Ulysses Club. AGM

In 2004 the Ulysses Motor cycle club held their annual general meeting in Geelong at the showgrounds. To this day I rue the fact that I did not have my camera with me to record the fantastic catering performed at the showgrounds this day. Over 5,000 people were served  this two course hot meal in under an hour. The caterer was a professional from Adelaide ( who else would have 5,000 plates, knives, forks, spoons, cups and saucers etc ) who brought all the cooking equipment on the back of a large semi trailor and another semi for the tables, chairs. I had been given permission to observe from the kitchen and I have never seen a better organised function. Four local butchers were employed to cut the slabs of sirloin into 3 cm steaks. There were 4 serving lines staffed with 8 kitchen hands each, working on a modified production line and they served about 90 meals per minute in the biggest modern aluminium framed tent I have ever seen. Imagine seating, bar facilities, bands and dancing floors for 5,000 people all under cover.

Fangshan Restaurant, Beijing China

Located inside Beihai Park's south gate in Beijing. Established in 1925 to prepare and serve "Imperial Chinese Food " in the style as done for the Emporers and Empress's of the royal palace. Certainly there are many exotic dishes ( assorted slivers of camel's hump, Duck-webs,in mustard, Braised bear's paw in soy sauce ) and they are elaborately presented but the restaurant has many reviewers refering to it as an expensive tourist trap.

Tavern on the Green, New York City

This famous restaurant located in Central Park, Upper West  Side Manhattan, was started in 1934 and won many awards for its food and decor. John Lennon who lived in the apartments next to Central Park celebrated several birthdays here in the late 70's. It was at one stage the second highest grossing restaurant in the U.S. Unfortunately it closed in 2009 and is now a public visitors centre and gift shop. the decor had to be seen to be believed, especially the crystal room (see the photos).

Cockpit Restaurant , Essendon

This fifty year old menu is from the Cockpit restaurant at the then International airport at Essendon prior to the building of the larger Tullamarine airport in Melbourne . Dating from about 1963, the menu features such classics as: Whiting Capric, Duckling a l órange, Chicken in a  basket, Ham steak and pineapple. It was quite spectacular with international floor shows and bands.

Clichy 1977

One of Iain Hewitson's first Melbourne restaurants, opened in Fitzroy in 1977 with Sigmund Jorgenson as his partner. Named after a Northern suburb of Paris, it achieved 3 hats in the Age Good Food Guide and was reknown for French food with a slight cuisine nouvelle twist. Other restaurants involving Iain were the Lemon Tree, Fleurie,Champagne Charlie, Last Aussie Fishcaf and Tolarno's.

The Paternoster Restaurant

This menu from 1983 shows the famous Paternoster restaurant run by Ernst and Gail Stuhler. Ernst was the multi skilled chef and Gail ran the front of the house. From memory this restaurant ran for 9 years, full to capacity every night. The food and its presentation was absolutely spectacular.The menu is very attractive as you can see, unfortunately its size makes scanning difficult. All entrees came to the table with a different ice sculpter, desserts on trolley with any number of different fantastic creations including a 1 & 1/2 metre tall emu, even the butter was carved into shapes. Dessert were also accompanied with butter sculptures of various Disney characters. the menu featured a Paternoster special main which was three small portions of different mains. In the desserts, the special uncluded all the desserts on a trolley. Ernst is one of abou 5 "Black Torques" chefs in Australia and competed in several international Culinary Olympics. I have fond memories of this talanted and genial chef. he went on to run very successful pastry shops after the Paternoster which was in Glen Eira Rd Elstenwick.

The Lakehouse, Daylesford

This resort consistently is awarded two chef's hats for one of the best country restaurants in Australia and quite deservedly so. The Chef/owner Alla Wolf-Tasker has recently been awarded "'Legend" status in the Victorian Restaurant Guide. Her husband, Allen, is a painter and responsible for the menu cover and the beautiful Lake House Show Plates. My wife and I stayed at the resort several years ago and meet Alla who generously signed a menu for me and gave me a copy of her book "A Culinary journey in Country Australia". Alla's cooking philosophy aims to reduce "food miles " by using local suppliers, organic and sustainable foodstuffs. Their wine cellar is also reknown for its depth and quality.The menu cover painting is a take on the "Sleeping Gypsy" by Rousseau but substituting the Chef Alla for the gypsy and their dog for the Lion.