Jacques Reymond

8th September 2011

A decision during the middle of the day saw me surprisingly get a 7pm booking for that evening at Jacques Reymond's 3 hat establishment. Even on a Thursday night i was surprised that i was able to get a table at such short notice and given the amount of people who filled the dining room it was even more surprising.

After turning up at the restaurant, a converted prahran manor house that has housed his award winning restaurant since 1992, i has to ring the door bell before being allowed admission into the house. Greeted by a extremely pleasant and competent host i had my coat taken and was shown to my seat in the main dining room (the house is separate into three separate downstairs dining areas with an upstairs private function area) located in what would have been the living room of the house. High ceilings, beautiful lighting and furnishing and a beautiful presented and elegant table and place setting greeted me.

First note on this dinner was the service, rather than the wait staff feeling as if they were doing their job they were incredibly positive, welcoming and acted as if they truly enjoyed being there and discussing the meal and talking to you whilst being extremely polished and . You were made to feel important and like they really cared rather than asking the questions was just part of their job. The next part was the ambiance with you feeling a million miles away from the busy main road and the vibrant dining room added another level with people sounding like they were truly enjoying a unique and amazing experience and had to discuss each course.

We started with a pre dinner Gougeres. An amazing delicate flaky chioux pastry with beautifully cheesy Gruyère.

After ordering a glass of Tolangi chardonnay, i decided on the 8 course degustation menu (which ended up being 9 course due to a free additional course) consisting of 6 (+1) savoury dishes and 2 deserts followed by petit fours. The dishes were all amazingly presented and having a ridiculously amount of textures, flavours and techniques.

The first dish was the tea smoked chicken and watercress soup, potato foam, and a tempura wakame oyster. A rich soup with distinctive flavours that each shone through whilst complementing each other perfectly.

The second course was a gazpacho of tuna, daishi and pure natural tomato jelly and red plum. Even though it was tuna, my least fish i was absolutely beautiful dish (even better than the high standard of the rest of the dishes) and good flavours.

The third dish was the fish dish and featured a deep sea rockling flavoured with coffee and anchovy flavouring. Amazing strong and great fish flavour which was matched perfectly with a hazelnut foam, hazelnuts and slightly nutty rice. Amazing cooked fish and great produce matched with ridiculous techniques and flavours.

After the 3rd course i was offered an additional course. A caramelised scallop with a lobster dumpling and veal sweetbreads. A slight mismatch of flavours but every individual element was amazing especially the rich flavoursome lobster dumpling. And the slight mismatch of the individual flavours together was a slight hiccup in what was otherwise perfect dish.

The 5th course was a dish of pork in masterstock with fresh paperdelle with wasabi espuma and ponzu juices. The masterstock was rich and powerful and amazing and worked wonderfully with the pork and paperdelle. My favourite savoury dish of the night.

After this dish the servers came around with a choice of warm bread. Obviously designed to come out when freshly baked rather than just as a requirement for the start of a meal there was a choice of three breads and i went for the french epi  bread with sesame seeds. Combined with beautifully creamy french butter it was so good.

Following this came out the 6th course being a rabbit, cooked sous vide until it was amazingly soft, tender and moist. Combined with crispy squid, spiced walnuts, compressed apple and a sherry vinaigrette, the textures and flavours were great if not a little subtle for my tastes. It like big strong flavours to be matched  with my rabbit. However a great exhibition of technique, flavours and the meal was still of outstanding quality.

The final savoury dish was a beautifully cooked piece of wagyu beef, amazingly sourced and with perfect marbelling, it was an exquisite cut of meat with a slightly brown and charred outside while still pink on the inside. Matched with the black truffles (previously selected at an additional fee), a ketchup sorbet (which was slightly cold and had an amazingly strong but delicate flavour) and an egg white omelet containing daikon and a hint of chili. The wrapped omelet was delicious but the star had to be the combo of the well rounded flavour of the wagyu beef and the nutty truffles with the sorbet. Amazing.

The first desert course was served in a miniature martini glass with a bottom layer of orange gel with miniature strawberries inside, topped with a Tahitian vanilla mousse, coffee mousse and a caramelised nut filled dark chocolate ice cream and topped off with a coffee foam. A tiny bit too much coffee flavour for me but the dark chocolate with caramelised nuts was truly a revelation and the star. All the elements were amazing and worked ridiculously well together.

The second desert plate was the deconstructed cheesecake. So many brilliantly thought about individual elements to the dish and the presentation was out of this world. The thought process that had gone into this dish was awe inspiring but was still outdone by the flavours and taste of the dish. Casis soaked cherries, fromage blanc cream with a beautiful crisp icing sugar dusted pastry, a chocolate and bush pepper berries ice cream and a fruit block with a beautiful foam. Perfect!

After all the delights of these nine courses, the final flourish at the end was a selection of petit fours. These consisted of an extremely light and crisp churros regale with a decadent dark chocolate dipping sauce, a hazelnut fudge, fruit jelly in sugar, a crisp pistachio and lime macaroon with an beautiful filling and finally a praline truffle. Some small delight to cap off a wondrous evening.

I am sorry Momo, please move aside for my new favourite restuarant in Melbourne. Everything about this experience was first class and showed a level of polish and confidence in itself that is rare to find. I can only hope that the other two, 3 hat restaurants come to the party and match or even exceed the impossibly high standard made by Jacques Reymond.