Vue de Monde
Drummond St, Carlton, Vic

And for this the last Sir Hinchalot of the year it is only fitting that I found one of the best restaurants in Australia to dine at.

It’s in Melbourne. It’s in Carlton – the home of restaurant dining in this city – and I am not the only person to think the food at this place is brilliant and the owner-chef a whisked. Gourmet Traveller magazine last week named the chef the best newcomer in Australia. Put him up there alongside the Best Restaurant in the country, The Flower Drum.

The chef is Shannon Bennett -- a 26-year-old Broady boy who is going to become as famous as that other Broadmeadows mover and shaker Eddie McGuire.

The restaurant is Vue De Monde in Drummond Street and it certainly is a breathtaking view of the food world. This stuff is art work on a plate. Inv fact one dish had an intricate sauce design that I thought WAS part of the plate.

I’ll tell you how good it is. Victor Kiam once said that an electric razor was so good that he bought the company. Well, I didn’t quite do that, but the dining experience at Vu De Monde is so good that I went there twice in two days.

For lunch on Friday and dinner on Saturday night. Now before I rave too much I should warn that this place can be expensive. Doesn’t have to be. Especially if you go for the Gourmand Menu -- course after course after course -- that can cost you nearly 100 dollars per person. And if you let them choose the wines to compliment each course then glasses of the best French champagne and French and Australian whites and reds will set you back more than 100 dollars more.

But you can go there for lunch and try two of their brilliant courses for only 26 dollars and that includes a glass of wine.

But let’s get to the food. Try the first offering. A single fried oyster in imported Japanese breadcrumbs with a sliver of abalone and a few noodles.

The ingredients are the best. Foie Gras from Strasbourg (probably the chef’s favourite ingredient). Truffles from Italy. Marron from Western Australia, saltbush hogget, Partridge, peasant, duck, goose, hare. Awesome food.

And the best examples of prime beef you will ever eat. Makes “ prime” sound like hamburger. These slender fillets have been pampered for more than 500 days.

The presentation is, as I said, artistry. You can see the young team creating earnestly in the kitchen. But this is not cutesy “ cuisine nouvelle”.

I’ll give you an example:

I had a terrine. To some people it would not sound appetising. It was pickled and smoked lamb’s tongue with goose liver. And it rested on a jelly made from chardonnay with hints of star anise and cinnamon.

It rated 210 out of 100.

There were braised pig’s trotters and twice-cooked duck and steamed Macedon lamb.

And if you are a serious foodie – and I dined there several – there’s a great game to play at Vue De Monde. A one-question gastronomical quiz.

They serve a digestif mid-meal. Not a sorbet. A small white cup of almost clear liquid that looks like tea. Smell it. Taste it. Try to identify it.

It will smell familiar, my dinner partner, my manager Marina Paul, who prides herself on her sense of smell said: “ I know it. My Mum uses it a lot.” Yep.

I couldn’t get it. I picked there was a touch of vinegar in there and maybe chives and mint. But the elusive main liquid? No way.

It was clear, strained tomato juice. Like wine, tomato juice aint red unless you maturate it with the skins. Tasted good too.

The desserts I won’t even start on – except for a tiny banana and chocolate mousse for starters.

A small criticism but they welcomed it. The courses came too quickly. But each dish is so labour intensive and the place was packed so a request to slow down is greeted with relish.

Vue de Monde. If you truly appreciate and enjoy fine food and understand what goes into it – and can afford it -- then this is a place for you.

If you think you do and want to learn. Then go there for a 25 dollars lunch.

Vue de Monde is Shannon Bennett’s view of the world. He should like what he sees.

November 25, 2002