A Taste of Australia
Pacific Catch kicks off summer in San Francisco with a Regional Menu tour of the world's largest Island, Australia. Gathering inspiration for this menu wasn't too difficult for Executive Chef Chandon Clenard. All he had to do was consult Australian celebrity chefs Benjamin Christie and Vic Cherikoff whom he had once competed against in an international chowder competition in Boston, Massachussetts. Eager to collaborate and share the culinary uniqueness of their home country, Chefs Benjamin and Vic guided Chef Chandon through the rare indigenous flavors and spices derived from the native plants of Australia. Chandon's menu is based on bold combinations of these hard-to-procure Aussie ingredients with seafood found on menus throughout Australia and California alike.
For those of you who equate Aussie cuisine with vegemite, meat pies, fish and chips, and Foster's beer, think again. Your palate is in a for a true global culinary adventure.
The food of Australian today, often classified as "Modern Australian" by chefs, food writers and cookbook authors, is heavily influenced by the aboriginal natives and it's first English settlers, as well as it's German, Italian, Greek, Asian and South African immigrant communities. Chef Chandon chose to emphasize ingredients which emerged in the Australian native cuisine movement of the 1980's, which has since transformed into a distinctive and prevailing culinary trend among chefs and restaurants. He also drew from Aussie chefs' contemporary adaptations of multicultural cuisines, where it is not unusual to find a hybrid of Asian and Mediterranean ingredients and cooking styles expertly complementing local Aussie seafood, meat, veg and spices on the same menu.
The first course begins with a twist on an all-time Aussie favorite- "Shrimp on the Barbie." After dusting the prawns with Alpine Pepper, a woody herb blend made from the piquant leaves of the mountain pepper and dried fruits of the Australian high country shrub, Chef Chandon grills the shellfish to perfection over the open flame. The smoky and savory shrimp are then drizzled with a macadamia-lime aioli.
If you're in for more bush-inspired fare, you may want to sample the other appetizer on the Dining Down Under Menu- Pan-seared black cod and Yakajirri rosti. It's distinctive list of ingredients give a nod to Australia's Aboriginal culinary influences- the potato hash accompanying the cod combines the vibrant Yakajirri dried bush tomato with smoky and spicy Alpine pepper to create flavors and textures that rarely make their way out of the Southern Hemisphere. Best to bring a dining companion and order both!
For the main course, our Aussie chef collaborators made certain that the Australian regional menu included a succulent grilled Pacific fish and lemon myrtle mash as our featured entrée. The mahi mahi is served along side a bed of wilted rocket, apricot-lemon confit and lemon myrtle mashed potatoes. Lemon myrtle is a popular Australian herb and spice mixture similar to lemon grass, lime and lemon oils, and adds a bright and zingy quality to the creamy mashed potatoes. This entree is a quintessential example of Modern Australian cuisine with its unique blend of native herbs and spices, fresh seafood and contemporary ingredients and cooking techniques.
No Australian dessert menu would be complete without some variation of the Lamington sponge cake, the continent's internationally acclaimed confection. Chef Chandon's rendition of this traditional recipe layers strawberry hibiscus compote between sheets of sponge cake, which is then dipped in ganache and coated with coconut.
Bon Apetit!