chiaki akimoto: Vue de monde

I had an experience of a lifetime last Saturday.....
I dined in one of the world top 10o restaurant
This particular restaurant has no menu.
Every diner is catered to individually by the chef.
Vue De Monde is the name of the restaurant.
Shannon Bennett, the restaurant owner has won numerous award
has recently monopolise the awards given out in Australia to the best restaurant for 2 years straight.

with all this impressive background, you would have thought that the restaurant would stand out along the little lane that it is situated in.
But me and George nearly walk passed it when we first arrive.
So Melbourne, was the phrase when I arrived at its doorstep.
Standing in front you wouldn't have thought that this is one of Melbourne's best restaurant.
Just like everything in Melbourne you have to have a really good eye before you can spot the gems of this city.

The entrance...
We were really lucky to have a table in the restaurant in the weekend of a public holiday
Even luckier when we got the best table of the whole restaurant....
The table I am mentioning is situated beside the kitchen.

Now...you must be wondering
How is that the best?
Because the head chef will create a menu specifically to that table itself
while the other diner has some good enough chef to cook for them....
However, I think our lucky streak came to an end when we were told that the head chef
Shannon Bennett wasn't cooking that night cos he is still on the plane back from Adelaide...

The table... Lam,George,Me, Joe,Vanessa,Jen, Jason

and the kitchen view from my seat...
Our menu consist of 10 course meal...

and this is not the first course....George was really relieved about it...lol

Tartare with pea soup in a champagne glass...
as a cleanser to provide a clean slate for the chef to start our experience of good food for the night.

The soup is prepare in front of us using a coffee infuser. the pot is filled with fish broth while the top is filled with herbs and cray fish...tomato....etc
It is cooked using a candle that is lit up for 5 minutes...
during this 5 minutes, the soup travel up through the tube that connect the upper part
which the flavor of the ingredient will infused into the fish broth.which is why they call this dish

5 minutes Bouillabaise~ Tartare of crayfish and buffalo milk skin finish with aromatic herbs and caviar
The waiter told us traditionally bouillabaise is prepared through cooking the broth in with the ingredients for a long period of time....but Shannon discover an easier way to have the same taste...how ingenious and easy is that.
This is definitely the best soup I have ever taste....
the flavor of this soup is carefully blend together...you can taste all the ingredients of the soup really distinctly and yet they all work really well together...
up till now I still can taste the soup in my mouth...Just Wish I can have another bowl of this
then i would die a happy woman .....hehe

2nd dish is served in a plate that has the nicest mosaic pattern....
the reflection of the lights on the plate is so nice..it almost divert my attention from the food itself.

Risotto served with shaved black truffle and white truffle sauce.

This was my favourite out of all the 10 dishes.....
best risotto I have ever had...
while we are eating the kitchen is busy preparing next dish for a few other tables...
the concentration put into every dish is amazing...
we reckon there is at least 4 chefs working on one dish at the same time....
around this time our third dish is served up by one of the 2 head chef for the day
the name of this dish is called

Parfait de Foie D'oie
Basically this dish is made from goose liver that is grind into powder, nasturcium leaves(no idea what is that), crispy rice and Thai capsicum curry
This dish has a unique flavor to it and I have to admit after a few spoon full of the liver..
it has start to fill me up.