Melbourne and the New Year

Alarm set for 5 15 am, the flight to Melbourne from Hobart was scheduled for 6 20. No worries said my friend Annie-Rosie, this is Tasmania! Straight through, ten minutes max! Famous last words. That said, I have made the aeroplane in under an hour in the past. But in Tasmania, during the Christmas Holidays AND the Sydney-Hobart (the world’s most exciting - and dangerous - yacht race), this was pushing it and the gate was well and truly closed by the time I skidded in. I had a lunch booking at Vue du Monde at midday!

There was nothing to be done, I had to bite the bullet and purchase a new ticket toute de suite! The flight fairy godmother was on my side and luckily I managed to snag another flight for an hour later and the lunch appointment starting to look more like a reality. Hasty texts sent to my mate, who had very generously offered to come and pick me up from the airport in Melbourne, I breathed a sigh of relief (the bank balance didn’t!).

From Tasmania, Melbourne is a 55 minute flight and it is the destination of choice when leaving the Isle. I have been many times and I mostly go to catch up with friends, try new restaurants and revisit favourite ones. The aforementioned Vue de Monde has been on the top of my list for a long time. My gorgeous foodie friend Ellen, and fabulous cooking mate when she was posted here with her family, was in Melbourne for Christmas and she didn’t need much convincing to come along! It was a belated birthday celebration for both of us and to have had the opportunity to catch up over an indulgent lunch was a Christmas present in and of itself. When we began working together, I was a mentor to her but as with many teaching relationships, they are two fold and in many ways, she became as much a mentor to me as I was to her.

And we made it on time, thankfully - joyfully - jumping into the lifts that wooshed us up to the 55th floor of the famed Rialto building. The restaurant has become something of an institution in Mebourne dining and has been at its present location since 2011. Lunch was 13 courses of mostly lovely dishes. The absolute stand-out was a macadamia nut puree with crunchy cucumber and caviar .

There is an emphasis on “Australian” produce, we ate beautifully cooked kangaroo with mushrooms, wagyu beef with an onion emulsion. Not reinventing the wheel, but nonetheless delicious and perfectly executed. Also memorable was a simple, texturally fun dish of tomatoes. The tomatoes had been harvested that morning and coming from the northern winter, the essential summer taste of tomatoes, with lots of crunch from plums, Thai basil and marigold flowers was simply wonderful. At the end of end of the lunch we were given a quick tour of the kitchen where I spied John Demetrios, the winner of Desert Masters Australia, 2024. I think I may have “outed” him to his fellow chefs as the guy giving us the tour appeared to have no knowledge of this. Whoops ! Coincidentally one the judges on the programme is the ridiculously talented French-Swiss pastry chef Aubrey Guichon, his chocolate creations are beyond belief, there is nothing that cannot be made in chocolate! But what most impresses me is that his whites stay white - I don’t seem to have that talent! To finish, chef John came to the table to present our desserts, the last bite being an insanely yummy reinterpretation of an Oz gem, the lamington. It was a thoughtful and sweet gesture to finish the lunch.

Then it was time to enjoy catching up with Ellen’s family, spending time with her daughters who are hitting those teenage years but remain delightful and curious and so much fun. They became so important to me during their time in Paris and getting to hang out with them and see how beautifully they are growing, was tops. I don’t have children of my own due to a hysterectomy some years ago, so these relationships give me a lot of joy. And that their parents are happy to share, is a real gift.

I woke up on New Year’s Eve having an internal argument about whether to stand in line for the 45 minutes that it was going to take to get my hands on what has been touted as the world’s best croissant, at Lune. Living in Paris means that I am spoilt for choice in the croissant world, but I had to try the king of the home grown variety. I realised that I had those minutes and so by ten in the morning I joined the famous queue. That a queue is still there after five years is mind-blowing. Fifty people long, all of us collectively anticipating the lightest, most buttery, crisply layered cloud like pastry that is promised. Finally it was my turn, drum roll.. I bought four croissants (two as a gift for friends I was lunching with later in the day, I knew they would never line up) a pain au chocolate, a ham and gruyere pastry and another gooey cheese number. Ellen’s husband is something of a bread and pastry whizz himself, I sometimes served his bread at special meals at the Embassy. He declared it to be a pretty amazing product that should have been eaten hot on purchase, not extracted hours later from my handbag! Worth the wait, can’t say I’d line up again but that FOMO itch has been scratched.

I am not a fan of NYE, my idea of a great night is to be tucked up in bed by 9pm. And that is exactly what happened. But not before Ellen, her husband and I greedily indulged in a mammoth 1kg steak ! That was one happy cow! Matched with a 2014 Côtes-du-rhône that I gifted Ellen after we ate at the two Michelin starred restaurant, David Toutain, here in Paris. It was featured as part of the wine pairing and I enjoyed it so much that I became determined to find a bottle of it. After a few hours on the internet, discovery! Ellen carefully took it back to Australia and luckily for me, she decided that it was time to enjoy it when we were back together. So she decanted it and let it breath, ready to have with the steak that was coming to room temperature. Yumm! I’m not great at cooking meat but Ellen did an amazing job, the wine living up to those memories of the lunch. Crunchy potatoes, a green bean salad and a punchy salsa verde accompanied it. Nothing like excellent food and wine and old mates to ring in the New Year. It was a perfect dinner to end 2024. Spoilt !

It’s always hard to say goodbye, but Australia gave me what I needed. I rose at sunrise to get the bus to the airport, it was time to go back and face the new adventures that await for me in Paris.

New Year’s Eve Salsa Verde ( a little unconventional )

1 bunch of parsley, leaves only

1 bunch of mint, leaves only

1 bunch of basil, leaves only

2 small cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

60g of fetta

1 teaspoon of capers

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Juice and zest of a lemon

1 small Thai chilli, seeds removed

100ml of excellent olive oil

Method :

Place the garlic and a pinch of salt in a blender with a good slug of olive oil.

Blend until fine and then add in handfuls of the herbs, chilli and capers, adding oil as is necessary blend to a rough paste. Finish with the lemon and fetta,.The aim is not to overblend the fetta and to keep the lemon fresh and bright.

Happy eating and see you next week.