Vue de Monde

4 comments   |   Category: Fine Dining   |   Posted by: evane

Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Telephone: +61 3 9691 3888

http://www.vuedemonde.com.au

From the first step you take inside the restaurant, located at the historic Normanby Chambers, you are treated with the utmost in hospitality and service. We were shown into a chic lounge while they were “putting the finishing touches” on our table. The lounge showcased some terribly expensive wines and has armchairs that I lusted over.

The actual dining room itself has dark polished wood flooring (that I almost slipped on, oh, about a dozen times – that proves how perfectly smooth the floor is, or that I’m a klutz, whichever), comfortably spaced out table areas and a chic, modern interior. Large angled mirrors hang from the ceiling so patrons can watch dishes being constructed. This offers a great excuse to be inattentive to dinner dates.

Shortly after being seated, we were served with a cold pressed heirloom tomato consommé chilled with dry ice and served in champagne flutes upon which sat a tortilla-like tart filled with a cured Spanish mackerel cerviche with dehydrated olives and topped with baby basil. It was utterly delectable. The clear tomato consommé that looked not unlike champagne had a slight fizzy, fishy flavour to it which matched well with the cerviche. The dry ice is a bonza idea – it looks flashy and chills the soup right down without diluting it.

That, I believe, is an evil ploy to get the stomach juices flowing and to decide on a larger menu, which was indeed what we did. We decided on the nine course degustation menu ($250 pp).* The menu included some of Shannon Bennett’s (owner/chef) signature dishes and is a true experience in modern French fine dining.

A selection of cute little bread rolls came out while we were waiting for the salad course. We could choose any or all or multiples which was great except that I was trying to pace myself. My favourite was the olive bread.

The salad of cubed jicama (a type of root vegetable) with braised abalone and jicama soba noodles, compressed watermelon and yuzu soy bubbles was refreshing with a non-intuitive combination of flavours that had me contemplating why watermelon ‘went’ with abalone. The abalone was tasty and delicious and probably the best abalone I’ve ever eaten.

The pasta course consisted of a gnocchi of sphericized liquidized porcini mushrooms** with a tarragon emulsion, panfried shimeji mushrooms and served with a generous helping of freshly shaved black Périgord truffles. The truffles absorbed the heat from the dish, releasing a moreish perfume that heightened the sensation on our taste buds. This dish was mushrooms on mushrooms on mushrooms, utter heaven and one of my favourite dishes of the evening.

The terrine was a multilayered confection of Puy lentils, foie gras (which sent me into spasms of guilt) and Pedro Ximénez*** wine jelly served in precise cubes and plated up with streaks of reduced sherry, Vue de Monde eight spice powder and sour dough pillows. The Puy lentil layer contained minced onions which gave the lentils a bright flavour. For some reason it made me think of Ma Ling luncheon meat. But delicious luncheon meat! The eight spice powder was like Chinese 5 spice powder but with perhaps a sweeter flavour. The components of the dish combined to produce a rich, vivid dish that evoked memories of Asian spice markets.

Hissing air valves and the aroma of grilled meat wafted through the air brought our attention sharply back to the kitchen in anticipation of the next dish, another signature dish that is my second favourite of the evening. The confit of ocean trout marinated in beetroot juice overnight and baked for 48 minutes at 68°C with baby beetroot, celeriac, horseradish air and coconut charcoal arrived on glass plates and covered with glass domes filled with a smoke that at first obscured our view of the dish. The impromptu tableside smoking imparted a lovely fragrance to the trout which was intensified by the coconut charcoal which we were encouraged to crush and dip our food into. Coconut charcoal is apparently the only edible charcoal on earth. It felt strange at first chowing down on charcoal but I found the crisp black chunk supremely tasty and not at all bitter. I want to bring a lump back home, crush it up and sprinkle it on everything from popcorn to potato chips – instant chargrilled flavour! The trout was lovely too. The slow, low temperature cooking resulted in fully cooked fish the texture of sashimi.

The palate cleanser was another one of those science lab creations so typical of the Vue de Monde experience. House distilled water is stored in a custom refrigerator at -8°C. The bottled water is constantly vibrated to prevent solidification. This water is then poured at the table onto an ice cube infused with hibiscus flower juice in a martini glass. The shock in temperature as the water hits the ice cube causes an instant change of state so that large frozen crystals of water steadily build up on top of the deep red ice cube like a stalagmite. This is then finished off with a blood red liquid, poured from test tubes, of concentrated verjuice infused with hibiscus flower. The finished product looks like a grown-up snow cone, ready to take on the town in a tight red dress. The almost flavourless palate cleanser is faintly reminiscent of Chinese haw fruit flakes. And while one may hope that it would taste more like faintly flavoured icy water, the bracing concoction does indeed do what it says it does – cleanse the palate.

This was followed by two meat courses. The pork course featured Kurobuta pork (Black Pig, from Happy Pigs in Byron Bay) belly roast with pork rillete pancake, panada stuffed baby apple, apple skewered with cinnamon and Vue de Monde eight spice powder. The dish was finished with a reduction of the roasting juices and green apple puree. Disclaimer: I’m not a huge fan of pork belly. Keep that in mind if I sound disinterested in describing this dish. Even discounting the ick factor involved in eating a thick layer of fat,**** the whole skin-so-brittle-it-shatters-on-impact-pork-skin-shrapnel-everywhere factor still befuddles me as to why roasted pork belly is such a delicacy. So. I can only say that it appeared to be no less well-prepared as other examples of roasted pork belly I have tasted.

The pork rillette pancake, however, was interesting. It reminds me of char siu bao, Chinese steamed buns filled with roasted pork. The pancake bit was soft and sweet like steamed Chinese bread while the rillette filling was meaty and tender. Incidentally, the damage to your heart does not stop at the roasted pork belly, oh no. Rilletes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rillettes), which is somewhat similar to pate, is prepared by slowly cooking heavily salted cubed meat in fat until it is tender enough to easily shred, where it is then cooled with enough fat to form a paste. The stuffed baby apple was a curiously tasty concoction. The apple was filled with what I thought was a meat paste, as the stuffing was so robust. It turns out I was mistaken however. Panada (http://www.answers.com/topic/panada) is a thick paste made of fat (yay!), bread crumbs or flour, with milk or stock. The pork course played on the traditional friendship between pork and apple flavours and gave it an Asian spin which I appreciated.

The lamb course came in three parts – a portion of poached and chargrilled lamb loin, lamb rillete and caramalised lamb sweetbread. This was served with a Pedro Ximénez reduction and a crispy thin potato cuff and finished off with an almond glaze. The loin was tender and minimally seasoned so that the pure lamb flavour could stand on its own. I found the rillete tough and stringy, which is surprising considering the way rillete is cooked. I was worried about the sweetbread because I knew it was some sort of gland, and innards skeeve me out (it turns out to be either the thymus or pancreatic gland which is located in the neck of sheep, cows or pigs). It turned out to be delicately flavoured. It’s not too bad, as long as I don’t think about it too much.

One of the men at our table expressed a negative preference to lamb when asked at the start of the meal by our wait staff, and he got beef instead, which he said was excellant. The beef was served with Roquefort ravioli and swede with horseradish purée and beetroot oil. I ended up being rather jealous, although I have to say my potato cuff was awesome.

Our cheese course was a precise, abstract piece of art. It was, simply, cheese and carrot. I appreciated how the smear of carrot puree in the middle of the plate mimicked the shape of a carrot, but was torn between sneering at the Coon***** and carrot aspect of it, and marvelling at the simplicity and cohesiveness of the flavours.

About a third of our table said they preferred not to have cheese and they were served with a deconstructed pina colada. And, oh my goodness, I was now SUPER JEALOUS. The coconut sorbet was in a half sphere, coated with chocolate on the outside so that it looked exactly like a cracked half shell of coconut. It was so cute. This was accompanied by pieces of caramelised pineapple and rum powder and dots of sago with squiggles of coconut pudding. I engaged in some heavy sampling and can say with great confidence that it tastes the way it looks – whimsical.

Our dessert palate cleanser arrived in a row of shot glasses. Chilled diced papaya were layered on top of tiny cubes of watermelon. Zabaglione, an intriguingly delightful cream made out of egg yolks beaten with marsala, was dropped with a foam gun on top of the fruit. The ‘fruit salad’ was topped with a kiwi lollipop snap frozen with liquid nitrogen and dipped in a hot peppermint jelly. I loved the combination of fruit and I loved the texture of the snap frozen kiwi, which I would dip into the zabaglione.

There were two main dessert courses. The first was served in an angled glass bowl, sitting within which was a tartare of strawberry with white chocolate and mascarpone mousse with shortbread. An oval disk of white chocolate, dotted with dehydrated strawberries, lay across the mouth of the bowl. It was finished with warmed basil oil which was slowly poured onto the disk of white chocolate by the waitstaff. The warm oil melted through the chocolate disk, allowing the molten mixture of white chocolate and basil oil to ooze onto the contents of the bowl. Very theatrical. I really loved this dessert. I never realized how well basil matched with strawberries and cream.

The second dessert course was a demoulded pistachio soufflé with crème anglaise. It was an extremely airy, light dessert that tasted of clouds.

We had an extremely memorable night at Vue de Monde. The service was top notch, the food was innovative, and the ambience perfect. A definite recommendation.

See the full set of photos on Flickr.

* The menu also included an appetizer, two palate cleansers, bread and coffee/tea with petit fours on top of the nine courses.

**This is an interesting process and involves combining the liquid cep with sodium alginate, a salt derived from algae which is commonly used in the food industry as a thickener and emulsifier, and then set in a calcium chloride bath.

***A Spanish style dessert sherry.

**** My heart! It has spasmed and died!

***** The cheese turned out to be Gouda. Very expensive and high quality Gouda, I’m sure, but my heathen taste buds could not tell the difference.

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