World Eats: Melbourne, Australia

ByJeff Heilman

Would you fly halfway around the world for a meal? When the destination is beautiful and delicious Melbourne, ranked the world’s most liveable city for the last three years running, no second thought is required.

Fly Virgin Australia Business Class from LA, and you’ll get a preview of the gastronomic pleasures ahead, courtesy of Melbourne-born Luke Mangan, the carrier’s consulting chef and one of Australia’s culinary leaders. His smoked salmon with pickled ginger and shallots served on board, and his Victorian beef tenderloin with pumpkin purée served at a gala event on my last night in town, served as the savory opening and closing acts of my Melbourne culinary adventure.

Singular flavors are the norm in Australia’s food and wine capital, where a philosophy of innovation, authenticity, and honesty is shared by chefs citywide. Combined this with extraordinary local and regional ingredients, and Melbourne’s full-flavored multi-ethnic menu is reason enough to come say g’day.

Attica Native Fruits of Australia

VUE DE MONDE

With his long hair and boyish good looks, it is easy to envision Shannon Bennett as the shaggy teenager encouraged by his home economics teacher to pursue the culinary arts. How this Melburnian wunderkid went on to become one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs requires little guesswork.

Bennett learned from the best, including Michelin-starred masters Alain Ducasse, Marco Pierre White, and Albert Roux. Add Bennett’s commitment to telling Australia’s story on the plate via indigenous ingredients and time-honored techniques, and you have sleek, sophisticated bucket-lister Vue de Monde.

Adjoined by the Lui Bar, where ‘Yesterday,’ ‘Today,’ and ‘Tomorrow’ cocktails trace the city’s evolving drinking culture, this celebrated restaurant is a feast for the senses. Normally I avoid skyscraper dining—the food rarely matches the scenery. Here, though, on the 55th floor of the Rialto Tower, all elements, serviced by a smartly attired and knowledgeable staff, are in harmony.

The fun starts with Bennett’s reinvention of the fine dining experience, via native design details such as chairs made from old telegraph poles, kangaroo leather instead of traditional white table cloths, and river stones on the table. It’s Oz, high in the sky, and the food, á la carte or via the degustation menu, is as dreamy as the views.

Lunch began classically, with imported French Échiré butter and oven-hot bread, before going entirely inventive. For starters, tea tree-smoked salmon pearls, emu jerky, salt-cured wallaby, and truffle marshmallow. Then succulent Blackmore Wagyu beef with onions and mustard greens, finished with Bennett’s spin on the Australian (or New Zealand, as the debate goes) dessert classic pavlova. With Tasmanian bubbly and robust Victorian wines enlivening the way, it’s a triumphant journey from start to finish. Level 55, Rialto. 525 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tel: +61- 3-9691-3888. www.vuedemonde.com.au.

Attica Potato

ATTICA

“Super natural” is one way to describe native-New Zealander Ben Shewry’s menu at this highly acclaimed inner-suburban Melbourne restaurant. Deeply devoted to sustainability, Shewry goes beyond farm to table to a new dimension that could be called “soil-to-table.” On his eight-course tasting menu, for example, is the “potato cooked in the earth it was grown.” It is peeled and lightly kissed with grapeseed oil and salt, then the spud is packed back into its mother dirt for cooking. (Another variation on this theme is fish cooked in smoking paper bark.)

Sitting at your spotlit table in Attica’s dark interior, you may pause over dishes like Snow Crab with 12 Flavours of St Joseph’s Wort (not an anti-depressant, but sweet basil). Shewry is on terra firma when it comes to delivering the goods, though. Take his use of Illawarra plum pine in his Native Fruits of Australia dessert. This vivid purple bush fruit has seven times the antioxidant power of blueberries.

On Tuesday nights, gourmands can join in Shewry’s experimental ways via his five-course Chef’s Table tasting menu, where he tries out new concepts. There’s also an eight-course vegetarian menu, and all-natural wine pairings with all meals. Ranked 21st last year on San Pellegrino’s “World’s Top 50 Restaurants” list (and number one in Australasia), Attica is at the forefront of the Australian dining scene. Reserve now—this is the definitive hot ticket. 74 Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea, Melbourne. Tel: +61-3- 9530-0111. www.attica.com.au.

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