(Written December 12, 2006)
MUCH has happened on the Sydney food scene since JetMoney's last post some months ago. We wanted to say a word about the last release of this city's annual Good Food Guide - the local bible for foodies.
It came out in September listing the authors' 2007 winners and losers - denoted with one to three hats for those that make it into the top echelon.
Three-Hat restaurants are supposed to be the creme de la creme of fine dining in Australia, not exactly on par with a French Three-Star effort but, locally, significantly greater than the rest. In the past, this list has been small and exclusive, and not many of those who are familiar with those restaurants in the top list would have disagreed that they deserved to be there. One or two others that perhaps should have been there, though, were obvious because of their absence.
This year, however, a slew of restaurants made the Three-Hat grade for reasons that have baffled many. And Rockpool, headed up by Australia's undisputed top chef, Neil Perry, was for the second year running, relegated to Two-Hat status despite an amazing menu turnaround and other improvements, in a decision that smacks (again) of a negative bias from food reviewers at the local rag, The Sydney Morning Herald (publisher of The Good Food Guide).
Eight restaurants ended up in the Three-Hat category this year. How some of them made it there has astounded many. JetMoney checked out a few of them in an effort to determine what had changed at those places to have given them the leg-up. We're none the wiser.
Pier Restaurant, for example, should certainly be sent back to Two Hat-dom. The seafood we ate there was fresh and delicious but the sauces (one of saffron, another a so-called red curry which seemed more like a peanut satay) overwhelmed the flavours. The wine service was second-rate - the glass of Champagne we ordered arrived as a bottle after much chasing, and we ended up being billed for two bottles of white wine at the end of our meal, one of which belonged to another table.
The other particularly noteworthy disappointment was Bilsons where JetMoney experienced a disgracefully chaotic experience across the wine service, the floor service and food.
A change of authors at The Guide may account for part of the problem and the sad demise of its usefulness in providing an accurate wrap of what Sydney has to offer. Editor Simon Thomsen seems to have regional fare and price-concious infatuations, two areas which are irrelevant for those who really want to eat well. His offsider, Catherine Keenan, is the newspaper's former books editor. That's not to say that they don't know good food when they see it, but the inconsistency of what constitutes good, bad, or otherwise through the book speaks for itself.
Unfortunately, tourists, who rely heavily on the book for guidance, should expect a few bum steers. If only the Michelin people would get down here and show the locals how it's done.
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