Thanks to James Hill for the food review

In the kitchen today was our president Peter Kelso assisted by Martin McMurray.

Aperitif

The team took us back to last century with 'retro' aperitif in the form of dressed or Russian eggs: hard boiled yolk mixed with almond meal, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and topped with caviar. Then followed home-made gravlax topped with a mustard dill emulsion. It sat on lavosh crisp bread. The gravlax was perfect however some comment made on the large serving of the emulsion as it tended to overpower the flavour of the gravlax.

Phil Laffer commented on the quality of the aperitif wines saying it's the first time he's seen Ray Kidd not reach for the sherry!

Main course

Our main today had an Asian influence with pork neck with a caramelised sauce made from the marinade. Accompanying the meat was whole bunches of choy sum and rice almond and parsley. There was some table variation on the tenderness of meat however it had a good robust flavour. The sauce went well with the pork and some commented that they would have preferred more sauce on the dish to eat with the rice and vegetable.

Cheese

James Healey presented a cheese today that had everyone guessing its origin and suggesting it was definitely European. It was from Geelong, L'artisan Fermier a pasteurised organic cow’s milk.

Made in the traditional cheese style of the French Alps it's a semi-hard smear-ripened cheese with an ash layer through its centre. It is pressed for 12 hours in cloth salted by hand and then washed every second day with a brine solution and after six weeks the rind develops a reddish tinge. It has a buttery well-rounded flavour with the slightest nutty finish and develops a stronger earthy character as it matures.

Coffee

Spencer chose Columbian coffee for us today.

He cupped it in the morning, and it had Columbia’s characteristic smooth and widely flavoured style. It is particularly suitable for plunger but also goes well in the Espresso style.