Marque

You’d think, having just won best chef in the Food Guide awards, Mark Best would have no reason to be unhappy – yet he certainly seemed to be in a bitter mood when we dined at Marque.

One of our 8 course degustation dishes was so bitter that I couldn’t finish it, and was forced to gulp a mouthful of my dinner companion’s overly sweet Gewürtztraminer simply to survive it. This is one of the hazards of a degustation menu – you are prey to the chef’s latest inventions and passions and, at present, Mark Best seems to be having fun taking bitter tastes to their ultimate lengths – even one of the petit fours bon bons was intentionally bitter. The dish in question was “Steamed Scampi with “Fish Floss”, Scampi Anglaise, Campari & Turnip”. The campari soaked turnip squares were so astringent that, even eaten with the smooth anglaise and the meltingly sweet scampi beneath it I went into taste shock. And whoever thought of dehydrating fish flakes and adding them to a meal as “Fish Floss” has created an anti-taste sensation. The problem with serving such a bitter dish in a matched wine menu is, of course, that you are forced to match it with a sweet wine. Gewürtztraminer even in this New Zealand Brookfields rehabilitated incarnation isn’t a grape that I would normally ever willingly drink. Matched with this insanely bitter dish however, it made a sort of kooky sense.

Don’t misunderstand me. One of the reasons we go to places like Marque is to try new tastes and food combinations to help shock us out of our complacency. Some of the food we had at this 3 hat Sydney restaurant was quite simply superb. Other dishes were strange and verged on unpleasant – but nothing was boring or run of the mill and many of the dishes really made us think. That said – I won’t be recreating campari soaked turnip squares any time soon.

To begin at the very beginning our first dish of the evening was inspired by Alain Passard and was a play on the flavours of sweet and salty, warm and cold. We received an egg shell filled with a cool cream that had been flavoured with maple syrup. Beneath the cream was a gently warm yolk and we ate the whole by dipping salted grissini into the egg. Once the yolk burst this dish really made sense and the combination of warm yolk, cool sweet cream and salty crunch of the grissini was a real treat.

The following dish (“Almond Jelly with Blue Swimmer Crab, Almond Gazpacho, Sweet Corn and Avruga”) was too similar in flavour to the egg to provide much interest in my opinion – although my first taste of Avruga definitely left me wanting more!

Presentation was a high point throughout the meal and our “Smoked Octopus with Mustard, Dill Watercress and ink” was particularly beautiful. The mustard was served as an icecream and was covered in a spray of mustard seeds while the squid ink was set inside a green oil to resemble the pupil of some alien eye. The “Slow Cooked Pork Jowl with Spinach and Coffin Bay Oyster” was another surprising combination that really worked – the oyster in its creamy white sauce beautifully complemented the pork jowl and made me do a little flavour dance at my seat (although it didn’t do it for my companion). This dish was paired with a fascinating red wine from Mallorca, the Anima Negra, which was a blend of two local grape varieties (Callet and Montenegro) with Shiraz. This wine lived up to the sommelier’s wonderful description of “funky feral”. It had a complexity and earthiness and a barnyard component that I felt almost overpowered the pork.

One dish we definitely agreed on came to the table resembling a tiny city of white asparagus pillars interspersed with conical black morel mushrooms. There were some shards of purple Congo potato, wonderful porcini crumbs and some dots of an intense yellow Parmesan sauce. This was matched with a delicious Felton Road “Vin Gris” from Central Otago that had much of the depth and complexity of a pinot noir with a light and very dry, crisp finish and a gorgeous, light orange colour.

Another absolute highlight was the eventual red meat dish. I have to admit we both found the menu overly “fishy” and vegetarian and were longing for some red meat by the end. Luckily this duly arrived in the form of a superbly pink piece of Angus steak served with the most delectable olive and Earl Grey ash, a miniature cucumber and some onion rings. This was a revelation. Earl Grey tea goes incredibly well with steak. The wine match here too was one we will go out in search of – a 2007 Conterno Fantino Barbera D’Alba from Piedmont in Italy. Our friendly sommelier described the Barbera grape as the “Crown Prince” of this region’s grapes – less well known and appreciated than the more popular Nebbiolo. My money is on the Crown Prince all the way – this was a delightful wine tasting of cigars and dry grass with slight feral undertones. It suited the beef perfectly and the undertone of cigars complemented the Earl Grey ash to perfection.

Our two dessert courses comprised a Crème Caramel flavoured with Sauternes – simple and refreshing after all the bells and whistles of the other courses, and then an absolutely eye popping Sorrel and Lemon Sorbet served on a White Chocolate Crumble and with some Goats’ Cheese cream on the side to relieve some of the intensity. My partner adored this. Dessert was matched with a whimsical cocktail of chestnut liqueur with a melting lime “marble” floating in it.

Service throughout the evening was absolutely impeccable. So good in fact I was sometimes bamboozled by it as, at one point, a waitress removed one of my side knives and replaced it with a fresh one (possibly because she had touched the knife while clearing a course – who knows?) My partner was finishing the Angus course and had run out of the delectable Barbera – a passing waiter noticed and gave him a splash more wine to accompany his last mouthful. The beautiful Michelin standard dance of fresh cutlery and tasting glasses of wine was conducted superbly and the sommelier introduced each wine with passion and enthusiasm. Many of the whites at the beginning of the meal didn’t appeal to us personally but they certainly matched the food they came with.

The decor here is dignified and a little bit swanky – giving you the impression you are up for something special. The walls are shiny black lacquer and each table has an oval lamp on it that resembles nothing so much as a gently glowing alien egg.

Yes – the scampi dish was disconcerting but Mark Best is a world class chef and it is no doubt by indulging his latest taste ideas and imagination that he has remained at the top of his game. Marque stretched us and world class food should always do that. If we were awarding Michelin stars I would definitely give it one, and my companion would give it two (he is a fan of eye popping citrus sorbets!)