Eating Inn

I am Chef Phillip Davenport, and welcome to the second season of Eating Inn.

Eating Inn is all about luxury and giving you access

to some of the best restaurants in the city.

Here in my fabulous room

at the Crown, overlooking the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge,

right below me is some of the best restaurants in the city.

Nobu, Amare, Woodcut, Silks and Yoshii's Omakase.

- Buongiorno . -

In a world of hats and stars, where culinary excellence reigns supreme,

a spirited rivalry exists among the world's finest hotels,

their showcase restaurants, and the men and women who run them.

This is the environment where five star culinary elegance

merges with the genius of inspired chefs,

all vying for the ultimate accolade, your patronage.

The big thumbs up, where each destination,

chef, and their signature cuisine captivate your senses.

Join me in a world where gourmet excellence

and destination decadence are magically combined

on Toque 12's second series of Eating Inn.

Here we are at the top of the world, overlooking Sydney Harbour.

I'm here with the Culinary Director at Crown Sydney,

Sarah Briegel. How are you?

-Lovely, how are you? -Good, thanks.

-Welcome to Crown. -Wow.

-Best office in the world. -It's not bad, is it?

I mean, you've got a huge job here at the Crown as Culinary Director.

And while I'm here, we're going to be covering

some of those incredible restaurants and seeing those brands

that you guys really look after.

Obviously, there's some joint ventures, as well...

-Yeah. -...with brands.

We're lucky here. The two we have in Woodcut

with Ross and Amare with Alessandro, that we've got two great chefs

that just love what they do.

So Ross and Sonny are husband and wife team that run Woodcut.

Ross is a world renowned chef. He's done a lot overseas.

He used to run The Bridge Room here, owned The Bridge Room here in Sydney.

And him and his wife, Sonny, do Woodcut. Fabulous steaks, seafood, honestly.

And just the best high quality, his produce he finds is amazing.

He has some very supportive suppliers as well. So, yeah, they do very well.

Ross, share with us

on what possessed you and your wife to put this show together.

I think coming up with the concept of Woodcut,

for me, it was literally that ten years of not cooking, traveling,

and thinking, what do restaurants mean to me?

-Afternoon. Ross. -Hey, Phil. How are you?

-Good to see you. Welcome to Woodcut. -Yeah. Thank you.

-What a beautiful space. -Nice to have you here.

Well, look, we're on Sydney Harbor. Where else would you want to be?

What hits you first at Woodcut is the sheer size of the place.

It seems to go on forever. But as you acclimatize,

you start to understand how clearly it's all been thought out.

With all the different sections and seating arrangements,

anywhere you choose to sit feels comfortable, almost homely,

and like you are in a much smaller, more private space.

Regardless of where you sit, there's no missing the theater of Woodcut.

And like Chef Ross, his creation wears its heart on its sleeve.

There's no hidden agenda.

At Woodcut, what you see here is what you get.

Absolutely everything is on show. There aren't any kitchens out the back.

So the mise en place prep,

pre cooking, steaming, barbecuing, baking, roasting and smoking

is all upfront, for everyone to see.

And there's always plenty going on.

Eye candy everywhere you look, with almost as many staff,

doing their thing as there are diners, or so it seems.

As they say, all the world's a stage.

And that pretty well sums up Woodcut.

It's pure entertainment all the way.

From looking out at the harbour while you're dining

to watching the culinary show inside or front and center,

at the Woodcut bar, watching the world go by,

as the barman creates another little side show.

Eating Inn is all about showcasing culinary excellence

as presented by some of the best chefs in the world,

then learning in detail, how they put it together in the kitchen.

At Woodcut, the masterclasses

come courtesy of owner and founder, Chef Ross Lusted

and his executive chef, Daniel Leyva.

It's lunchtime.

There's lots of things going on behind me. They're setting up for lunch.

There's four different kitchens inside this restaurant.

It's absolutely stunning.

Great place to film in and lots of movement.

So here we are.

-Welcome to Woodcut, Chef Phil. -Yeah. Thank you.

-So a little champagne to start. - Champagne to start.

This is a Charles Heidsiec.

-30% Chardonnay. - Yes.

30% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier.

Today my degustation consists of ten courses,

six in this episode and four more in part two of Woodcut.

This is how the menu reads for today.

Crumpet with Oscietra caviar N25,

followed by pearl meat, white soy, sunrise lime, ginger and sea succulents.

Then Abrolhos Island scallops

with roasted cauliflower and aged pancetta.

A grilled raw beef tartare, salted duck egg and radish.

Then veal tongue skewer caper sauce, nasturtium,

and a brick chicken, fragrant lime, barberries, grapes.

Let's get going.

All right. A little champagne to start. Why not?

Good afternoon, Phil. How are you? Welcome to Woodcut.

- Thank you. Nice to meet you. -Beautiful. Lovely to meet you.

And we want to start you with something very special from us.

It's a griddle cake. We baked them in the morning.

Top it up with lemon cream and Kaluga caviar.

So, edition super large eggs harvested in the Yunnan province in China,

flown to Germany, where it's fermented for 12 months.

Perfect with your glass of bubbles, one or two bites. Enjoy.

- Thank you so much. - Thank you very much.

When you first come here, you have to have the crumpet.

It's got caviar on it.

It's got that soft crumpet, little crispy on the bottom.

It's just a great way to start here at Woodcut.

I mean, when we started, opened Woodcut,

I really wanted to get some exceptional caviar,

and so we worked with Hermes from N25 in Germany,

who does the maturation in Germany.

And then, what's the vehicle that we're going to do...

to serve the caviar?

And we decided to make crumpets with the lemon cream.

So it's a very simple crumpet batter.

And it starts with great flour.

Sieving flour as well. Take any impurities out.

Taking all impurities out. This is from Gunnedah,

so whole grain milling.

Extraordinary flour producers, about nine hours west.

Yeast.

We're going to add some warm water. Whisk away, Phil...

to make the paste.

And then, obviously, we're going to add eggs, melted butter.

And then we let this rest. We let it ferment.

And then, right just before we cook, we add the baking soda right at the end.

And that just gives it another bit of aeration.

Obviously, cracking eggs into a container, making sure there's no...

blood or anything in the eggs.

And then, lastly, just the melted butter.

And you don't want this too hot. It really is just melted.

I remember growing up where you could have,

you make the batter, you sit it on the side of the agar,

and then you get a crumpet.

Or if you thin it down, it can become a little pancake-type thing.

So in this case, we have a producer that we get unwaxed lemons.

If they do have wax, just wash them in warm water, remove the wax.

Obviously, you can see it's Meyer lemon season.

So Meyer lemons is a variety of lemons

that Mr. Meyer took from China to the US.

And now, obviously, we have Meyer lemons in Australia,

very short season, about six to eight weeks.

So we preserve. These ones are preserved in salt.

But traditional, Middle Eastern type preserved lemon.

And then we make lemon curd, lemon purée.

So they're seasoned, I mean, they're so fragrant

and have this incredible sort of calamansi,

lime, mandarin flavor to them.

So they're fantastic. So we've just put a bit of lemon zest in there.

We'll cover that. Let that ferment for about an hour in a warm spot.

And then last minute, add the baking soda. Daniel will show you how to make crumpets.

I think when I sort of was

thinking of the type of restaurant I wanted to open...

the cooking method for me was equally as important as the produce.

And luxury, for me, today is working with a producer

that is within my region

and trying to get the best out of them, that then we get the best product

from them that's appropriate to our restaurant,

and then not manipulating it too much.

So the journey is there, the story is there.

And that's what a regional restaurant within a city

you should be able to come to Woodcut, and it talks to Australian produce.

And that's what's important to me as a chef, yeah.

Morning, Leo. How are you?

-How are You? -Very welcome.

Just wanted to show you. Well, I wanted to show these.

- Morning, Leo. -We've been after these.

- What's happening? How are you? -Chef. How are you?

-How are you, Chef? - Phil.

Lovely to meet you, Chef.

Leo's been in this business for about, I don't know. How long?

-Forty years. -He looks very young.

-But 40 years. Forty years. -Forty years.

And there's not many people who kick around the markets at Flemington.

And again, we're very lucky we have a market that's very close to us.

-But Leo and I go back a long time. -Long way.

They're very difficult chefs, and not like me.

-I'm a very easy chef to work with, so. -Absolutely.

But no, I mean, produce is key to what we do.

And it's people like Leo, who I've worked with for almost 20 years now,

to find us the right product for our needs.

And you would have seen in the vegetable counter when you walk in,

that's curated essentially by Leo.

And what we see and what customers are looking at

when they first walk into the restaurant is critical.

We have to source product pretty much every day of the week.

Try and get, one, the chefs interested, keep them excited

because it's evolving, it's ever changing.

And we also have to introduce a specific amount of

sustainability in the equation

also because the chefs are very conscious about that.

And we need to evolve with the chefs, obviously.