Sepia chef Martin Benn to cook for top US food editors in New York
SEPIA chef Martin Benn will cook for 20 top US food editors next month after being invited into the kitchen of Eric Ripert, the host of hit TV show Avec Eric and chef at New York restaurant St Bernadin.
Martin Benn outside his Sepia restaurant in Sussex St with New York's St Bernardin chef and Avec Eric TV host Eric Ripert, when the French born-chef came to dinner. Picture: Supplied
“We were on holidays in New York in September and my book was coming out in October so I thought I’d take along a few advance copies to give to some of my favourite people,” says Benn, who counts French-born Ripert among them.
“I dropped into the restaurant but he wasn’t there and I didn’t think anything more of it.”
When Ripert was invited to the Restaurant Australia — Invite the World to Dinner campaign event by Tourism Australia late last year Benn, coincidentally, sat next to Ripert on the plane on the way to the event’s big dinner at MONA in Hobart.
“He said, ‘I have your book and I should come to dinner’,” Benn says.
The chef says he wanted to compare what he saw in the book with the diners’ true experience and so sat down to dinner at the Sussex St restaurant on a Saturday night soon after.
Ripert said he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t among the five best restaurants in the world. What resulted was an invitation to fly to New York and take over Ripert’s kitchen on March 26 and cook for 20 US food movers and shakers, says a stunned Benn.
Benn’s four-person team will include wife Vicky who will manage the floor, head chef Terry Robinson on the pans and sommelier Rodney Setter showcasing Australian wine.
Sepia part-owner and fishmonger George Costi of DeCosti has been given the task of sourcing Australian seafood for the event with David Blackmore’s Wagyu beef also set to be a feature on the menu, which currently stands at 16 courses.
“I have to whittle it down to six,” Benn says. “I want to fly the flag for Australia and show people what we are doing here. I want them to come here and see for themselves. I am very excited.”
The Australian episode of Avec Eric, which features Benn among others, may be aired to 54 million viewers and time in well with the release of Benn’s book in the US. The book, co-written by Sydney Taste restaurant reviewer Anthony Huckstep, has already been released in the UK, where the chef was born.
“I’ve received lots of positive feedback about the book,” Benn says. “Even my parents have seen it in their local bookshop in Hastings, which is surprising.”
Source : The Daily Telegraph February 10th 2015
