Tommy's Beer Cafe. Sydney. Australia

A strange name for a German cuisine restaurant. Hans, Fritz, Wolfgang or Heidi would have to be more appropriate wouldn't you think? However, apart from such a minor carp, the décor, service and ambiance was excellent. Great Schnitzels and sausages......Our granddaughter's first meal at a restaurant (she is 11 months old) and behaved beautifully. Excellent beers too. this is one of two Tommy's Beer Cafes...this one was in Glebe Point Road. What!!@@ no Black Forest Cake!!

Guillaume at Bennelong. Sydney. Australia

Without a doubt this has to be the restaurant with the best address. The Bennelong restaurant is situated at the Southern most point of the iconic Sydney Opera House with spectacular views over the harbour, the Sydney harbour bridge, Circular Quay and the city. It features contemporary Australian cuisine with a decided French influence. The Chef, Guillaume Brahimi, has a distinguished career starting in France after his apprenticeship at Aux Charpentiers, followed by becoming a commis or assistant cook at the famous 3 starred laTour D'Argent, becoming a chef de partie after several years. He then worked with Joel Robuchon's Jamin restaurant, rising to sous chef (2nd chef). He then migrated to Australia and earned two hats at the Pond restaurant in Kings Cross. Then onto the Quay at Circular quay and by 1998 had earned three hats.. In 2001 Guillaume got the contract to run the Bennelong restaurant at the Opera House and later was renamed Guillaume at Bennelong. By 2006 it hwas awarded three hats and received many other awards.

Civic welcome home. Queenscliff. Vic. Australia

Here is a menu for you history buffs. This is a civic reception given for returned soldiers of the Queenscliff area just after World War 2. It was paid for by the council and local citizens. The photograph of the men eating is interesting; where were the women hiding?? The list of dances brings back memories, I remember about 1/2 of them. It looks like the program was also a dance card as there is room to put the dance partner's name beside each dance (what are the odds that more than one dance couple married in the ensuing years). The menu is interesting as I believe rationing was still operational at this time and the use of "savouries" after sweets is a very traditional English habit. The desserts are also using the classical meaning of desserts being fruit and nuts. The fort was built in 1860 on the bluff to protect the entrance to Port Phillip Bay and was only decommissioned as an army post recently.

Brennan's New Orleans

A culinary icon in New Orleans for over 60 years, started by Owen Edward Brennan in 1946. Breakfast at Brennan's became a catch cry, perhaps to differentiate itself from dinner at Antoine's (another famous Creole restaurant in New Orleans). Several reknown dishes have been invented at Brennan's, like Bananas Foster (bananas sauteed in sugar, butter, banana liqueur and flamed with rum), and eggs Hussarde. Who would have thought an Irish family would jhave made Creole food so famous and popular. The restaurant has 11 dining rooms and seats over 500 people.

Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Park. U.S.A.

Built in 1927 of art-deco and native American design, this magnificent hotel is set in a beautiful woodland setting with views of Yosemite's iconic natural features. It was a massive trucking feat of its time to bring in 5,000 tons of stone, 1,000 tons of steel and 30,000 feet of timber on what must have been much more primative roads than exist now. Much of the wood-like exterior is in fact concrete pored into wooden moulds and then painted to reduce the ever present risk caused by forest fires.

The Great Lounge features a gigantic stone fireplace approximately 2 metre high and 4 metres wide, (4 of us stood comfortably in it!). The Dining room as you can see from the photos and menu cover has 34 feet high ceilling with floor to ceiling glass and stained glass. This Hotel must surely be one of America's architectural and historical wonders. The menu is from our visit in 1982.

Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede

A wild west & southern country theatre show in tree locations in southern United States. Very popular with local and international tourists as a slick family show. A four couse dinner is include (no cutlery) and lots of country music, especially recordings of Dolly Parton of course. This menu has Dolly's signature on it but I suspect it is printed on....

Le Cirque. Dessert Menu. New York

Widely acclaimed as one of the worlds best restaurants, Le Cirque has several restaurants both in America and overseas to its credit. This is just the dessert menu and the descriptions do not match the elaborate inventions of their pastry chef. For example; the "Le Cirque Stove" is an actual old fashioned stove sitting on black and white kitchen tiles (all edible). The stove door is open and contains a small decorated cake and on top of the stove are two chocolate saucepans with fruit sauces in them.

Le Cirque is french for circus and is a guide to the decor you can see in the main picture of the dining room. The restaurant opened in 1974 but outgrew its position and shifted several times until its final address in the prestigious Bloomberg building.

Melbourne's Tram Car Restaurant

This fabulous Melbourne tourist attaction has won many awards for its high standards and professional service. The old trams were given extensive makeovers with plush velvet seating, cooking facilities, refrigeration and of couse stabilisers. You would not believe how smoothly this old ram glides along with nary a clink of its glasses or a rattle of its cutlery. The one-way darkened windows allow patrons to see out but outsiders cannot see in. What better way for tourists to see Melbourne by night than from a travelling restaurant.This particular menu is from the 1990's and was served hot and with great style by the waiting staff.

The Melbourne Cup 1963

This is a fascinating menu from the Hotel Australia in Collins Street Melbourne in 1963. The Australia Hotel was a very popular hotel with the racing crowd with many trainers and jockeys staying there. more than once was the old safe at the hotel a temporary resting place for the gold cup. In 1963 the prize money for the cup was 25,000 pounds and it was won by Gatum Gatum ridden by J. Johnson. Also on offer was 12 new Falcon cars for the best dressed ladies.
This race is the richest "2 mile" handicap race in the world with prize money in 2012 being $6,175,00.00 plus trophies valued at $125,00.
The menu is interesting historically because notice the chicken being the most expensive item on the menu. ( there were no large chicken farms in those days ).

The mention of Rising Fast with the souffle refers to the famous New Zealand bred horse which is the only horse ever to have won the Melbourne Cup, the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate in the same year. Consomme Jockey Club is a chicken consomme garnished with diced carrots, pea and chicken royale.

National Restaurant Association. U.S.A.

Now for a function menu, a very memorable function menu. The 1982 Grand Banquet and Show for the National Restaurant Association of America in Chicago. This was definately the biggest and most impressive banquet I have ever been to, on the most gigantic scale. This was a sit down banquet for 2,500 people with a 5 course meal, a 60 piece orchestra and a dance floor for 600.
The menu as shown was excellent, served hot and all 5 courses completed in 1 and 3/4 hours which is quite a feat for large scale catering. This was followed by a floor show featuring Doc Severinsen on the trumpet ( he was the band leader on the tonight show ) and comic Flip Wilson. On our table we had 10 Koalas stacked up in the center and you could get a dance with the prettiest girl in the room for a Koala, in fact I danced with the daughter of the President of the NRA for a koala.
Also it was amazing to talk to some of the American people on our table who were all carrying concealed weapons evan in their dinner suits, even the wives were carrying 38's in the hand bags. Chicago did have a reputation in those days.