Alchemy 731

TamaraC

Alchemy 731 9th May 2007

3 found this helpful

You know, it's nice to have friends who shout. Not literally of course, those friends would be, well, annoying. These are friends who say ‘we would like to host you at a fabulous 8-course degustation dinner to celebrate one of our 33rd birthdays'. Nice huh? And what if I said that earlier that day the same friend (whose 33rd birthday it was indeed) had said to me and three more friends ‘come and join me for a manicure and pedicure so we look fabulous for our 8-course degustation dinner. I'll pay'. And that then, later in the day, but before the 8-course degustation dinner, another friend organised a photo shoot of the four fabulous top and tailed girls just for posterity? REALLY nice huh?

And so I found myself, on a balmy evening in Mosman, Sydney (that's in Australia by the way - they say it's not the capital, but really, EVERYONE knows it should be), liquored by a couple of glasses of sparkling, triumphant from a photo shoot that showed I had the photo, I just needed the book deal, with DC and eight friends, being hosted to an 8-course degustation dinner at ‘Alchemy 731'.

(So you can see how it's a nice theme - Alchemy, the art of turning base metal into gold/ turning four 30-somethings into fabulous 30-somethings? And of course, turning wonderful raw ingredients into dining gold?)

And can I say at the outset that there was no disappointing pyramid of chocolate here (see ‘Eat City'), but a dessert course trio of chocolate fantasia, headlined by a chocolate crème de menthe tart that stands out as my favourite item in our meal.

At the other end of the meal the ‘Amuse bouche' failed to amuse a few fellow diners who felt the pickled herring factor was a little high… ‘Lamb three ways' also raised a few eyebrows for it's risqué suggestiveness, and hidden inside these three morsels were parts of the lamb best hidden beneath crumbing (I think it was brain but I don't really want to know…) Other delicious morsels included ‘beetroot cured salmon with fennel, roasted hazelnut, pink grapefruit tartare and black pepper tuille' featuring fine pieces of smoked salmon with beetroot-stained hems; ‘prosciutto of venison with melon, baby herbs, poppy seed wafer and parmesan' and a parmesan ice cream that accompanied one of the vegetarian's degustation courses.

Wine matches were variable, with the standout the 2003 Glenguin ‘Stoneybroke' Shiraz from the Hunter Valley matched with the three-way lamb ; ) (couldn't resist) In a completely coincidental twist of fate, a number of people at the table had sailed aboard ‘Stoneybroke' the yacht owned by the Glenguin vigneron himself!

While degustation can sometimes leave you feeling a little disgusted with how much you've eaten, I think the Alchemy version would have done better with a little more heft in the middle courses, at the expense of the two-course dessert (keep the crème de menthe tart, but you can buy berry sorbet at the supermarket) and the Caerphilly cheese course (looked like it had come out of a packet from the QANTAS flight in from the UK). We had great company and a great night overall, and really, it would be too rude to complain when it was such a generous shout!

sue at 09/05/07

Another fabulous review TamaraC!! Who are these generous friends and how can I meet them ; ) The chocolate crème de menthe tart sounds like my kind of thing!!

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