chilung

I have eaten much good food today, and it was in an inane attempt to get a free but fantastic desert (which I managed to acquire) I managed to stun a god of the Melbourne food scene, two actually.

Quick run-down, I was at the taste of Melbourne with Nick and Nae, did a beer class with Chuck Hahn (who just advertised like there was no tomorrow, and bagged out his competition constantly) and ate much samples and more importantly food of many a fine restaurant.

There were a couple of things that stood out in the nine dishes we split amongst the three of us, a sher wagyu pie served with Liquorice infused pumpkin(mash) and a side of lightly seared wagyu, served along side a small truffled coleslaw (everything sounds more posh if its truffled) made by Circa the Prince and begrudgingly (at least from my side) the beef tataki served with ponzu sauce and garlic chips from Nobu, which was everything its been made out to be, the ponzu sauce was amazing (but Nobu is a franchise star powered restaurant that has a standardised menu all over the world) but definitely the stand outs for everyone (and we all agreed on this) was the Press club.

In a crowd of fantastic restaurants, the two things we got from there were mussels stuffed with spanakopita and the press club mastic pannacotta (which I swear we didn't get) and the maha turkish delight filled doughnuts stood out as just amazing. Clever, fun, clean flavours, beautifully presented and of course amazingly tasty, everything the Press Club is famed for. George Calombaris is a god.

and I stunned said god. After his cooking demo finished, they promised fantastic deserts (from one of the ventures of his pastry chefs) for people who would ask questions, so I made up the dumbest rumour I could think of, which was to ask him if he was going into venture with the first chef that I could think off the top of my head, and it just happened to be Greg Malouf (owner/chef of Momos). I claimed it was a rumour. George's head just snapped back in confusion " Greg is a great mate, but no". Hey I didn't care I got two free really good chocolate mousses (blood orange infused, with a confit blood orange). You'd think that would be the end of the story. Anyway later on, we're busy laughing about it, when oddly enough we end up in a spice stall which happens to be associated with... Greg Malouf, and Naomi says to me "there's Greg Malouf" and oddly enough over her shoulder there was Greg Malouf eating by some interesting coincidence one of the press club souvlakis.

We couldn't resist, we then turned around and engaged Greg Malouf in conversation and I explained to him that we had made a rumour about him and George working together. Greg's head snapped back (along with the cheese in his souvlaki), and he then explained that George and him had been booked together to do a dinner in two weeks by some corporate group. He asked me how I knew about it. I just said I had read a rumour in Epicure about it. Nick, Nae and I just pissed ourselves laughing. So there, in one night I had managed to startle two of the best chefs in Melbourne, not a bad way to spend the night along with good food, wine and friends.