Goodlife baguette tasty journey

1. :,,
With leading
international chefs
singing the praises
of Brisbane, David
Bentley reflects on
the city's culinary
evolution and the
people who took
our tastebuds
beyond prawn
cocktails
mey
W
HEN acclaimed British
superchefs such as
Bruno Loubet and Jean­
C hristophe Novelli
s a l u t e B r i s b a n e's
restaurant scene as the new gastron­
omic frontier, things must be better
than we thought.
Loubet, a luminary in London's
dining revolution in the 1990s, now
dishes up his superb French­
influenced provender at Tables of
Toowong, formerly the stamping
ground of trail-blazing Queensland
chefRussell Armstrong.
His airy suburban restaurant in
Miskin St is light-years away from
the trendy L'Odeon, near London's
Piccadilly Circus, where Loubet
rubbed shoulders with international
skilletmeisters such as Gordon
Ramsay and Marco Pierre White.
Yet, far from showing signs of
fame deprivation, Loubet seems
deliriously happy, a positive feeling
that similarly gripped Novelli during
his recent appearance at The
Courier-Mail Brisbane Hilton
Masterclass.
Novelli expressed his desire to
enter Brisbane's culinary swim more
than once during his sojourn - and,
given the Michelin star chef's knack
for opening hip restaurants at the
drop of a platter, he may well follow
through.
If so, Brisbane could become to
Australia what Lyon is to France - a
gourmet city as famous for its cuisine
as for its scenery. The ingredients
are here: good produce, talented
chefs and, finally,a discerning dining
community.
It was not always so. In the early
1970s, you could count the res­
taurants of Brisbane on one hand:
The Milano for fine Italian food, The
Oriental for Chinese, La Grange for
French and Baxter's or Burleigh
Marr for seafood.
There may have been others. In
any event, Brisbane's epicurean past
goes back further, though only a few
veterans will remember the dis­
tinguished fare at such long-gone
hotels as the Belle Vue, the Cecil and
the original Lennons.
More relevantly, our current scene
can be said to have its beginnings in
1969, when Ernest Nichols and Eric
L e w i n o p e n e d the Arts and
Battledress on Petrie Tee, giving
Brisbane foodies their first intimate
little BYO.
Waiters recited the bill of fare in a
room decorated with fresh flowers
and military portraiture. You chose
from such dishes as pickled chicken
or eye fillet filled with mozzarella and
bacon, garnished with almond sauce.
There has been nothing like it
before or since.
The Arts and Battledress retained
its slightly eccentric flavour
throughout26years and two changes
of ownership. If Brisbane had sacred
culinary sites, this would be one.
A
N OTH ER w o u l d b e
S c a r a m o u c h e , t h o u g h
developers long ago demolished
the church at North Quay where,
through the late 1970s, the cour­
ageous, outrageous PeterHackworth
dished up hearty French fare and the
good times.
This remarkable woman intro­
duced fun into the restaurant scene.
Her parties were legendary. She kept
the flame burning at Cat'sTango, St
Lucia, later to see her beloved New
York Latin choke in the dust and din
of renovations at South Bank.
Eventually, I suppose, Brisbane
diners would have discovered the
pleasures of casual and relaxed din-
ing for themselves. Still,Hackworth
signposted the way in an era when
restaurants were stiffly formal and
diners followed suit.
Back then, restaurant-going was
an ordeal reserved for Saturday­
night outings or special occasions.
Menus followed predictable lines.
Waiters, particularly those trained in
Europe, took a perverse delight in
intimidating nervous customers.
Meals opened, typically, with oys­
ters Kilpatrick or prawn cocktails
served in champagne glasses. This
was followed by Chicken Kiev,
C arpetbag Steak or Lobster
Thermidor, and rounded off with
Peach Melba or Pavlova.
Our tastes were unadventurous
and unashamedly Anglo-Saxon and
without Gino Merlo, an Italian
migrant who arrived in Australia in
the 1950s, they might have remained
that way for much longer.
In 1958, Merlo anticipated cafe so­
ciety by importing the first espresso
machine. Later he established
Milano, Brisbane's first up-market
Italian restaurant, opening a window
to European-style indulgence.
One of the waiters at Milano in
those early days was Michael Platsis,
CHANGING culinary times ...
from above left, dining in the
1960s; Francis and Marilyn
Domenech, and Michael Platsis
in the 1970s; prawn cocktail;
Little Tokyo's fare; steamed tea­
smoked wood pigeon;
Catherine and Bruno Loubet
and their roasted Mandalong
lamb with mini moussaka.
who had migrated to Australia from
his native Greece in 1959 aged 10, and
was already in ascent from lowly dish
boyto Brisbane's Aristotle Onassis of
restaurateurs.
Livingfrugally, Platsis workedlong
hours, often in two jobs, to accumu­
late the means to buy the Camelia in
1975. It became his first restaurant,
The Camelia, and was followed by a
second in 1981, Michael's on the Mall.
This was replaced by Michael's
Riverside in 1986. It enjoyed popu­
larity among wheelers and dealers
and Platsis prospered, acquiring a
conglomeration of four restaurants
at theRiverside Centre, two of which
he has sold recently.
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