Full house for our former food master and previous Seafood Chef of the Year winner, Steve Sparkes. He was in the kitchen today for our fourth ‘cook-off’ for our Chef of the Year award for 2025.
Author James Hill
Canapés
Steve prepared three canapés for us today all excellent.
Steak tartare made with leftover trimmings from the main course meat,
it was made with capers,cornichon,mustard and served
in short crust pastry cups.
Prawn roll made with celery,spring onions, mascarpone, mayo and Steve’s homemade sriracha which gave the heat, all wrapped in prosciutto.
Tuna mousse served on brown rice crackers and topped with biquinho (little beak) peppers known as sweety drop, these are small, tear drop shaped pods originating from Brazil. They have a mild sweet smoky flavour with a very low heat. Love this mousse, Steve introduced our society some time ago, ingredients are unsalted butter, 1 large shallot, chopped, 400 g can of tuna in oil, 1 bay leaf,
2 sprigs finely chopped fresh tarragon, 10 anchovy fillets, finely chopped, 1/2 cup sherry, preferably Oloroso and freshly ground black pepper. Blend for five minutes till pale in colour and pipe onto the biscuit.
Bold robust flavours today, as Frank said , not flavour bombs but flavour explosions.
Main
Tournedos Rossini,
Steve’s recipe was taken from Auguste Escoffier’s “A Guide to Modern Cookery”, first published in 1907. It is one of 65 Tournedos recipes in the book! Reliable sources report that M. Escoffier named the dish in honour of his friend, who moved from Italy to France.
The dish consists of a piece of fillet steak (the Tournedos) served on a baguette crust topped with a slice of Foie Gras, a Madeira sauce and decorated with fresh truffle. Today Steve served the beef on a toasted baguette with some spinach and the beef topped with black truffle foie gras from Great Southern Truffles. The Madeira sauce,the hero today, was made with port,Madeira and a truffle butter mixed through then served with a herb oil.
Steve accompanied the tournedos with green beans and almond slivers dressed with olive oil and raspberry wine vinegar.
Much praise in the room today for this dish, great flavours and textures prepared to the standards of a top restaurant.
Bread today from Bourke st bakery
Cheese
We should know by now that Steve always requests cheese from his home state, Tasmania. Today , Mark Bradford sourced a cow’s milk ashed cheese from Coal River Farm. It’s a triple cream Brie rolled in charcoal ,which enhances the creamy nutty flavour. It came to the table in perfect condition today and showed how good Australian cheese production has become.
Steve accompanied the cheese with a dressed mixed leaf salad and carrots.
Wine Report from Stephen O'Halloran
A Steve Sparkes lunch of Tournedos Rossini was always going to attract a crowd, & yesterday was no different, with nearly 50 members attending for what would be a memorable afternoon of great food & cheese together with an outstanding array of Red wines. Being St Patrick's Day, the room soon developed an excellent atmosphere of fun & vitality.
Some truly delicious canapes set the scene for a superb lunch to follow. The First wine was a Pike's Clare Valley Riesling 2022, a top vintage in that district. Sourced mainly from grapes grown in the Clare sub district of Polish Hill, I found this wine to be an ideal match for our canapes. Fresh, yellow /green in colour, bright lively acidity producing a clean finish with citrus & lime overtones. I enjoyed this wine, a 4 year old Riesling, still 2/3 years away from peak drinking. I must say I was surprised to hear some discordant notes from some members in the room regarding this wine. A few were not impressed! To my taste I could not find any objectionable features in the wine which I would regard as being a better than average commercial Riesling obtainable at reasonable cost.
Everybody as far as I could tell from moving around the room pouring the wine, had sufficient of the Pikes, of which our supply was soon exhausted. We then had some French & Italian white wines which were one up one down. The French wine was considered poor, however the Italian wine was much better. I will not review these wines as I am sure not everybody had a taste of both.
We then moved onto the main event with our luncheon wines, which as it unfolded would be a comparison of 2 high quality French & Italian Reds matching up to 2 of our top notch Cabernet & Shiraz. A mouthwatering prospect. The Europeans won the toss & elected to kick off.
First up was a Ch Haut Brisson from 2016 @ 14.5% which incidentally was the alcohol strength of all 4 wines. This was a wine from the St Emilion region of Bordeaux, right bank. A blend of 95% Merlot & 5% Cabernet. Dark ruby in colour, medium weight, now fully developed. Elegant, plummy & soft as expected from a top year in that district. My initial assessment was somewhat underwhelming, "is that your hardest punch"?, but then something happened on the way to the bottom of the glass over the course of 20 mins or so. The wine really came together in that time & presented as a much more attractive proposition. In a word outstanding. A St Emilion merlot, just beautiful, gentle tannin, sweet & alluring finish. Great wine.
Wine 2 in Team Europe was a Super Tuscan from Bolgheri Rosso 2015. A cocktail of mainly Merlot 60% with Cab Franc 20% & 2 Cabernet & Syrah filling in the gaps. This was a lovely Italian wine. From a top year, fully developed, rich, full bodied plummy mouthfeel. A joy! Silky & juicy a refined classy wine, you just never wanted the glass to finish. So that was what the Team Europe put on the table & threw down the Gauntlet in empathetic style to those upstart Colonials!
Behind our parapets, team Oz were waiting with a 2010 Vass Felix Cab & a 2015 Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz. "Hold fire till you see the whites of their eyes, then let them have it both barrels". Our first wave of attack was led the Vass Felix, in my view the hero of the battle. What a wine! 88% Coonawarra Cab with a dash of Malbec & an even smaller dash of Cab Franc & Petit Verdot. A wine with impeccable balance between oak, tannin & acid. Wonderful aroma of a developed Margaret River Cabernet, just superb. Complex dark fruit hints, powerful but elegant mouthfeel. A 15 yo masterpiece in Australian Cabernet from a top year. That wine certainly put the Europeans back on their heels!
Then came our second wine the Shaw & Smith Shiraz 2015. A superb back up. Rich, intense & nearly opaque in the glass, this wine spent 14 months in Oak, which superbly blended with the tannins & acid delivering a stunning sensation on the back palate. In my view a tremendous wine. My view was not shared by our living treasure, ex winemaker Phil Laffer who considered the wine had suffered from desiccation {loss of some moisture} in the grapes. To my amateur palate, & with of course great respect to Phil, if this wine was effected by desiccation, please tell me where if can source more wines similarly effected!
So, when the smoke had cleared from the battlefield & each team counted their losses who won? Who knows? I think the answer is "Personal Choice." A matter of style that one prefers, elegance & balance or powerful fruit driven flavour.
At the conclusion of the wonderful day we were treated to a Hollicks sauterne style sweet wine from Coonawarra which was delicious. Generously donated by Robert Wiggins to celebrate his 71st birthday Many thanks to all who helped create a wonderful afternoon, the Beef was first rate, the canapes terrific, Cheese superb & wines awesome. Behind the scenes admin & room organisation was as usual smooth & effective, thanks to Frank Liebeskind & James Hill.
