find note taking difficult too, especially with a camera 🙁
Love the dessert! Good on you for going again…. well done on all 3 posts 🙂
I sooooo wanted to try the dessert by Embrasse! damn me going the day before!
What a very Nic-centric post!!
I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to pop in on Sunday to try the Embrasse dishes. The pork belly in particular looks so lovely.
What was the pale pink puree next to the dory and the burnt carrot puree?
The food looks delicious. Especially the cone things.
Lorraine: Yeah… when I'm trying to juggle camera, iphone and goodie bags.. kinda hard to take notes =(
Penny: There's one more post coming =)
Shellie: The dessert was super duper good!
Claire: Indeed it was quite Nic-Centric.. hence why I have 4 posts and sooooo many pictures =)
MyLifeReinvented: Thank you =) The cone thingies looked better than they tasted, which wasn't bad.. but the presentation was wonderful =)