Melbourne is a world-class culinary city, chockers with global influences about and trendy concepts that would be equally at home in New York or San Francisco. A group of US Chefs and foodie types recently toured Melbourne with a special guide in Chef Scott Pickett, one of the top restauranteurs in the city. Sorry mate, we couldn’t have you with us…but here’s the next best thing – a virtual tour of a couple of the many highlights. More to come!
Higher Ground, an all-day café
This place stood out for a number of reasons; the coffee, which was some of the best we had in our time Down Under. You could put it up against any third-wave coffee spot in Seattle or San Francisco and not come up cortado.
Second, Higher Ground is a master class in flexible spaces – it’s busy, vibrant and inviting from morning coffees and brekkie, to afternoon laptop-time, and straight through to dinner service – all while keeping a definitive culinary point of view.
Higher Ground elevates the Australian breakfast and snack favorite, the sausage roll. Their version sees an elegant flaky pastry stuffed with confit lamb sausage, served with a bright cucumber pickle and an umami-rich anchovy mayonnaise. The dish demonstrates a commitment to flavor complexity that would be at home on modern American menus, too.
Another standout was a roast pumpkin, burrata, black garlic emulsion with pumpkin seed furikake – a must with the optional confit lamb rib!
Matilda
By lunchtime, though we were all full as googs, we had an amazing lunch at Chef Pickett’s own Matilda restaurant. It’s named after his daughter, and is a concept completely built around open fire cooking over charcoal and wood fires. The food at Matilda celebrates the bounty of Australia’s produce, both animal and vegetable. You’ll find premium grassfed porterhouse from Cape Grim Tazmania, dry-aged 21 days and served with shiitake and black garlic. And a grassfed beef shortrib from O’Connors in Victoria, done with stinging nettle and black pudding. Wow!
It’s a must visit for the space itself as well as the food; both thought out and executed at a high level. More on our chat with Chef Pickett here.