Society member Keith Tulloch provided wines for this lunch and we had the somewhat unique opportunity to have three Chefs of the Day, James Hill, Nick Reynolds, and Steve Liebeskind, all acknowledged and experienced chefs for our Society. Each of these provided a canapé and a small main. This was a very popular event with very large numbers.

Canapes

In no particular order, we were served the following.

• Nick served filoette tarts filled with puréed hard-boiled eggs and Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise topped with grated winter truffle.
• Steve served chicken loaf with beetroot chutney on bread round. The chicken was a combination of chicken mince, mustard, onion, paprika, onion and cooked rice. It was topped with homemade beetroot chutney.
• James served celeriac remoulade with green and black olives on Iggy's bread.

These three guys obviously spoke about this beforehand, but their ideas bounced off each other to present a wonderful diversity of food to start this lunch.

With canapes, we enjoyed a range of wines, red, sparkling and white from our REX wine cooler.

Main courses

Nick - Miso marinated Cape Grim bavette steak cooked for seven hours sous vide at 55 C and then finished over white binchotan charcoal on a Japanese Konro served with charcoal-grilled spring onion and charcoal-grill finished sous vide cooked king oyster mushroom. All this gear was in the REX kitchen.

Steve - Salmon tartare served on a light salad with a spicy Asian dressing topped with deep-fried vermicelli and oven-roasted crispy salmon skin. The salmon was deskinned and cut into small cubes and prior to serving pickled ginger and Asian dressing was added. The salad was lettuce (shredded), fennel and bean sprouts with coriander and large chilli slices added and dressing added just before serving. The Asian dressing included lemons, limes, fish sauce, grated ginger and palm sugar.

James - Duck terrine with home pickled carrots, cucumber and onions with watercress and quince paste.

We could not have asked for more diversity and the effort put in by these three in producing all the food was nothing short of lovely.

The wines

Keith Tulloch was with us today and had joined the Society since his 2018 tasting. All wines were from Keith Tulloch Wines. They were:

Latara Vineyard Semillon 2108

A young but very drinkable Semillon. Once again it destroys the perception that Hunter Valley Semillon needs time to be drinkable. The acid balance was perfect, and the wine has a good future

Field of Mars Semillon 2015

At 3 years of age, this Semillon still very prominent acid, as one would expect, and needs time to develop into a fine example of Hunter River Semillon.

McKelvey Chardonnay 2018

A softer style of Chardonnay with quite evident fruit though avoiding sweetness. Very drinkable at its young age.

Field of Mars Chardonnay 2015

A richer style Chardonnay was adequately balanced by significant acid with a lanolin type nose. Wonderful drinking but will age.

Bainton Vineyard Shiraz 2017

No mucking about with this wine. It had plenty of depth with chocolate and berry with big colour and structure. Good to taste but better to age for many years.

Field of Mars Shiraz 2014

A wonderful wine with depth and colour showing chocolate and coffee overtones. To repeat, good to taste but better to age for many years

Botrytis Semillon 2017

Tropical fruit with a good acid/fruit balance. The wine lacked a little lusciousness but will develop into a fine aged example of Australian dessert wine.

Cheese

A trip to Ireland today with Grubb Cashel Blue presented by James Healey. A very mellow cheese with a beautiful soft interior making it difficult to cut and serve but worth it.

Coffee

Spencer chose Brazilian AA today for us today. Always good with its rich and sweeter style.