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If you’ve been missing the food of feisty Scottish chef Ray Capaldi since Fenix closed you should visit the NGV for lunch. He’s not actually in the kitchens which are run by Peter Rowland Catering. But the menu is his design and he’s consulting to the company and helping them deliver great tasting good looking food at a reasonable price.
He’s brought the food at the gallery up to date competing with mainstream city restaurants in the same tradition of gallery restaurants in the UK (where if I remember it all started with the Tate Gallery pre Modern)
I’m not going to give a full review here as I was eating with the chef. But here are pics of what you can expect - in reverse order as the desserts are particularly good looking.
You don’t need to book or pay to get into the art gallery to get in. Members get a 10% discount.
The gallery doesn’t actively promote Perssimon making it one of the Melbourne’s best kept secrets. And they don’t sign post it when you enter the gallery - it’s to the right after the bag check, near the loos and overlooks the sculpture garden.
Don’t be put off by its lack of visibility.
Art deco mandarin soup, rosewater marshmallow, tapioca
A bowl of black forest, chocolate, cherries
Baba au rhum, winter cole pear purée, burnt honey custard
Tomato salad, dried ricotta, basil crumbs (An idea he adapted from GAS at Crown)
Risotto of cauliflower, Taleggio, cauliflower, olive oil
Pont neuf fries and sea salt
24 hour braised lamb shank, peas à la française (Tuesday special $28)
Carpaccio of aged beef, egg yolk curd, chilli, horseradish (Eggs cooked to 50C for spreadable texture)
Popularity: 12% [?]
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
So, when is he opening at his new site?
He’s hoping for March but that all depends on the buildings and designers who I think he is still in negotiation with. He’s hoping to bring out somebody pretty high profile for the food fest.
Wow Ed. I’m even a member of the NGV and didn’t know about Persimmon. Tx it’s on my list for the very near future
Nice pics Ed. Love the de-constructed black forest. Où sont les petit pois à la française? Ma grand-mère made this almost every day for me as a child. I miss her so much.
Elliot, you’ll have to start reading the Hun on Tuesdays to keep up
ut si, you are right. I think it is a typo on the menu - it’s meant to be pommes à la française. Shame I quite feel in the mood for petit pois.
Great to see the big man is back doing what he does best, cant wait to try his new venture in march when im back in town.
Yes Ut si this picture is grand mere there is a lamb shank francaise on the day speacials ,thank you for the write up Ed and to all the people
who have commented on the food,You are right the gallery does n’t promote this which is pretty poor ,let’s hope you lovely people spread the word to make this a success
The other dishes are ”Leeks in embers ” made with eggplant ash,and a old dish from 2007 ”Potatoes,potatoes”In soil made from malt,pumpernickel,lactose
LOCARNO 150 will be opened late march
Tante grazie Raymond, can’t wait to see you back in action. Sorry we missed Stephanie’s dinner last Tuesday.
Buona fortuna per Locarno 150.
Looking good Ray.
Keep sane and I’ll see you at the new place!
Jack
Ray,
Fantastic looking food you always come up with the good stuff, no wonder you have been so flat out. The photos make us want to come down and try it all out before the end of deco.
Well done Jasmina and Phil
I personally think the cuisine of raymond is very over rated.I am french his dishes do not related to french cuisine.My company dinner and dance at the fenix was poor please set the principles of french cuisine or do not try and acheive in what you are trying to achieve.My family are from the gastrominic in france
Hi Diane
I’ve been to many company sponsored dinners at Fenix and at Jaques Reymond and they have been uniformly dissapointing. On the other hand when I have been to those restaurants as an individual customer eating a la carte or degustation the food has been excellent. French cuisine is distinguished by cream, butter, eggs and wonderful sauces. Capaldi has not tried to reproduce classical French but his dishes are often French influenced with lovely reductions.
Company dinners are usually cut price and don’t represent chefs at their best
Well thank you Diane ….I don’t know when you where last at Fenix ..no excuse I have been away from there for some time ..I understand what you are saying but a gourmet as yourself would understand that function food has to cover all walks of life not just a great french palate as yourself,your pathetic words don’t make sense,for a start where is the gastro of france ..
what region… And stubborn like yourself not opened to change… the french chefs have falling behind…I by the way Diane ..I stand by my function food up there with any function centre
go back to france
I actually think the Fenix function food is pretty good. I’ve been to a couple of weddings there and considering the volumes of people is was a cut above what you’d find elsewhere. As I remember it was never pegged as French - Vietnamese chicken salad for instance. And sous vide cooking always ensured the meat was moist. It’s probably unrealistic to expect the full-on experience for a function.
HI ED ELLIOT ,
Thanks for the support,I came across the reason for this lady
why she has written this,sometimes it’s a shame people have to use this
way for there problems in life…and for others to make them feel complete,thanks you Elliott,Ed for your response,Even though
the function is not under my control with her function,the head chef that is there now is a great chef,and will still be doing a great job
some people need to have there say…
Dear diane, i must agree with raymond go bak to france .
Thank you Raymond for your comments.I find shannon bennett and jacques reymond cuisine and service wonderful.You are not in the same league as them.if you can not take critcism then you are not a great chef.yes i come from the st maxims.my father friend is Ducasse a wonderful,passionate chef.He has worked with the greats like Barbier,Besson,Bocuse and so on.I have witness great food and seem amazing work.So i know in what i talk about.Are you racist with your comment,just like Ryan Clift.You probably not been to France and witness culture. You only dream about it.
Raymond,
I forgot to say I am going to vue de monde next wednesday night.I hope to see you.Do not throw your toys out of your pram .
Cher Diane, je prierais de différer, comme j’ai travaillé en France pour deux chefs bien connus, pour deux et une moitié d’années.
plus loin plus après avoir mangé dans presque chaque trois tiennent le premier rôle en France que je conviens que le Françaistombent derrière dans le monde de la nourriture supérieure de classe, mais ce qui je saurais .
P.S obtiennent une vie.
Diane. I think you are missing the point about the food at the NGV - it offers value and is good. Nobody is talking about authentic French food and you certainly don’t get that at Vue De Monde where the major influence is a British chef John Burton Race.
I’m not sure why you are trying to compare VDM to a function at Fenix or the NGV. All three are different beasts and I have had indifferent function food at VDM.
I think yoiu should remember what you get for $400 a head is very different than $100 a head and $50 a head. If you really want authentic French food then don’t look in Melbourne where you’ll find cartoon French restaurants. You really need to go to France for that.
HI ED
I was going to write something last night and i thought whats the point
I don’t think we should give this person anymore words,she has not been to NGV and she can only compare the function food so that say’s
something,but if you know who she is you would understand ,she was a house cook ,she isn’t even French,this is a made up name
Father rich man,and this makes her insecurity feel good,believe me
don’t even waste your time,It’s a shame that these people use blogs
and spoil it for the real people that give negative feedback in a positive manner,It can’t be that bad her company keeps going back
we have a word in Scotland for her,it sounds french as well
Thanks Ed for alerting us - had a great lunch yesterday b4 Ferran.
Great food, and certainly not what you would describe as “function food”. Wine list was short - but good cross-section and extremely modest prices.
Thermomixer,I thought itwas good value especially if you have the NGV membership and get the 10% discount.What did you think of Ferran last night - value? I can’t judge the value as I was given a ticket.
Short answer - Yes. The Q&A session was not well organised, but first session showed a bit of the thinking and it is good to get it straight from the source.
Better value in 2001 at Tasting Australia when he and Juan Marie Arzak did a Powerepoint presentation and live demo. That was before the books were released and so more eye-opening. It was very new then with the foams, agar-agar uses, cauliflower microplaned, etc . Many of the techniques shown are already here - the sponges that I saw at Interlude and shown on my blog, for instance. We didn’t get Albert spraying orange blossom mist over us this time either.
If you got the book, then it was “free” admission so that’s value.
Also got to spend 15 mins with him, Albert and Juan Marie, and a couple of Aussies after the Adelaide demo, so that was better.
I ate at Persimmon last weekend, and the Tearoom as well, and the whole experience was exquisite and very reasonably priced. Setting for Persimmon was also stunning, service perfect and just a wonderful day all round. Can’t wait to go back, frankly! Congratulations, particularly to Ray and Sylvana! xxx