Kappo, Melbourne: John Lethlean’s restaurant review
THERE are chefs worth following, and goodness knows they rarely stay in one place for long. And there are restaurateurs worth following, too.
While the guys with the dirty aprons get all the press, we don’t give nearly enough kudos to the people who actually create dining experiences. Not in this country anyway.
I’m thinking of your Di Stasios, your Terzinis, your Kwongs. People who do their field work and then interpret their observations for an Australian audience. I’m thinking of your Dentons.
Simon Denton, a Melburnian, is the kind of restaurateur I gladly follow. Fortunately, it hasn’t been all that hard for the past 13 years. He has stayed in one place, the brilliant site on Spring Street designed by his famous architect father, and continued to successfully reinvent himself and his business.
Once, at restaurants like The Adelphi, Denton gave us blowsy chardonnay and white linen. Now it’s handcrafted chopsticks (your choice from a selection of six) and really good sake. The song of a Japanese siren has been louder in Denton’s ear as each year passes, and so what was once Verge (with its Japanese accents to essentially modern Australian food) is now Kappo, an experience that channels Denton’s Japanese muse with greater clarity than any of its previous incarnations.
It’s the kind of restaurant, he explains – because I’ve never been to a Denton restaurant when he wasn’t there, working – that a young chef in Japan launches as his first venture beyond the reach of his master’s voice. Denton’s no chef, but he clearly has some fine examples of the genre on the case.They create food that suits the cliché-free and very gentle contemporary mood of Kappo’s dining bar, a mood and sense of modesty enhanced by some well-informed staff who understand the whole thing is about us, not them. Yes, it’s very Tokyo in that respect: sitting at a broad timber bar with high-back seats, watching chefs assemble the various dishes, all their focus on our pleasure.
Things such as baby blanched vegetables with walnut miso, or a plate of snacks: venison marinated with wasabi; sweet glazed sea perch; and tomato flesh teamed with a kind of crunchy/chewy seaweed floss. All pretty, refined and very, very delicious.
The format is omakase – chef’s selection – over five, seven or nine courses, each presented with the attention to detail that pays homage to the Japanese.
Chawanmushi with lobster. My goodness, the ultimate version of the ultimate comfort dish.
The DIY “sashimi” of prepared seafoods: soy lees-marinated salmon, raw lobster, swordfish belly, salmon roe, crumbled rice cracker and various pickles. Mix and play.
A wonderful collection of dressed vegetables – daikon, asparagus, mustard leaf and chewy/crunchy fried leek – emphasises the almost entirely meat-free nature of Kappo’s cuisine.
On it goes with several more fish courses, both raw and cooked, and an unusual thickened mushroom broth, a single shiitake cap and something they call edamame tofu, which has the mouthfeel, if not the flavour, of a glutinous rice cake. It’s a take-or-leave.
Desserts such as a kind of jelly filled with lima bean paste veer towards the traditional; a kind of cheesecake parfait sticks more to the Kappo doctrine of classic Japanese food with a modern touch.
It is a very focused, clean and restorative experience, with beautiful craftsmanship, outstanding produce and memorable flavours; and the wine (and sake) component of the meal is the work of inspiration.
This is a new kind of Japanese restaurant. Denton is a new kind of Japanese restaurateur. Follow him. It’s a worthwhile journey.
Source : The Australian John Leathlean January 31st 2015
