Firedoor, Surry Hills

You could say that Firedoor is the hottest restaurant in Surry Hills right now - dotted with food journalists, celebrities and chefs every night of the week - but that would ignore the real reason they're here: Lennox Hastie. His obsession with fire is at the heart of Firedoor. This is a kitchen without gas or electric stoves, a concept not seen before in Sydney. This is a kitchen where all the action centres around the wood-fired grill.



It's taken four years for Firedoor to happen. In 2011, Hastie signed on with the Fink Group Owners of Quay and Otto), providing consulting advice while scouting the perfect spot for his Sydney restaurant. There were a number of close deals that fell through at the last minute. No wonder everyone has been busting to get in since Firedoor opened.

Firedoor is an extension of Hastie's most recent work at Etxebarri (pronounced Etchebarri), a fire-driven restaurant in the Basque region of Spain headed by chef Victor Arguinzoniz. The off-the-beaten-track Etxebarrie gathered such a reputation, it earned its first Michelin star and was included in the World's Best 50 Restaurants list during Hastie's five-year tenure as sous chef.

Before Etxebarri, Hastie worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire, Maison de Marc Veyrat in the Rhone Alps and Restaurante Martín Berasategui near Sans Sebastian.


Wood fired bread $7

Food by fire? The wood fired bread is the poor man's proof of triumph with simplicity. The bread is baked in the wood fired oven, a dense and satisfyingly chewy sourdough marked with air bubbles. Its greatest asset is the crust, a little blackened in parts from the burning wood, but so smoky in intensity it's mind-blowing. There's a burnt sweetness to the crust that has me puzzled by its familiarity until I realise it reminds me of the blackened edges of a blowtorched marshmallow. Dip the bread in olive oil and slather it generously in butter. I could eat this solely for dinner and be happy.


Moreton Bay Bug with green apple and roe $19

But that would mean you'd miss out on everything else, a concise offering of dishes designed to share. The Moreton Bay Bug might be a struggle to share based on its size, but the smell of apple wood when it hits the table is impressive. There's a great deal of sophistication with this dish, the plump curl of bug meat lightly infused with smoke resting on a bed of mullet roe puree and the sharp sweetness of a Granny Smith apple.


Bone marrow, uni, capers $25 each

How do you make roasted bone marrow even better? Hastie trumps everyone with the addition of sea urchin. The petals of sea urchin add a buttery lushness to the fatty goodness of bone marrow. Capers give a salty pop. Each bone is huge too, filled with a gluttony of marrow along its length. You'd definitely want to share one between two unless you'd pre-planned and packed a defibrillator.


Cauliflower, tallow, hazelnuts $18

Roasted cauliflower comes with the added grunt of tallow, the half-head first poached in milk and then grilled and basted generously with dry aged beef fat. A tumble of roasted hazelnuts give textural crunch.


Pink snapper fish head $32

The pink snapper fish head is a one-off special for tonight, the head cut in half and cooked over the wood fire grill. The snapper comes from Port Lincoln in the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. There's plenty of sweet and tender flesh to be claimed from the fish head, especially the prized nugget from the cheek. The fish eye, too, is particularly good.


Head chef Lennox Hastie pulling the fat off the rib eye

The sound of a screeching bandsaw in the kitchen is enough to command our attention in the otherwise quietly humming restaurant. Calmly running a side of beef through the whirring blade is head chef Lennox Hastie, cutting the rib eye steaks to size.


Trimming the rib eye

There should always be a steak on the menu at Firedoor.  At the moment they're offering a beef rib on the bone dry aged for at least 150 days by Victor Churchill.


150+ day dry aged beef rib on the bone

The beef rib is cut to a standard size 500g but occasionally they'll have bigger portion sizes available. We ask for an 800g steak that is presumably the prompt for the bandsaw frenzy.


Chef Lennox Hastie on the wood fired grill

After the steaks are trimmed, they're cooked on the wood fired grill. It's the only source of cooking heat in the open kitchen. It's Hastie's sole domain. He watches over the grill like a hawk.


Stoking the grill

Observing Hastie at work is both fascinating and addictive. The grill is fuelled only by wood coals that he replenishes from the two wood-fired ovens. He nurtures the flames by gently blowing on them, and then raises or drops the grill platform according to the required heat. It's a non-stop process that requires constant attention, intuition and patience. It's like watching an old fashioned romance as Hastie courts the grill.


Cooking our 800g rib eye

Hastie juggles several dishes on the grill. The kitchen is remarkably calm, without the clash of saucepans or the boom of orders from the pass.


150+ day dry aged beef rib on the bone 800g $188

Our 800g steak is one helluva behemoth, blackened on the outside but a hearty medium rare shade of pink in the middle. The meat is soft and tender but it's the intense meatiness that hits you most. Dry ageing beef for 40 to 60 days isn't uncommon, but letting that cut of beef sit undisturbed for over five months is a whole different ball game.

The flavour intensity here is off the charts but the meat closest to the bone is where things get really interesting. There's a distinct blue cheese pungency that takes you by surprise at first, overwhelming the palate with a bang. This is a steak that's gone to funky town.

Add pockets of mouth-filling fat and you're got a steak for serious meat lovers. The blackened edges are my favourite bit, charred and smoky, and worth prising from the edge of the bone. This is a steak that will sort out the real carnivores from the wannabe paleos.


Banana ice cream, smoked ganache and wild honeycomb $17

There are usually two sweet options for dessert plus an artisan cheese board. We dig the banana ice cream, superb in its delicate smoothness, but struggle with the smoked ganache that feels chalky in the mouth. The wild honeycomb is delicious, the aerated shards easily disintegrating into crumbly stickiness.


The bar at Firedoor

A daily changing menu means there's usually at least one reason to revisit Firedoor to see what's new. Book early or rock up as soon as they open to snag one of the few tables set aside each day for walk-ins.


#FOOD in Virgin Airlines Voyeur magazine


And if you find yourself flying Virgin Airlines this month, you'll be able to read my words on paper in Voyeur magazine. John Lethlean and I were both approached to describe our jobs: restaurant reviewer for The Australian for him; blogger for Grab Your Fork for myself. It was a unique chance to clear up a few myths about food blogging as well as compare the different way I approach my work to Lethlean.

Grounded without any chance of a holiday? Relax. You can read it online here.






Firedoor
23-33 Mary Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8204 0800

Opening hours:
Lunch Friday 12pm-3pm
Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 5.30pm-10.30pm