Putting the gas into degustation

The local Institute of Technology runs a catering course, and once you sign up you can get invited to regular demonstration meals cooked by students for the public at their in-house restaurant '66 On Ernest'. We were lucky enough to get invited to a degustation menu, which is lots of small tastings of food cooked in imaginative ways which shows off the chefs flair and originality. The menu had 5 courses and 17 dishes in all (click to see the large size)

It was a tad embarrassing taking photos of food, especially as I didn't have an iPhone so the pictures are a bit rushed but -

Course 1 - Amuse (short for 'Amuse Bouche', or 'amusement for the mouth'). These are basically pre-dinner snacks, and we had a duck liver parfait with cornichon and a lotus crisp with pork crackling & orange miso. Yum, although it would have been good to have something to soak up the miso.

Course 2 - Seafood. Four offerings here - scallop prosciutto with an orange tarragon reduction, tempura prawn with rice noodles and nahm jim, a kingfish ceviche with lime jelly and a sesame cracker and butter poached snapper with chorizo & garlic crumb. My favourites were the ceviche (and I don't even know what that is) and the nahm jim

Course 3 - Veg. It was a bit weird having this separate to the meat course as they were all essentially sides, but the options were tomato cucumber, roasted vegetable tombe with pesto, hommus with chilli salt crisps and pumpkin gnocchi. The chilli salt crisps were lovely and the gnocchi had a smooth smokey flavour that worked well

Course 4 - Meat. We were starting to get full at this point but persevered against a beef cheek tortellini with cauliflower crisp & jus (lovely), pulled pork rillettes with apple & pear chutney served on brioche (a little sweet for me, and probably more of an amuse dish), venison cardamon with chocolate sauce, blue berries, an onion maple stock and parsnip tobacco cream (as odd and sweet as it sounds but strangely balanced), seared lamb with a sumac fennel puree, cumin crumb and jus (i'm a sucker for fennel) and kangaroo fillet with a tomato & capsicum chutney, kumera rosti and game jus (tasty and the kumera / sweet potato contrasted well with the gameyness of the 'roo)  

Course 5 - Dessert. By this time we were struggling but the polite yet prompt and efficient service kept the pressure on - we could have asked for a pause, but it seemed somehow cheating. And I forgot to take a photo until half way through. Dessert consisted of a goats cheese bavaroise with rhubarb compote and a praline crisp (sugar with the great smell of goat), a baked fig with raspberry coulis and pear ice cream (tasty), a dark chocolate frangelico ganache tart with creme Chantilly (nice but with over-thick pastry) and a creme brulee with raspberry compote (a bit un-set). I don't have a sweet tooth, so I was probably most critical of the dessert course.

We finished off with Petit Fours, four little tasty chocolate morsels that pretty much tipped me over the edge and into Mr Creosote territory.

All in all it was a great evening. The service was excellent, the food very tasty and well presented, the wine & beer list was small but inebriatedly inexpensive and the full menu for two including two glasses of sparkling wine and a bottle of Wild Oats Tempranillo came to less than $120. Certainly not cheap, but a bargain for the quality of food presented, and of course the perfect place to play 'Masterchef judge'. We're looking forward to the next evening they host.

The students may have done a great job, but a sign in the toilets showed that although they have educated and aspiring minds, they still have their feet firmly on the ground.