Wednesday, January 29, 2014
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Whilst Tasmania is undoubtedly the jewel of Australia's produce driven identity, it doesn't have much going for it in terms of 'avant garde' haute cuisine. Having opened up for quite a while, Garagistes has welcomed a large amount of accolades. The exigency of its closure in July this year really made it a must visit in Tasmania.
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| Wholemeal Sourdough and Smoked Butter |
And on we start. Smoked butter here is ridiculously addictive. I could easily pass on the bread and just go with the butter. All. To. Myself.
A little nibble of a carrot stick presents an interesting contrast between the rawness of carrot with the toasty nuttiness of the seeds.
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| violet artichokes, beetroot, broadbeans, anise hyssop, fennel pollen, cream |
Our first course was brilliant. A mish-mash of tender artichoke, sweet golden beetroots and creamy broad beans are gelled together with a buttery cream finished with a sprinkle of liquorishy hyssop. It seemed to just 'work'.
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| southern calamari, espelette pepper, anigelica seeds + lemon basil |
Second course is a choice between two dishes so I figured we might get one each. Noodles of calamari were really soft and giving but espelette peppers along with tart lemon basil make it akin to a sort of sour 'laksa' which probably is a little too prosaic for what you want at a cutting edge diner.
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| venerupis clams, kipflwer potatoes, fresh peas, fermented lettuce + lovage |
Clam and shellfish juices fit well with a lovage 'soup' but it just didn't excite. You also can't help but be a little disappointed with the size and lack of clams particularly when you're trying to showcase the produce.
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| smoked eel, white peach, samphire + brown butter |
Ridiculously soft and marbelled eel? Yum yum yum. Garagistes triumphs sophisticatedly pairing it with sweet and soft peaches, twisting it up with a sea-salty hit of crunchy samphire.
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| raw dry-aged cow, morello cherry, shaved laver + salt bush |
The beef was tender, matched well with super sour cherries to offset it but that's where it ends. Quite ambitious doing a cold main but it hasn't really paid off. It didn't feel gutsy enough and have that 'heaviness' you would expect.
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| flinders island lamb sweetbreads, green almonds, celtuce + salad cream |
Sweetbreads where the same, lacking that usual creamy unctuous mouth-feel you'd expect and it seemed like the execution lacked excitement.
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| roasted cherry plums + kernel custard, raspberries, buttermilk + frozen shortbread |
Dinner finishes on a high note with two spectacular desserts. Mine was pretty much a deconstructed summer pie of sorts; sweet and astringent hits of roasted cherry are balanced well with a foamed up buttermilk cream and crumbly short bread and it's just utterly delectable.
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| fig leaf cream, suncrest peach juice, caramelised rye bread, dried blackberry |
The sweet and sour theme continues with a brilliant creation of a hardened white chocolate dome encasing a lightly perfumed fig cream which then receives a dusting of dried blackberry. It's light as a feather, considerate of textures but most importantly delicious.
Garagistes is viewed by many to be the star of the Tasmanian culinary scene. Its cooking is eclectic to say the least but sadly the restaurant lacks spirit and generosity. Dishes didn't feel substantial enough and where there were great dishes were soon followed by not so good ones. We left the restaurant having had a very through provoking dinner but sadly our appetite craved more.
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