Melbourne chef Philippe Mouchel to remake French connection
Like the cunning Reynard of his homeland, Melbourne chef and restaurant veteran Philippe Mouchel has been lurking in the city’s CBD but avoiding detection — and phone calls.
Chef and restaurant veteran Philippe Mouchel ( Photo : LinkedIn)
Mouchel was last above the radar at PM24, his joint venture with the Made Group (George Calombaris and friends) that folded early last year, but we understand the city will be denied Mouchel’s undeniable talent for great, unfussed French food not much longer. Our snouts suggest the Frenchman is at “a very advanced stage of negotiation” with backers for a large brasserie-style restaurant in the William Street-Bourke-Little Collins region; close to the AMP Tower, in fact. There will be rotisseries. In effect, it will be PM24 reborn. The site will need millions spent to convert it to a restaurant, says the snout, but contracts have not yet been let for the work. Dinners down that end of Melbourne City may be a challenge but lunches … Look out.
Brisbane’s bayou-meets-property development eatery Papa Jack’s has a new chef and a slightly new direction. Well, it’s new to us. From its initial Creole-Cajun approach, “new southern and American trail food” now will be the thing at Papa’s under chef Jason Norris, last cooking at Brisbane’s Watt. What did we do before we discovered the Americas?
Out in the Victorian regions — Ballarat, to be accurate — veteran Melbourne chef Ian Curley, food supremo for the European group of restaurants in Spring Street, has put on his consultant’s cap to help out at Craig’s Royal Hotel, the landmark pub. “The owner’s a European regular,” says Curley, “and he’s asked me to mentor his young chef and get the dining room up to speed. After that, it will be the bar and a few other opportunities at Craig’s.” Good news for Ballarat. With restaurants such as Catfish, Mitchell Harris and the Forge firing, things are looking up for the rural city.
If you’re not sick of restaurant lists yet, let us help. A magazine named Elite Traveler has announced its fourth annual list of 100 of the world’s “top” restaurants. Yawn. Elite Traveler is a “private jet lifestyle publication”. The list is a poll of its readers. I’m guessing this would be the staff of people who own private jets, such as pilots, personal assistants and butlers, because I really don’t see James Packer, Gina Rinehart or Andrew Forrest sitting down to vote for their favourite restaurants. Well, Packer maybe. For what it’s worth, the five Aussies are a predictable bunch: Marque, Vue de Monde, Quay, Attica and Tetsuya’s. Top banana goes to Alinea, Chicago. In many ways, the list’s top 10 per cent looks suspiciously like the more credible, method-driven, S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best. El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain) is second, Azurmendi (Bilbao, Spain) third and Eleven Madison Park (New York) fourth. So if you want to dine with international pilots and PAs eating on the boss’s dime, you know where to head.
As fans of Teneriffe (Brisbane) hybrid Sourced Grocer, it’s worth reporting Jerome Batten’s new cafe-restaurant, Gauge, has just opened in South Brisbane. Exec chef Cormac Bradfield is a DIY individual, which helps keep dishes such as sourdough waffle with almond, artichoke custard, bee pollen and freeze-dried honey, or pork belly, fermented corn and buckwheat salad, puffed mustard seeds and roasted baby corn unique to his menus. Head chef Ollie Hansford moved over from Stokehouse Q. One to watch.
For a guy who is neither chef nor restaurateur, Melbourne’s Joost Bakker finds himself in some extraordinary company. Last month, Bakker, whose story was told recently in The Weekend Australian Magazine, participated in an event devoted to the subject closest to his heart: waste. For two weeks, chef Dan Barber reinvented Blue Hill in New York’s Greenwich Village as wastED, a pop-up devoted to food waste and reuse. Says Bakker: “I met Dan Barber and he told me a pop-up he was about to open was partly inspired by an article he had read about Brothl (Bakker’s defunct zero-waste cafe). When he found out Brothl was closing he said, ‘You’re coming to New York!’ ” Bakker, who has influenced elite chefs across the world on the subject of composting and minimising waste, found himself in the room with chefs Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park), Mario Batali, Grant Achatz (Alinea), Sean Brock (Husk) and Alain Ducasse. Bakker likes making friends, but influencing people is what matters. He is making a difference.
Source : The Australian John Leathlen April 7th 2015
