Becasse, Sydney - Spring Dinner with Champagne (CLOSED)

EDIT: Becasse has closed

It's a green carpet entrance.

As I approach the doorway to Bécasse, I hesitate, for in my way is a shallow bed of grassy turf. It's cut to a doormat-size, but positioned sideways so it runs like a small hall-runner. A little voice inside me shouts "KEEP OFF THE GRASS" but there's no other way around and that's when I realise we're meant to walk on the grass, a tongue-in-cheek start to Bécasse's celebration of spring dinner in collaboration with the Champagne Bureau.

The soil gives way a little underfoot, and I can almost hear the squeak of new blades of grass as I step across the threshold. Within seconds I have a glass of champagne in one hand as I join the growing throng of guests inside.

Canapes: Coffin Bay Pacific oysters with watercress and champagne jelly
served with Champagne Henriot - Blanc Souverain NV

It doesn't take me long to find the canapes, the waitstaff patiently circling the room with freshly opened Coffin Bay Pacific oysters, plump and sweet and salty and briney. They're exquisitely reminiscent of the sea, topped with a wobble of champagne jelly and a spray of gently peppery watercress.

There's a sea of unfamiliar faces until I realise I spy Matt Preston. And Adriano Zumbo. And Mark Best. And Lyndey Milan. I'm pretty sure I'm the only food blogger here. Then I meet the warm and effusive Indira Naidoo, and she says "You're a food blogger? Oh I have a food blog too."

Indira's food blog? Saucy Onion. "I wanted a name that was sexy and something to do with food." I love it. She says her aim is to grow 25 different herbs and vegetables on her balcony garden. Make sure you check it out.


Spencer Gulf prawn toast with a salad of wild abalone
served with Champagne Lanson Gold Label Brut Vintage 1998

We're encouraged to take our places and I find myself seated next to Joanna Savill, who sits next to Simon Thomsen. Across the table from me is Mark Best. Oh yes, please, I will have more champagne. Thank you.

We nibble on miniature sourdough breads baked in-house before we're served an amuse bouche of Spencer Gulf prawn toast. The crisp tile is all crunch from the toast and the sesame seeds against a pillow of soft sweet prawn. Splayed across the other side of the plate is a salad of wild abalone, the wafer thin ribbons of abalone impressively tender with a slippery soft chewiness that is satisfyingly so.


Butter poached Southern Rock lobster
with seared Coffin Bay scallops and lobster jelly
served with Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut 1998

The parade of champagnes are each served in a different shaped glass, an amazing collection of vintages that thrill and entertain the palate. There's a wonderful sense of celebratory whimsy when drinking champagne, its lightness and fizz adding a skipping step to each bite of your meal.

The plating of the butter poached Southern Rock lobster course is like suddenly finding a field in bloom. We skip through the buttery and tender parcels of lobster, the fat and juicy Coffin Bay scallops and come to rest at the quivering huddle of lobster jelly, made from using the leftover lobster shells, co-owner and head chef Justin North explains.


Southern Blue Fin tuna with jamon iberico,
sherry gel, pork crackling and smoked oil
served with Duval Leroy Femme de Champagne 1995

The Southern Blue Fin tuna is special indeed. As Justin explains, most of the best parts of the tuna are immediately exported for overseas consumption. Our plates hold a trio of choice tuna cuts, the ruby red akami (from the sides of the fish), the chutoro (in the belly area between the akami and the otoro) and the otoro, the fattiest part of the belly, or as Justin analogises, the wagyu equivalent in tuna.

I build my way up, starting with the firm akami and finishing with the otoro, a pale pink melting plumpness. The tuna sits on a paper-thin sheath of jamon iberico, ribboned with creamy fat. Artichokes provide some acidity relief and then the delicious treat of pork crackling, crunching loudly in the mouth and shattering to smithereens.

The 1995 Duval Leroy Femme de Champagne is my favourite of the evening too.


Grilled Hiramasa kingfish with roasted beetroot and cepe mushroom puree
served with Bollinger La Grand Année 1999

A slick of intensely flavoured cepe mushroom puree holds onto a petite steak of grilled and barely cooked Hiramasa kingfish. The multiple textures of beetroot are what get my attention, a segment of sweet roasted beetroot, a mound of gelee, a deep-fried curled crisp and a spherified dome that releases a blood red river of beetroot juice when pricked.


Slow cooked Glenloth chicken with champagne veloute,
braised leeks and Tasmanian black truffle
served with G.H Mumm 'Mumm de Cramant' Grand Cru Brut Chardonnay

A finale of slow cooked Glenloth chicken concludes our savouries. It's crowned with a speckled shaving of Tasmanian black truffle, its gloriously musty scent mingling with the champagne veloute. Two stalks of braised leeks are buttery soft and yielding in a wash of fragile foam.


Bécasse spring pudding
served with Louis Roederer Rosé 2003

Dessert is a Bécasse spring pudding, made using strawberries from Queensland and blueberries from Victoria. Slices of white bread are layered with the macerated berries and soaked with coulis until it becomes moist and cake-like. The quenelle of ice cream is a surprise contrast of licorice, a pairing that seems odd at first but one that offsets against each other so well. Sprinkled across the top of the ice cream are delicate flakes of Cyprus black lava salt, made black by mixing with charcoal. The salt, Justin explains, is used to enhance the sweetness of the ice cream, just as salt is commonly used with caramels.

A swirl of baked caramel custard adds a sweet creaminess, and the tiniest buds of meringue play alongside fresh blueberries.

Put a smile on your face. Bécasse spring is here.

Grab Your Fork attended the Spring Dinner as a guest of Bécasse.

Bécasse will be hosting a Burgundy wine dinner on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 September. The 6-course degustation includes matching French wines and costs $130 per person.





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Bécasse (CLOSED)
204 Clarence Street, Sydney
(between Market and Druitt)
Tel: +61 (02) 9283 3440

Lunch: Monday to Friday lunch 12.00pm – 2.30pm
Dinner: Monday to Saturday 6.00pm – 10.30pm

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