Neil Perry’s daughter, Josephine, strikes out on her own with an impressive new French restaurantNeil Perry’s daughter, Josephine, strikes out on her own with an impressive new French restaurant
ESSENTIALLY there are two types of restaurants in the world: those run by chefs and those run by restaurateurs. (Occasionally you get a venue run by the chef-restaurateur, but that’s another story, for another time.)
It is pretty easy to spot which is which. The ones run by chefs are usually highly focused on the food; sometimes the cuisine offered at these places is astonishing, while the service and other attributes can fall down. Restaurateurs tend to look at the bigger picture, creating a total dining package, with the result that the food is often a little secondary to the experience.
It’s easy to tell that young gun Josephine Perry falls into the restaurateur category — in the best possible way. Here is a 21-year-old for whom the restaurant business comes absolutely naturally. The daughter of probably Australia’s most gifted chef-restaurateur, Neil Perry, she has grown up in and around the nation’s best restaurants, and it shows at Missy French, her first venue.
Everything a trained customer could want in a dining experience is offered here. Think quality glassware, wines poured at the table by an informed sommelier in the excellent Lisa Sanders (ex-MONA, Tasmania), top-shelf bread (Iggy’s, of course), thoughtful crockery, a candlelit bathroom, and an impressive soft industrial fitout by Perry designer, Grant Cheyne. This is finesse; done without show, but inherently. What a pleasure.
It is interesting that Perry — who has broken away from her father’s empire to open Missy French with two silent backers — has chosen French food for her first solo venture. It’s a wise choice in a neighbourhood well catered by other cuisines.
Chef Chris Benedet (ex-Rockpool) sticks to a short list of French favourites, ranging from oysters ($4 each), mussels mariniere ($21), goat’s curd salad with slow cooked beets ($19), to a lusty chicken consomme with crunchy croquettes ($19) and an interesting dish of periwinkles with maitre d’hotel butter ($21).
You don’t see periwinkles (sea snails) on many menus, because they’re rubbery little molluscs, but Benedet gets good flavour from his, with perfectly turned miniature potatoes and breadcrumbs adding complexity and texture.
His mains are a celebration of simple, excellent French fare. A long, sea-scented fillet of snapper ($29) is gorgeously fresh, scored and fried beautifully, served resting contentedly on a bed of leek and white wine velouté. For something heavier, there’s wagyu flatiron with cafe de Paris butter ($45), sirloin with Bordelaise sauce ($45), or a perfect bistro dish of pork pithivier ($29) featuring robust meat encased in great pastry, beautifully presented on a bed of peas and jus. Yes, it’s a fancy pie floater.
The cooking is accomplished if not exhilarating; the shortish wine list sophisticated and desserts classic. If staff are still finding their feet, you get that in a new venue.
The real star of this restaurant is, though, Perry herself: charming, hospitable and a natural in an often inhospitable industry. Here is a star — in anyone’s language.
7.5/10
Missy French
Address: 22 Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point
Phone: 8599 4912
Web: missyfrench.com
Food: French
Originally published as Perry’s Missy French twinkles at Potts Point
Source: Adelaide Now / The Daily Telegraph, Elizabeth Meryment, 31st August 2015
Originally published as: Neil Perry’s daughter, Josephine, strikes out on her own with an impressive new French restaurant
