James Tinslay and David Madson were new boys in the kitchen, and deserve full marks for a well thought out and presented meal.

For starters, there were tasty bites of pork char sui with a dab of hoisin and diced water chestnuts on rice crackers, and some rich and sweet duck liver pate by Keith Steele (who also presented the wines in place of the Wine Master), enriched with pedro ximenes sherry, on lightly toasted crunchy bread rounds. These were washed down with a 2002 Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling, bottled under stelvin and in very good nick, although a bit of bottle variation was starting to show. There were also the Lustau fino (terrific) and manzanilla sherries, and a brief look at some other stray bottles from the frig.

The main course was long and slow braised beef cheeks, cooked for 6 hours in a braise of vincotta, star anise and juniper berries in red wine, and served rich and unctuous on a bed of mashed potato with some slightly crunchy carrots for colour. The meat was great and the combination of flavours and colour a joy to consume and see; a pity that cold plates detracted from the final product. Some shiraz, naturally, went with it: a 2002 Cliff Edge from Langhi Ghiran in Victoria and a Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna from the same year. Each had its supporters, but the consensus was that the Cliff Edge was better on the day with the food, finer and smoother than the still rather hard finishing tannins on the Penfolds, probably needing more time.

The cheese, presented by James Healey in the absence of the Cheese Master, was a Comte semi-hard chesse from the Rhone-Alpes area of France; smooth and grassy with sweet nutty overtones in the gruyere style, in top condition and simply matched with nuts and dried fruit. The wines were cabernets, and again from 2002: the Bowen Coonawarra, typically big and gutsy with lots of American oak; and the Huntington special reserve from Mudgee, more restrained and elegant, though lacking nothing in strength of fruit except perhaps on the finish.

The coffee, provided by Spencer Ferrier but unidentified, was clean and nicely bitter on the palate with a long ,slightly citrus, finish.