Supper Club Chef Matt Kantor's latest dinner series pairs him with two other chefs to celebrate all things Australia.
In celebration of Australia Day (January 26th) a trio of chefs have come together to host a series of dinners this week, featuring a 15-course tasting menu that plays on classic and modern Australian dishes. There are three #torontodownunder dinners taking place this week; I managed to grab a seat at the first one, which took place last night.
The chefs involved
Matt Kantor – Chef of Secret Pickle Club and Little Kitchen.
John Placko – Australian born and raised, currently the Director of Culinary Excellence at Maple Leaf Foods.
Luke Hayes-Alexander – Chef of Luke's Gastronomy in Kingston, recently spent some time in the Outback.
The dinner took place at the Cookbook Store, with Allison Fryer (manager) hosting 12 lucky guests that were able to buy tickets to the now sold-out dinners. The Cookbook store has become a regular spot for Matt Kantor's super club events. A few months ago he hosted a grand 22 course dinner event paying homage to Ferran Adria and the defunct El Bulli restaurant.
Some of the highlights from dinner:
We started with mini grilled cheese sandwiches that were slathered with vegemite. I wanted more. This was followed by a hot and cold martini of beet vodka and granny smith puree. The drink started warm and foamy, followed quickly by cool thick beet juice. Fun!
A classic interpretation of Oysters Kilpatrick — oven cooked malpeque oysters topped with chopped bacon, some worchestershire sauce and butter.
Australian meat pie was served two ways. Above is the traditional interpretation: bite sized, filled with beef shoulder goodness and shallots and garlic.
A crowd favourite – John Placko's deconstructed pavlova. John presented passion fruit in a variety of forms: as a curd surrounded by passion fruit ice cream, poached meringue on top, and crispy meringue all around. Surrounding the plate — gold flakes, passion fruit pop rocks that John made himself, and niblets of raspberries that were dipped in liquid nitrogen. This plate had all the right textures and tastes – sweet, sour, salty.
The Tim Tam at the end of our 15+ course affair. Dark chocolate biscuits served with coffee. John does a great job of explaining the tim tam slam in the video above. The result is a gooey, brownie-like biscuit.
All three of the dinners are officially sold out, but I highly encourage you to bombard Matt with tweets and emails asking for a seat.
For more information these fun events,
www.mattkantor.ca
www.littlekitchen.ca
http://secretpicklesupperclub.com
El Bulli Toronto by Matt Kantor
2012 New Year’s Eve Dinner Guide: Toronto, Niagara, Stratford
Bits: Max’s of Manila in Toronto
Mitolo Winemakers’ Dinner
TIM TAM SLAM!!!! So glad you got to do that. But that looks like the “original” Tim Tam – the milk chocolate one (which is way better than the dark chocolate one!).
And Suresh, you’ve made my day. A Canadian who likes Vegemite
Thanks for posting this – I didn’t have my act together and didn’t get tickets for the only night I could have gone 
so this was like being there…
Yup it was the original tim tam slam at dinner.
Re: Vegemite, my gramma loved that stuff, and so she used to feed me vegemite toast as a kid, and fed me enough for me to develop a palate for it at a young age.
I can’t have too much of it, but i love it.