Petersham Nurseries Cafe. London

This famous nursery cafe near London currently has Greg Malouf, the Australian chef who specialises in Middle Eastern cuisine as the guest chef. The cafe is a proponent of the "slow food" movement and as such has quite a culinary following.

Laduree, Sydney

This famous Parisien patisserie and tea room was opened this year at the Westfield Sydney. Reknown for its macarons with a ganache filling designed in the middle of the 20th century by Pierre Desfontaine, second cousin to Louis Ernest Laduree, these elegant stores offer a glimpse of Parisien style. The menu pictures are only a sample of the multi-page booklet and its offerings. My Sydney dwelling daughter was most impressed so I suppose I will have to validate her opinion when I am in Sydney next year.....

Le Plaza Hotel, Brussels

Built in 1930, the architecture was modelled on the famous George V Hotel in Paris, it soon became symbol of luxury hotels in Belgium. In 1940 it was occupied by the German troops who booby trapped it before the arrival of the Allies. Fortunately only the Winter Graden ans the stained glass dome were destroyed. Like many famous hotels of the time it could not keep pace with the changing needs of the travelling public and closed in 1976.

In 1995, 400 million Belgium Francs was spent on its restoration and renovation returning it to its former glory. Visit its web site to see the magnificent restoration. This menu is from the 1930's and features a breakfast menu and an a la carte menu. Interesting to see savouries or "toasts"as they call them, similar to the older English menus.

Neil Perry's Spice Temple Restaurant

Australia's oldest ethnic cuisine would have to be Chinese, dating back to the 1850's and gold rush period. However most Chinese restaurants have been of the one regional style, Cantonese. Neil Perry has added to the new emphasis of different regions, particularly Sichuan. Anyone whos likes spicy food and Chinese food will not be dissappointed at his two Spice Temple Restaurants, Sydney and Melbourne. The menu sounds amazing and I will have to dine there soon for sure.

Rick Stein at Bannisters

Not many people seem to be aware that celebrity seafood chef, Rick Stein, has a restaurant in Australia at Moolymook New South Wales. The people at Bannisters generously sent me a signed menu for the collection and from the look of it, I will have make sure I drop in for a meal when I am next in the area. 

Rick Steins Seafood Restaurant. Padstow.

Celebratory seafood chef Rick Stein has created an array of seafood oulets in Padstow, Cornwall, Merryn and Falmouth. He has even opened a restaurant called Bannisters in New South Wales in Australia. Reknown for his passion for fresh seafood, he has featured in many television series which has made him well known world-wide.

In Padstow, on the Cornish coast he has 4 establishments: The Seafood Restaurant, St. Petroc's Bistro, Rick Stein's Cafe and Stein's Fish and Chips. A chef friend of mine recently worked a couple of shifts in the restaurant whilst on a working holiday in England and described the amount of chips made each day as just "bloödy" prodigious. This menu is a tasting or degustation menu from the Seafood Restaurant and looks amazing and delectable. Perhaps the Pavlova listed for dessert indicates his love of Australia?

The Greenhouse Restaurant . London

This menu is from 1991 and is unfortunately 23 years old and obviously long before it  achieved the fame and acclaim it now attracts. The 19 items on the wine list bears no resemblance to the wine list which has won so many awards lately, so I will just have to be patient to get a more modern menu. The restaurant is in Hay's Mews, Mayfair. At least the photo of the dining room is a current picture.

Cafe Royal. London

This establishment has a tremendous history with a list of clients unsurpassed by any other. Built in 1865 by Daniel Nicholas Thevenon, a French wine merchant, it was set in fashionable Regent Street ( named after the Prince Regent who later became George IV). Their son, also a Daniel took the family restaurant to new heights. I will list just some of its famous clients: Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Noel Coward plus Royalty such as Edward the VIII, George VI and even Diana, Princess of Wales.

In the 1950's it became the home of the National Sporting Club and many Black Tie dinners were followed by bouts of boxing. In the 60's it was rediscovered by the avante garde set like Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor and Muhammed Ali. It closed in 2008 and many of its unique artefacts were put up for auction; it remained closed for 3 years before it was radically restored and is now emerging in stages during 2012. The menu I have is from the 1950's and is extensive in its breadth., notice the peculiar English course of Savouries served after desserts.

Gemini 7. Spacecraft

This menu is definately unusual......It is the 14 day cycle menu for Nasa's Gemini 7 manned spaceflight in 1965. The crew of Frank Borman and James Lovell spent 14 days in orbit making a total of 206 orbits and were joined by Gemini-6A which performed the first rendezvous maneuver of manned spacecraft. The menu looks like it was typed on my grandmothers typewriter and you would think of the billions of dollars spent on this trip, they could afford a more glamorous menu but I guess they had more important things on their mind and it was 47 years ago.

The Society Restaurant. Melbourne

This famous Italian restaurant was started by Guiseppe Codognotto in 1932 at 23 Bourke Street Melbourne. Guiseppi'sson Rino and daughter Rina later took over the running of the restaurant and Rino quickly became known as the face of the "spaghetti mafia", the Italian food culture of the city. Rino retired in 1984 and the restaurant went through various name changes and ownerships until the reknown Dimattina family obtained control and returned it to its former glory in 2007. This famous Italian food culture group named the "spaghetti mafia"included such culinary luminaries as David Triaca (The Latin), Lou and Joe Molina ( The Imperial Hotel), Leon Massoni (Florentino's), Mario Virgona's (Virgona's), Ferdie Virgona (Mario's). Ferdie Virgona was also the father of Melbourne Food Legend Mietta O'Donnell.

Southern Cross Hotel. Melbourne

This was Melbourne's earliest modern hotels, built in 1962, the property was owned by the Nauru Government.At its time it had the largest modern function room, which was used extensively for all the big televised events and its Grill Room was equally famous. Notable guests include the Beatles ( who waved to their fans from the balcony of their room), Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson etc. The housemaids reputedly sold strips of the bed linen off the beds that the Beatles had slept in but journalists calculated the number of strips sold would have covered 100's of beds... The hotel waskncked down in 1999 to enable apartments to be erected but the site lay undeveloped for many years. This menu is from the Coolibah Room and dates from 1964.