It was the 1st day of autumn (not that you would have known it) and an appropriate day to kick off the 2016 cook offs, where the finalists for the Chef of the Year and the Chris Alexiou Trophies vie for the favours of members with a lunch, usually but not necessarily a remake of the meal which got them there.

The 1st round featured Bruce Thomas, with help from son Ben, and he set a pretty high standard. Canapes were fresh figs with cream cheese wrapped in a superior prosciutto, and a great, and seasonal, hit of salt and sweet; together with Bruce's trademark lightly cured salmon with sour cream on thin toasts. Both were welcome, and reasonably well matched with a 2011 Sallys Corner chardonnay from Exeter NSW (donated by Bruce) showing cool climate fruit and slightly awkward wood, perhaps needing more time. A couple of bottles of Den Mar chardonnay from the Hunter were also on offer, with lighter sweeter fruit drinking well now. Best food match was of course the Lustau fino sherry, tangy and bright.

Ignoring the seasonal problems, Bruce sourced some very good Cowra lamb to produce a beautifully done rack of lamb in a reduction jus with a boiled kestrel potato and some nicely crunchy green beans. The crust on the rack was chopped parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (memories of the '60s), and the jus was a reduction of lamb bones and aromatic vegetables enriched with mustard, garlic and anchovies and sweetened with a bit of cranberry sauce. Simple in concept and presentation, the juicy pink tenderness of the meat was the crowning feature, and complaints were few. A mixed leaf green salad was served too late to accompany the food but provided a refreshing palate cleanser. Paul Ferman matched this food with a 2008 Huntington cabernet from Mudgee, a good wine but a bit heavy for the flavours on the plate, and a 2008 Vasse Felix cabernet from WA, a more stylish wine with strong dusty cabernet characters and good drinking with the lamb.

Bruce's choice of cheese, dutifully supplied by the Cheese Master, was a Maffra cloth-bound cheddar from Gippsland in Victoria. A good cheddar, with plenty of nutty grassy flavours and bite, it was probably not up to the English standard, or to the local Pyengana, but no less enjoyable on that account and well balanced by a homemade pecan and fig paste served with it. On the wine front, we saw a 2007 Cliff Edge shiraz from the Grampians (a 2nd label for Langi Ghiran), big and fruity but well balanced and at or near its best, and a surprisingly (for some) good 2003 Macquariedale Thomas shiraz from the Hunter with the merest hint of sweaty saddle on the nose, and clean integrated fruit with soft tannins.

The coffee was strong with slight bitter notes but cleaning, a Colombian Diala bean.