Best restaurant awards go off the eaten track
Fergus Henderson has been acknowledged with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to British cookery. Source: Supplied
SURELY it’s just a matter of time before Sportsbet and its ilk get in on the action: the annual foodie frenzy that is the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards, in London in a fortnight, sees rabid speculation among a certain crowd about who will dominate the only numerical ranking of elite restaurants across the planet.
Will Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca maintain its No 1 position? Will the familiar names of Noma, Osteria Francescana and Mugaritz withdraw from the limelight in favour of the Americas, specifically Eleven Madison Park, in New York, or D.O.M. in Sao Paulo? And how will Australia fare in London? We hear some of the usual suspects are packing their bags while others are not. “South America will do very well this year,” says Ben Greeno of Momofuku Seiobo. “They have been running a lot of food festivals over there in the past two years. That means they get all the media and jury voters in through their restaurants.”
Our information is that it will be a disappointing year for Australia, with only the expats — David Thompson in Bangkok (Nahm), Tetsuya Wakuda in Singapore (Waku Ghin) and Brett Graham in London (The Ledbury) — likely to feature in the 50. With one exception. No prizes for guessing who. Ahead of the awards, sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, the eccentric Fergus Henderson has been acknowledged with a lifetime achievement award. Henderson, known for his role as a chef and shareholder at St John in London’s Smithfield (with Trevor Gulliver) was recognised for his contribution to British cookery.
WHEN is a pop-up not? Perhaps when it is Cafe Paci, where, as we speculated back in February, Pasi Petanen, the Frying Finn, is stretching the definition a bit. Petanen opened in Darlinghurst in August last year on a 12-month lease. “We are here till the end of January,” he says “and after we don’t know, depending on the landlord, if he keeps the site or not.” For lovers of restaurants outside the box, this is great news.
WITH news of The Fat Duck’s relocation to Crown Melbourne for six months next year, and confirmation the space will then become a permanent Dinner by Heston Blumenthal modelled on the London original, First Bite wonders whether Melbourne will be the only Heston outpost. “You’d have to assume that if Melbourne goes well Barangaroo (in Sydney) would be a logical outcome,” said our source.
IN the words of Edwardian satirist HH Munro (Saki), “The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go, she went.” So it seems the peripatetic nature of the cooking trade is nothing new. In Sydney, the talented Lauren Murdoch is “stepping back” from daily kitchen work at Rozelle’s Three Weeds but will continue to consult to the gastropub on its menus. “There are some other things I want to do outside straight restaurant cooking,” says Murdoch, whose name has graced the menu at restaurants such as Lotus and Felix in the past decade. Watch this space. In Noosa, Ricky’s River Bar and Wood Fire Grill has put on Braden White as executive chef, replacing Glen Bowman, meaning his time with Brisbane’s Hatch & Co ended relatively early. And in Perth, a substantial turnover of staff at Opus, the restaurant at the boutique Richardson hotel, has included Nathan Thomas, the young Brit chef who learned a few tricks at London’s The Square and The Ledbury. His successor is Travis Collins, who comes to Opus from Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel.
Source: The Australian - 15 April 2014
