I was lucky to be one of ten Australian food bloggers invited to attend an exclusive masterclass with chef Tetsuya Wakuda in his brand new master kitchen at his restaurant in Sydney. I’d never been to Tetsuya’s restaurant but had read about it at other food blogs and heard about it from friends. I’ve been told you need to make a weeknight reservation approximately 3 months in advance, and weekend reservations around 6 months in advance. So as you can imagine, I was absolutely stoked to be given this opportunity!
In this post:
- The masterclass with Tetsuya
- Degustation dinner
- Competition details – win a masterclass with chef Tetsuya Wakuda in Sydney
Masterclass
Tetsuya welcomed us to his new master kitchen. He seemed quite shy and confessed he was a little nervous, but once he started cooking and talking to us about his dishes, you could see he was totally in his element and having great fun.
The kitchen by Electrolux was stunning, like something you’d see in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (showing my age here!). There was a massive marble workbench fitted with two gleaming black touch-controlled induction cooktops. There were also two sinks sunken deep in opposite corners of the workbench, operated by knee pads instead of taps. The absence of the things you’d normally expect to see in a kitchen – taps, dials and burners – gave the kitchen a very sleek, almost futuristic look. To me, at first glance, it almost didn’t even look like a kitchen! There was a shiny black fridge built into wall of the kitchen – it blended in so well aesthetically that I didn’t even notice it was there until one of Tetsuya’s chefs opened it to retrieve ingredients. Although it looked beautiful, the kitchen was functional and practical. Tetsuya showed us how easy it is to clean the cooktops – you simply wipe them clean, no elbow grease required. We were told that this would be the very first time the kitchen would be used since being completed, and we were its very first audience.
Before he started cooking, Tetsuya told us there were no secrets in any the dishes he would be cooking for this masterclass – we should feel free to ask him anything we like. Being a vocal, curious and chatty bunch, we did just that!
First, a simple but classic dish: scrambled eggs. “I’m sure you all know how to cook scrambled eggs,” Tetsuya said, “But I’ll show you a few little things…” He told us that the best way to beat eggs is to lift the strands high in the air with a fork, rather than beating them within the bowl, which just creates bubbles. He added an ingredient that surprised most of the audience – creamed corn. He told us just a little creamed corn creates a lighter texture and helps prevent the scrambled eggs from getting rubbery – though I must admit as a lover of all things corn my first thought was to dump a whole lot more in there to make super corny scrambled eggs. He seasoned the eggs with white pepper and salt and added a generous amount of parmesan cheese, mixing well before pouring the mixture into the pan. Of course, there was also a generous amount of butter in the scrambled eggs – though Tetsuya told us generally speaking he doesn’t use much butter in his cooking. He cooked the scrambled eggs with a spatula and when they were almost ready, he added another ingredient I’m not used to seeing in scrambled eggs: ricotta cheese.
Throughout the masterclass, each dish that was cooked was whisked away when finished and quickly plated into individual serves for us all. The scrambled eggs were beautifully light and creamy. I’m definitely going to try the corn trick the next time I make scrambled eggs – I can’t believe I never thought of it before! I’m not so keen on the ricotta – in some ways I think the addition of the cheeses takes away some of the natural eggy flavour of the dish. I made a mental note to myself that when I do try the creamed corn trick I must be careful not to overdo it. Although I love corn, I also love the taste of eggs, so I’ll need to strike that delicate balance between corn, egg and of course, butter.
The next dish was scampi, which had been laid out on an oven tray. Tetsuya dressed the scampi with olive oil, grapeseed oil and freshly chopped herbs, then covered the tray with food wrap. He popped the tray into an oven, which he told us had been preheated at 100C, now turned down to 90C. Initially, everyone’s first thought was: won’t the food wrap melt? But we quickly realised that 90C is a very low temperature. I’m totally going to try cooking seafood this way!
When the scampi were ready, he seasoned them with salt and carefully arranged them, one by one, into a magnificent scampi mountain, then dressed them with more oil and herbs. Watching him work and smelling the oil and herbs made my mouth water.
I wonder how many scampi I could get through, if there had only been me to eat them. :P
When I received my individual serve, I ignored the fork and lifted the meat off the tail shell with my fingers. The scampi meat was sweet, moist and ever so delicate. I don’t think I’ve eaten scampi before, it was delicious!
The next dish also used the food wrap technique – this time, fresh snapper fillets, cooked in oil, seasoned simply with salt and pepper. The fish fillets were placed in the oven to cook skin side-up, which Tetsuya told us protects the flesh from drying out.
The fish looked so moist and soft and I couldn’t wait to try some!
It was beautiful!
You could tell Tetsuya was having fun! We all laughed and cracked jokes throughout the masterclass. As he prepared the next dish, a warm salad of scallops, he grinned as he worked, making me smile too. He placed wakame (seaweed) in the centre of a dish of thinly sliced scallops, then arranged a ring of micro greens and herbs on top.
He mixed soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar with finely chopped salted black beans and spooned this over the scallops. He scattered finely chopped orange zest over the greens, the orange bits looking like tiny flowers. And then right on the top, he arranged a handful of fine tendrils of roasted chilli. He then heated up sesame oil in a pan and then poured it over the dish, flash-cooking the scallops with a sizzle and crackle.
I love scallops, and this was one of my favourite dishes of the class. Tetsuya instructed the staff member plating up the serves: “Make sure you put plenty of the sauce on the plates!” The hot oil only just cooked the scallops – they were tender and sweet, flavoured by the delicious combination of sesame oil, black bean, orange zest and chilli. Tetsuya told us that orange zest goes very well with seafood, especially scallops and king fish, and you don’t need to do anything special to the orange zest, just use it!
Next, he steamed Alaskan crab legs. He told us you can make your own steamer by placing a metal cake tin upside down in a pan over a few mugs that are the same height. He arranged the crab legs on a bed of bamboo leaves – someone asked about the flavour imparted by the bamboo – he confessed in that this case he was using the leaves more for aesthetics than flavour. I’m not a big fan of crab, but was quite excited thinking that I was about to eat a “Deadliest Catch” crab (have any of you seen that TV show?)
It didn’t take long for the crab shells to turn orange, ready to be served.
Tetsuya did not add anything to the crab legs so we could appreciate its natural flavour. The meat was soft and sweet, more delicate in texture than I had ever imagined the meat from one of those rather menacing looking Alaskan king crabs would be.
The last dish Tetsuya demonstrated was chicken tagine, which he told us he would cook without using a tagine. He told us it’s a great party dish – easy to prepare and takes about 30 minutes. We all commented on how fantastic the onions, garlic, carrots and celery smelled as they fried in the pan. Tetsuya grinned at our enthusiasm and said happily, “It’s so nice to cook for people who enjoy their food.” And as more photos were taken around him, he asked, “So what is it you all do again?” We all laughed at this and explained that we’re food bloggers – we all have websites, food blogs. We love food, and we love to eat. We visit restaurants and write about them. Some of us cook, some of us write recipes. We all love to write and talk about food at our blogs. Tetsuya smiled at this and said he’s not so good with computers.
To the vegetables he added chicken, tomato puree, preserved lemon, olives, dates and anchovies. It smelled wonderful. I felt like I’d been eating for hours already but I couldn’t wait to try this! The chicken thigh fillets had been marinating in Herbie’s Spices tagine mix, and he now added more spoonfuls of the spice mix straight into the pan. He recommended tinned tomatoes over bottled passata, as he reckons tinned tomatoes have better flavour. He also told us if no anchovies are available, fish sauce can be used as a substitute.
In addition to Herbie’s tagine mix, he also added ground long pepper, which most of us had not heard of. Its aroma is reminiscent of star anise and cassia bark. Tetsuya asked one of his chefs to show us what long pepper looks like, and a little dish of the spice was passed around – we peered at it, inhaled its aroma, and of course, photographed it.
To go with the chicken, Tetsuya prepared some cous cous, simply adding hot water. A few of us asked: “What about chicken stock?” Tetsuya assured us that hot water was all that was needed, as the chicken dish would have plenty of flavour. He stirred raisins and shallots through the cous cous. It looked very good.
Before serving up the dish, Tetsuya tasted it and then added more spoonfuls of the ground long pepper and tagine spice mix. He passed on another useful tip: it is always better to under-season your stew or casserole and then adjust the seasoning at the end. Once it’s been over-seasoned, you can’t “take it back”.
The tagine-less chicken tagine was absolutely delicious. It was savoury and spicy yet sweet, with the interesting flavours and textures of the olives, preserved lemon and dates adding saltiness, tang and chewiness. Cliched phrases popped into my head as I ate – it was “an explosion of flavour” and there was definitely “a party in my mouth”! The gravy was rich and plate-licking good (no, I didn’t, though I was tempted!) and the fluffy cous cous soaked it up beautifully. The chicken thighs were succulent and I wanted more, MORE! It was a hearty, comforting dish and tasted like it had been stewing away for hours. I’d have loved to have gone back for seconds, but I knew there was still a degustation dinner to come and I had to be sensible!
And so the masterclass came to an end. Tetsuya had been wonderfully patient with our photo-taking throughout the class and now he good-naturedly posed for photographs with all of us (a group shot and individual shots with each food blogger – I now have a photo I will refer to as “Tets and me” :D).
We’d known about it all along, but somehow it seemed unbelievable that we would now sit down for a ten-course degustation dinner! It was truly an epic night of dining (and accordingly, this has turned out to be an epic post)!
Degustation dinner
And so we took our places at a long table in a room next door. At each place setting was a fresh bread roll, just waiting to be broken into two and spread liberally with butter – and not just any butter, but Tetsuya’s oh-so decadent butter: unsalted butter blended with truffles, parmesan and ricotta. My brain warned: “Don’t fill up on bread!” but I ignored it, confident in my appetite (and the eating pants I kept referring to on Twitter!). I ate the whole bread roll, indulgently slathered with lashings of that special butter.
The first course was chilled Japanese pumpkin soup, thick yet velvety smooth, with a dollop of white miso cream. It was sweet and refreshing and easily the most delicious pumpkin soup I have ever eaten, by light-years! I’m not usually a fan of pumpkin soup, but if they all tasted like that, I’d have it every day! This ended up being my favourite dish of the entire degustation dinner.
Next, sashimi of kingfish with black bean and orange. Regular readers will know I am not a fan of raw fish. But before going to this special dinner, I’d made a solemn vow: “I will try everything that is placed before me”. And I was surprised and pleased as I did enjoy this dish – the flavours of black bean, orange zest and sesame were so good I didn’t mind the texture of the raw fish as much as I normally do. The fine threads of roasted chilli and the micro greens added subtle texture and flavour to the dish. I ate it all and wished I could lift the dish to my lips and drink the rest of the oil and juices down. Orange with scallops, orange with kingfish, I’m your newest disciple!
Having tasted the scampi during the masterclass and fallen utterly head over heels in love with it, I was thrilled when the next course was served: soft roast scampi tails with herb and citrus oil. The New Zealand scampi was draped over witlof that had been confit cooked in orange and then charred. The oil had been infused with the flavours of lemon, lime and tarragon – it was a citrus lover’s dream dish, sweet and tangy, balanced beautifully with the slightly bitter flavour of the witlof.
Next: Tetsuya’s signature dish – salad of confit ocean trout with zucchini and non-pasteurised roe. The trout had been cooked in oil at a very low temperature and was soft and smooth, with a jelly-like texture that was almost not like fish at all, topped with finely diced roasted zucchini and eggplant and served on a circular bed of ocean trout roe on a thin layer of goat’s cheese, garnished with drizzles of parsley oil. I think I’m just not a fan of the soft texture of confit fish; while I appreciated the quality and the flavours of this dish, it was not one of my favourites of the evening. But it’s just my personal taste (nothing wrong with the dish!).
Bowls of green salad were served with the trout dish.
I wasn’t so fond of the next dish either – again, a matter of personal taste – raviolo of octopus with oregano and black olives. The oregano, black olives and, diced tomato and basil leaves gave this dish an Italian touch, with the surprise of sushi rice in the raviolo filling, as well as chunks of octopus. The basil was fresh and fragrant and the cubes of tomato were sweet and juicy. This was the only dish of the night I did not finish because I really dislike octopus – obviously, I dislike octopus more than raw or confit fish, because I finished both the kingfish and trout dishes.
The sixth course was breast of chicken with corn and foie gras. I couldn’t believe how moist and juicy this poached breast of baby chicken was – almost as succulent as a piece of chicken thigh! Hidden in the bed of creamed corn mash was a small portion of foie gras. I chuckled to myself as I thought of the hidden foie gras as “ninja foie gras”. I really enjoyed the simplicity and fresh flavour of the delicately poached juicy chicken with the corn; I thought the richness added by the foie gras was quite unnecessary.
I don’t usually eat very rare beef, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the sirloin of wagyu with braised leeks, sansho and soy. The waiter informed us that the thin slices of beef had been cooked shabu-shabu style. They were so soft they practically melted in my mouth. The chunky-cut caramelised braised baby leeks were sweet and fun to eat – I love separating the layers of leek and eating them one by one (I eat whole roasted onions in a similar way, I press them with my fork to separate the layers/rings and then eat them one by one). This was the final savoury course.
This was my favourite of the desserts: pione grape sorbet with sauternes jelly. It was cool and refreshing and a perfect palate cleanser following the savoury courses. In the bottom of our cocktail glasses were three perfectly peeled grapes. The grape skins were used to make the sorbet and the delicious grape “soup”. I loved this and wished we’d been served great big bowls of it instead of cocktail glasses!
The second dessert course was cannellini beans with marscapone and soy caramel. Cooked beans are often featured in Asian desserts – beans in ice kacang, bean soups served hot or cold, and so on – so I am no stranger to desserts featuring beans! Having said this, I would’ve been perfectly content if the dessert had not featured any beans. The marscapone mousse was light and creamy. The soy caramel, our waiter informed us, is made by adding soy sauce to caramel. The marscapone sat in a pool of blue cheese anglaise, which added even more richness to the dish.
The last dessert was the floating island with a double anglaise of vanilla bean and praline. The floating island is a soft and fluffy meringue, airy and light, served “floating” on the anglaise. One of the waiters told us the secret to getting rid of the “eggy” smell in the meringue – finely ground fresh rosemary, whipped into the egg whites.
Sinking my spoon into the soft, yielding meringue was such a pleasure, then tasting the meringue as it melted on my tongue and greedily drinking down my first spoonful of vanilla bean and praline anglaise – I was in heaven! The first mouthful of meringue had revealed a white interior to the island, but with my next mouthfuls, not one, but two surprises – an ooze of raspberry and another of dark chocolate which, once released, flowed freely into the anglaise to make a pretty and appealing swirl of colours. I don’t mind telling you I would’ve lifted the dish to my mouth and drunk the double anglaise down if I could. Instead, I had to be content scraping the dish with my spoon (as quietly as possible!) and subtly tilting the dish to get every drop of anglaise possible into my spoon.
To conclude this spectacular meal: coffee or tea, served with petit fours. My English breakfast tea was served in a Japanese teapot with a lovely handmade cup which had perfectly positioned indentations for my thumb and forefinger, so much more comfortable and pleasurable to pick up and hold than a standard cup with a handle.
The petit fours were: green tea marshmallows, coffee and date friands and chocolate macarons with lemon curd and pink peppercorn filling. The sticky gooey square of marshmallow had a slightly bitter flavour. The coffee and date friands were a perfect, moist mouthful. The chocolate macarons were my favourite, with a tangy lemon curd filling with surprise specks of pink peppercorn adding a burst of unexpected heat. There’s something about eating little sweet things that is so enjoyable and delightful!
Tetsuya’s
529 Kent St, Sydney
Telephone: +61 2 9267 2900
This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event and I feel so lucky and grateful to have been a part of it. Tetsuya’s restaurant was as amazing as I thought it would be, the staff were knowledgeable, friendly and efficient, and Tetsuya is not only a brilliant chef, he’s a really nice guy too. It was great meeting other food bloggers, though I did feel like the the poor old country bumpkin cousin all the way from the West! I felt very awkward initially when it was obvious most of the others knew each other, though everyone was very friendly :) And when everyone took their cameras out, I felt extremely self-conscious as I had the only point-and-shoot camera, dwarfed and looking so pathetic surrounded by everyone else’s digital SLR cameras. Still, I had fun, got to eat some amazing food and learned interesting and useful tidbits. What I loved about the degustation dinner was that everyone got individual serves of the dishes, so we could take as many photos as we wished of our own meals without worrying about making anyone else wait to eat! And it’s also fantastic to be in the company of people who don’t think it’s strange when you whip out your camera to photograph the food (in fact, they’re right next to you, already taking photos themselves!).
See the list of posts from my Sydney trip.
So, here are the details of the competition:
Win a masterclass with Tetsuya Wakuda
UPDATE 14 May 2010
The winner has been announced, congratulations!
Electrolux is giving readers of The Food Pornographer the chance to win a ticket to an exclusive masterclass with Tetsuya. Just fill in the entry form at The Food Pornographer’s competition page to win.
This competition is open to Australian residents aged 18 and over. The 12 best entries received will each win:
- A single invitation to an exclusive Tetsuya Masterclass at Tetsuya’s restaurant, 529 Kent St, Sydney NSW on the evening of Tuesday 24 August 2010 from 6pm
- Return economy airfare from the winner’s nearest Australian capital city
- One night’s accommodation on the night of the Masterclass
- Transportation by private car from the winner’s accommodation within the Sydney metro area (50km radius from Sydney city centre – GPO) to Tetsuya’s restaurant for the Masterclass and then back to their accommodation within the Sydney Metro area stipulated above.
All entries must be received by 12 midnight AEST Tuesday 4th May 2010.
Read Terms and Conditions
Enter Tetsuya Masterclass Competition NOW!
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
YUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM.
Far and away my favourite TFP post EVER (not entirely a qualified statement – I’ve loved many of your posts!). That food looks so good… five minutes ago, I was thinking about how stuffed I am from dinner still. Now? Hungry! The seafood, the wagyu, the sashimi… perfect. I wanted to dine at Tatsuya’s restaurant when I was in Sydney last year but didn’t anticipate the waiting list, so missed out. I’m definitely going to have to plan ahead next time!
You had me at Truffle butter :)
What an experience! Thank goodness for your eating pants ha ha.
Funny you should say that about your camera, as I actually prefered your photo’s then others I looked at today.
Looking forward to chatting soon about the whole trip.
It all looks so good! I’m really happy that you had this experience. You certainly have been working very hard in the past few years. You deserved this spectacular treat!
erin, glad you enjoyed it! :D My sister Juji was also hoping to visit Tetsuya’s last year but yeah, the advance planning thing didn’t quite work out for her. If you loved the post/pics, you should definitely try to get to Tetsuya’s. Everything was top notch quality and so beautifully presented – and even though not all the dishes were to my taste, appreciated the care and skill that had gone into every dish placed before me.
Thanks, Kels. Hahaha, yes, all my pants are eating pants out of necessity! :-P Yep definitely will have a good chat about it next time we talk.
Thanks, kathy. I’m just so grateful I was chosen to be a part of it. It really was an unbelievable night.
oh WOW TFP! You got to meet Tetsuya Wakuda :) You lucky girl you! I am drooling at that scampi and I think I would like that confit (only had salmon confit once before and i loved it!) And that chicken + couscous dish too.. I can practically smell it through the photo! And it’s interesting that scrambled eggs were featured in this post – just the night before I was watching a video of Gordon Ramsay’s method of scrambling eggs, which I was going to try! I actually love cheese in scrambled eggs tho, so I think Tetsuya’s method would sit very well with me too!
Funny that. I just watched that Gordon Ramsay video today. Are you following @donttrythis on Twitter by any chance?
Any way here’s the link to it if others want to have a look…
http://bit.ly/x4zay
He used creme fraiche and it certainly came out looking lovely.
laundrydays,
Yeah, it was kind of surreal meeting him and standing right there taking photos of him as he cooked, and then eating the food he’d just cooked right in front of us! It was an amazing experience.
Craig,
Nope, I don’t follow donttrythis – yet! :-P Thanks for the video link!
TFP, well when I asked about @donttrythis I was checking with laundrydays because that’s where I had seen the video and was curious if he/she had also found the link there. @donttrythis is Adam Savage from Mythbusters, so it’s rare to see something food related from him. Most of the time he’s raving about blowing something up! :-)
LOL, yes, I realised that shortly after I posted my reply, but I decided to just leave it as it was. :P
TFP + threaded comments = /fail Hahahaha!
Hey Craig, cool!! I love Mythbusters and I think it would be great to see Adam “do” food, haha!!
TFP, re threaded comments, i just wonder how “indented” will the messages go if more and more pple reply to the same comment :P
Ok so now I am soooooo hungry that I think I need to have dinner very early (15:31 here) to stop me from gnawing on whatever I can find!
First let me say that you were so lucky to be invited to this, not that I know of Tetsuya Wakuda or anything, but I can see that his restaurant is very prestigious and judging by a review I read earlier quite expensive too. Definitely something that gets kept for special occasions.
Not knowing anything about Wakuda, when you tweeted about going there I assumed that this was going to be a Japanese restaurant. How wrong I was. I mean he may be Japanese (Australian Japanese?) but his food certainly isn’t. Sure it may have a lot of Asian influence, which is to be expected, but it is more a fusion of east and west. I love the term Fusion Food, which I think was coined by Ken Hom, a famous Chinese chef who last time I checked worked out of the UK and lives in France!
There are two things that I find strange about his setup. The first is that while his kitchen looks absolutely stunning, I find it hard to believe that this is the kitchen that is/will be used to cook food day in day out at the restaurant. It definitely looks more like a functional show kitchen to me. The second is that it is strange that he cooks on and electric hob. Granted it’s a fancy one and clearly quality food can be produced on it, but most chefs seem to prefer gas. I wonder if this is a look into the future, or whether it is just because of the Electrolux involvement?
Ok, so there’s a third thing. I wonder if the plastic wrap is something special that can be put in the oven? I mean I know that the temperature was lowish, but I bet that if you put ordinary “Glad” wrap in the oven at 90˚C that it would go all gooey. Might be worth a quick test before we all go out and try that! :-)
I think you’re braver than me when it comes to the raw meat. I can handle raw salmon sushi, and I suppose the trout would not be too dissimilar, but the raw beef, wagyu or not would put me off! And then there is the caviar/roe and foie gras that I just can’t stomach the thought of, but that mostly just because of what they are. My mind works in mysterious ways. (Although I do disagree with the methods that are used to make foie gras).
All the desserts look absolutely amazing, especially the anglaise of vanilla bean and praline. I certainly gauge the quality of a restaurant by the desserts that they produce. I don’t know about in Australia (although it seemed pretty good when I was there), but here in South Africa there is a particularly lazy habit of outsourcing desserts to other companies that just deliver it frozen. The problem is that often the desserts are not completely defrosted before serving, but worse is that there are so many restaurants doing this now that they all have the same selection! Not very good. If a restaurant makes their own desserts then they are already a step up in my books. When they’re of this kind of quality then I’m hooked.
The petit fours look stunning too. I can’t believe that I have never had a macaron, and that I didn’t try them while I was in Australia (or a Krispy Kreme for that matter).
I’m so envious about not being able to enter the competition! I swear if I could I would fly 10,000km to Sydney just to take part in this…
Finally, TFP don’t be embarrassed about only having a compact camera. Your photos are excellent, because you understand the basics of photography. So many people don’t and without that, even an SLR will not produce good photos.
I’m a semi-pro photographer, and I own thousands of dollars worth of cameras and lenses, but when I started food blogging (not that I am as good as any other food blogger yet) I deliberately bought a compact camera. To be honest I couldn’t be bothered lugging a large camera to restaurants and having all the patrons stare at my while I take a bunch of photos. Having a compact camera allows you to take photos stealthily, a ninja photographer if you like! :-) Heck, for one of my blogs I take photos with my iPhone (the old one with the 2mpx camera) mainly because I don’t always have the compact with me and I want to post the entry straight from my phone.
Anyway I’ll stop now before this comment is as long as your post! (And I in no way mean that your post was too long!) he he.
Wow! That sounds like a one in a lifetime experience!!! I like yr honesty in yr posts and who needs fancy schmancy slr’s anyway lol
Chef Tetsuya looks like such a smiley, friendly fella. Although I would be totally humbled in his presence – he is such a brilliant chef after all. I actually like the look of the dishes from the masterclass better than the degustation dishes. I am all for humble, simple comfort food! I definitely have to give the creamed corn scrambled egg idea a go. I can imagine the delicate sweetness of creamed corn with that rich, eggy flavour. And that grape sorbet….mmmm how perfect it would be to have a great big bowl of it in the midst of this heatwave.
It was absolutely lovely to meet you TFP the other night and yes this was truly an amazing experience…and I love your shots!
” I ignored the fork and lifted the meat off the tail shell with my fingers.”
Ahhhh, you’re a girl after my own heart. This is why we get along despite our incompatibilities in Coke :D
Jebus that floating island concoction… I could do with dessert right now, at 6 am!
Wasn’t this amazing? Was so lovely to meet you after all these years, and lol at the idea of a ninja foie gras. A cleverly hidden attack indeed!
My goodness how would i love therecipe to that tegine. It just looks amazing!
It was an amazing night! And I’m sorry we didn’t get more of an opportunity to speak. If I’d known you hadn’t finished your raviolo, I would’ve stolen straight off your plate!
I also hope you enjoyed the rest of your weekend.
Oh my… what a special experience, thanks for sharing with us! I can’t even begin to say what my favorite picture is, so suffice it to say that I’m blown away by all of them. Amazing!
Craig (here’s a lengthy reply to match your comment! :D),
Believe me, I know how lucky I was – I can’t believe my luck! It was so great of Electrolux to consider flying someone over from WA for this (and also from Queensland, and Melbourne, though the Melbourne blogger was unable to make it).
He described the master kitchen to us as “my dream kitchen”. It’s designed for him to cook for special guests and for masterclasses such as the one we attended. It’s not meant for the everyday “operational” cooking for the restaurant. We were told he has four kitchens at the restaurant!
Yes, in my experience gas stoves get hotter faster than electric, but I was surprised how quickly this cooktop heated up. One thing Tetsuya pointed out was that with this sort of induction cooktop, the heat is more even – when you cook with gas, the flames rise up around the edges of the pan, heating the pan unevenly. No such issues with the flat induction cooktop.
The food wrap he used was standard food wrap, nothing special about it (we were all intrigued and asked about it). I am totally planning to give the food wrap cooking method a go and will let you know if I end up with a melted mess or divinely cooked seafood! :D
I’ve never been put off by what meat is (raw, offal etc) – for me, if I don’t like something or don’t want to eat it, it’s because I don’t like it’s taste and/or its texture.
Jac also liked the look of the floating island with the double anglaise – that was the one she’d most want to try. Yes, I love eating desserts that have been made in the restaurant – they always taste so much better than ones that have been bought in.
We were told that strictly speaking the chocolate macarons were not true macarons, and in fact, Helen of Grab Your Fork did write in her post that they were crisper than a typical macaron. This was my first macaron, authentic or not – it was lovely, anyway, whatever it was!
I’m not usually embarrassed about my camera – it’s a perfect size for carrying around in my handbag or on my belt, and I like that it doesn’t look professional or intimidating when I have it out in a restaurant – I look more like an enthusiastic tourist than a food blogger or photographer, which means I’m less likely to make paranoid restaurant owners get cranky or worried (yep, I’m all for ninja food blogging). I guess in the presence of all the bigger cameras I just felt funny (more so because I didn’t know anyone else there, so felt more socially vulnerable than usual). I’m very happy with how my pictures turned out, anyway. Thanks for your encouragement too! :)
Ling,
I couldn’t write any other way – it’s just my thoughts/impressions. :)
dea,
He was quite shy when he began but once he got warmed up he was really funny! Yes, if we didn’t have the degustation afterwards I would’ve still gone back to my hotel totally impressed, awed and fully satisfied – I really enjoyed the food he cooked in the masterclass. That tagine-less tagine was so surprising, and so delicious. Let me know how you go with the creamed corn scrambled eggs! I will post mine when I’ve given them a go! Oh yes – that grape sorbet would be perfect for a Singapore heatwave and a stinking hot Perth summer’s day.
Peter,
It was great to meet you too! Looking forward to seeing your post. :)
Charlene,
Oh yes! I know you would’ve done exactly the same! Bugger the manners, I’d spent enough time taking photos of the scampi and wasn’t going to muck around with the fork! Mmmm, any time is the right time to eat whatever you feel like eating!
Helen,
Absolutely! I was thrilled to meet you in person after reading your blog for so long! (It was like meeting a celebrity, which is why I felt so shy! :-P)
Bella,
So would I! It tasted simply delicious. If that had been my dinner I’d have no complaints! :D
Reemski,
Yes – sorry, we didn’t talk more. I guess now is not the time to tell you we had an EXTRA plate of raviolo on our side of the table, a leftover from the professional photographers that no one wanted to eat. :-P I had an AWESOME time in Sydney, lots of great eating that I now have to write up and post. There will definitely be more visits to Sydney in future, I have so much more eating to do there. Heheheh.
Megan,
My pleasure! It took almost all day to sort through and edit the photos (had to adjust the colour balance/lighting as they weren’t taken in particularly good lighting conditions) and then write this post – I didn’t want to miss anything out!
Although I realised I have no idea what I’m going to do with a whole can of creamed corn. I don’t actually like it but given that Chef Tetsuya (is that what you’re supposed to call him) uses it in scrambled eggs I can’t get the idea out of my head!
Chef Tetsuya Wakuda
–He’s handsome. :-) Congratulations on this, TFP!! Oh good grief, why did you feel like a “country bumpkin cousin”? Just flash that Ph.D. cred, girlfriend! ;-)
The pics are downloading slowly and I’ll try to comment as I’m able (1 other post). I’m so happy for your opportunity. Wish I were Australian to enter the contest, but alas…
Wow – what an amazing experience!!!!!! I am super jealous :)
I had nearly the same dinner just over a month ago! It was my belated 21st birthday present from my boyfriend – a week in Sydney, and dinner at Tetsuya’s.
The food was AMAZING (although I’m with you on the raviolo – nice to chew but I wasn’t blown away by the taste), we particularly loved the practically raw seafood courses. And the staff were so lovely! We got a second helping of the canellini bean dessert because we raved about it to the waiter, and they brought out a little chocolate lava cake with a candle in it for my birthday after my boyfriend insisted on telling them it was a special occasion.
I still think about that meal and sigh with happiness. I’m so jealous that you got to hang out with Tetsuya :)
Can’t wait for your review of Mamak, loved that place too.
This… This is the hungry man’s torture. I almost couldn’t stand reading through all of it and watching at those delicious foods. Dammit, now I need some real food for today.. Not just some random junk from MCd’s.
Cindy,
I guess I just felt like an outsider when I first met everyone. Most of the food bloggers were on their home turf, so to speak, being Sydney-siders, and the other interstate blogger from Queensland seemed much more at ease than me, which made me feel even more like self-conscious. I just felt a bit uncomfortable to begin with. It was fine – I felt ok soon enough and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the evening – it was a fantastic experience. LOL, the PhD isn’t useful at all in social situations – people tend to think you’re a wanker if you flash your title around (I tend to think that too, of people who feel they must show off their credentials to make themselves seem important). :) Well – the ones who know what a PhD is will think you’re a show-off; everyone else says “What’s that?” Hahaha. ;-D
Lisa,
I’m still amazed I was there! :D
Sam,
The staff were great. Initially they thought it was funny we wanted to photograph everything, including our bread rolls. One of them said “It’s just bread – you should just eat it!” We just smiled and kept taking photos. :) I am doing my best to sort through my photos from this trip and write up the posts – a bit busy at my day job at the moment and I’ve been coming home exhausted, which makes blogging very difficult. It’s so frustrating!
Fellow,
Hope you get to satisfy that hunger. Yes, this is not a good blog to read when hungry. Even I curse my own photos sometimes when I’m starving with nothing to eat. :P
Just saw your response. lol. I think you are far too generous in your description! Everyone is prone to shyness, especially when everyone else is familiar with each other, but ahhh nothing better than the communal spirit of eating and enjoyment of food to bring everyone together :)
Good work. Really great pics too with your “point and shoot”. Afraid I can’t be bothered with anything wizz-bang as I am not dedicated enough.
If you have a thing with raw fish, then it’s lucky they didn’t serve the raw prawn in seawater.
BTW – word of warning with the plastic wrap, there are plastic wraps and plastic wraps. Test yours without seafood first. He does actually take his own with him when working outside his kitchen. It is a commercial grade and he doesn’t make the mistake of using any old wrap. ;)
Helen,
Generous, I think not! :P Well, if anything, I feel less like a dork when I’m focused on photographing or eating my food rather than standing around feeling terribly conspicuous not knowing what to say to the other people around me. :)
Thanks, Thermomixer.
Yeah I’ve been kind of lazy to learn “proper” photography myself. But I’ve also resisted moving to a larger more complex camera because I really need something I can carry around with me all day in a handbag. Raw prawn in sea water? No thanks! I love prawns but not raw, and I think in sea water would just be totally OTT. I haven’t tried the food wrap cooking method yet – yes, good idea to test it minus the food first. It would be such a waste and so sad if I ruined a batch of innocent seafood with a melted plastic mess. :)
It was funny at a demo when Tets was doing the dish and the MC asked if it was going to be OK putting plastic wrap into an oven. He said “Sure, once it is cooked there is a fine layer of plastic wrap sealed onto the prawn….” and then laughed. He has a wicked sense of humour.
Not only check that the wrap is OK, but unless you have an Electrolux oven then you really need to be sure that the temp in the oven is 90 to 100 degrees with an oven thermometer !
Thermomixer,
Oh yes – he was hilarious and had a few running jokes going with a couple of the cheekier members of our group (not me, I was one of the shyer, quiet ones ;)) Yep – we have an oven thermometer that we use from time to time.
Such a great post TFP. The first Queensland blog dinner I went to I took my point and shoot while everyone around me had DSLR’s so I know how you felt. But I think your photos are great. I prefer my point and shoot when dining at a restaurant as I can be more anonymous.
Hope we can catch up again. perhaps in Perth on my next trip.
- That scampi looks heavenly. One of my favourite foods of all time. I am so envious that you had the once in a life time opportunity of being able to experience a cooking class with Tetsuya but also get to try possibly the best scampi in the world.
- Next time I make scrambled eggs, I shall try that technique. I’m not so keen on adding the cheese though either (as I’m a bit lactose intolerant)
Cheers, barbara.
I’ve wrestled with the point and shoot vs DSLR question for a couple of years now, but I think I’ll stick with point and shoot for now. I really need to be able to carry my camera around easily on my daily commute on the train etc, and DSLR would be too inconvenient. Yes – the point and shoot is definitely better for not drawing attention in a restaurant. I have the added bonus of looking like a tourist too, which helps me NOT look like a professional :P Let me know whenever you’ll be in Perth next!
Pet,
It was an amazing experience, one of the most memorable nights of dining I’ve ever had. Yep, me too with slight lactose intolerance – I won’t be adding cheese to my eggs, but definitely will be adding creamed corn.