March 2, 2010

Collins Kitchen

Collins Kitchen
123 Collins Street
Melbourne 9653 4831

You've probably seen it around on other Melbourne food blog sites, recently a whole bunch of food bloggers were invited to The Grand Hyatt to check out Collins Kitchen, courtesy of the guys from Nuffnang. I'm a little bit of a food blogging novice, even though I've been doing this for a year - its still a shock and surprise to me that I get to do something so awesome and meet some incredible people. So for most of the night I was pretty awe struck.

part of collins kitchen

First up Jason, the head chef, took us on a walking tour of their brand spanking new kitchen. Oh what I would give to have a play around the place. I have no actual cooking talent - but for an hour or so I could feel like a real chef. Here are a couple of happy snaps I took.

japanese section

Selection of fresh produce with some great fresh wasabi from Tasmania.

japanese chef

The chef preparing some grated wasabi

seafood section

Its the three Musketeer crabs, one for all and all for claw!!

deli wheel
Hand operated meat slicer, for a cool $10,000 I can get one for my home kitchen


There's been some fantastic posts so far (check out the list at the bottom of this post), with some even more fantastic photography. So I'll keep the details to a minimum and concentrate on the dishes that I really enjoyed. The guys in the kitchen really put on an awesome spread for us, here are the dishes we tried.

sushi

Selection of sushi and sashimi, with freshly grated wasabi. Nothing more to say other than fantastic fresh wasabi, straight from Tasmania.

pizza

Focaccia; tomato buffalo mozzarella, basil and olives. Oh yum!! Being a good little Italian girl....anything doughy and smattered in tomato and cheese is a winner for me. Loved it. It wasn't overly fancy, just simple and satisfying. The cheese was still hot when I dug in and for a moment I was sitting at the table all by myself, despite being surrounded by people. Oh how the simple things in life make me so happy.

antipasto

Antipasto plate; Air dried Wagyu, San Daniele Prosciutto and rockmelon, grilled veggies, pickles, liverwurst terrine or pate, tomatoes topped with buffalo mozzarella and basil. Stand out for me was the air dried Wagyu, it was silky, beefy and not too dry.

grilled meats

Grilled meats: Soy chicken, roast duck, crispy pork belly and char siu. The crispy pork was a stand out for me, but I'm a sucker for some fat topped with crispy skin.

grilled seafood

Grilled seafood: Scallops, salmon, prawns, tuna and Moreton Bay bugs or Balmain bugs. The scallops were so good, they looked like fat little pocket of joy, slightly grilled surface with a soft and yielding inside. I would have gladly had a full plate of them. There was also a massive plate of grain fed beef which I managed to forget to take a photo of, along with a side of spectacular sauteed mushrooms and creamy mash potatoes.

dessert

Dessert: Banana Millefeuille, Peach Melba, Rhubarb with an accompanying pot of creme anglaise, 4 different types of sorbets - strawberry, pistachio, passionfruit and vanilla, melty gooey Chocolate Fondant. By far my favourite plate of food on the night. I'm easily swayed by sweet stuff, so I'm slightly bias. There were a couple of stand outs, the passionfruit sorbet knocked my socks off. I love ice cream/sorbet/gelato that tastes of the fruit it promises, and boy did it deliver. Tart and punchy, perfect summer ice cream. The Banana millefeuille, up until that night I had only ever tried vanilla, so it was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed the banana puree through the luscious cream. It was great. And the best of all, the chocolate fondant. Oh it was divine, the center was runny and hot, there was a generous amount of chocolate ice cream on top and it was great. I just wish that I had finished my meal on that chocolate fondant and not taken another bite.

All in all it was a great night. It was wonderful to be invited to something like this and I need to say a big thank you to the Grand Hyatt, the team at Collins Kitchen and of course the guys from Nuffnang.

David and Sarah @ Nuffnang - review here
Shellie @ Iron Chef Shellie - review here
Penny @ Addictive & Consuming - review here
Joyce @ Jetsetting Joyce - review here and here
Adrian @ Food Rehab - review here
Thanh @ I Eat Therefore I Am - review here
Billy @ Half Eaten - review here
Mellie and Dan @ Tummy Rumbles
Suzanne @ EssJay Eats - review here
Sarah @ Sarah Cooks

11 comments:

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

Oh god why did I read this? I knew what was coming... more photos of the amazing kitchen and seafood platter and roast/bbq meats to torture me. And yet I couldn't help myself... wahhhhh

By the way, I'm totally stealing the phrase "fat little pocket of joy" :D

Jetsetting Joyce (MEL: HOT OR NOT) said...

You managed to get in a decent photo of the foccacia before it got eaten!

Yummmm

Jetsetting Joyce

Fiona said...

I'm loving these reviews.

Eyes Bigger Than Belly said...

So so so jealous!!! It looks like you had an amazing time and the food all looks delicious!! :)

penny aka jeroxie said...

Oh yes. It was an evening to remember. Shall link up now!

Arwen from Hoglet K said...

What a magnificent dessert platter! I agree about finishing on the chocolate - save the best till last.

Ali-K said...

I can't view all of your photos due to my computer's inability to load. Still, for once it's doing me a favour. The dessert plate alone makes me jealous enough! I'm sure I'd be in a right state if I saw all photos.

A cupcake or two said...

Oh I love blogger meets ups. Hopefully
nuffnang has one in Sydney soon. Love your photos.

Sarah Stokely said...

Hi Maria!
I've added a link to your post from the Nuffnang blog.
Thanks again for coming!

Anonymous said...

Fab evening you had! Amazing experience and great post :0

Trisha said...

The spread looks AMAZING!!!!!!!! Wonder if they're going to have a NSW one... hehehe