Culinary favourite Jamie Oliver has named his favourite Sydney restaurants. The chef offered a hit list of restaurants he dined at during his recent brief visit to the Harbour city.
The celebrity chef, TV host and cookbook author arrived in Australia to visit daughter Poppy, who he joined on Bridge Climb, before hosting an exclusive brunch at his Jamie’s Italian restaurant on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas at Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal.
The event marked his decade-long partnership with Royal Caribbean and the launch of its biggest-ever summer season in Australia.
Oliver was also in Sydney for a one-off show at the Sydney Opera House, where he spoke with Dessert Masters judge and Masterchef host Melissa Leong.
While the chef was forced to close his own two Jamie’s Italian restaurants some years ago, one in Sydney’s CBD, the other in Parramatta, dining in Sydney is still one of his favourite pastimes while in town.
While chef Josh Niland is better known for Paddington restaurant St Peter, Jamie Oliver dined at the recently opened St Leonards restaurant, Petermen.
Jamie Oliver took a group of former MasterChef contestants out to dinner at the two-hatted restaurant, where they dined on a five-course feast that included yellowfin tuna tartare on rice blini, abalone schnitzel sandwiches, charcoal-roasted pipis and Davidson plum-madeleines, with Malfoy’s Honey cream. Oliver said Niland’s salt and vinegar garfish with Gordal olive brine was a highlight as was hand line-caught charcoal coral trout.
Jamie Oliver also popped into Circular Quay restaurant Clam Bar in Bridge St.
Jamie Oliver’s final pick was the intimate Surry Hills wine bar run by chefs Nathan Sasi and Morgan McGlone. Oliver dined on chickpea panisse with wild green garlic sauce; chicken liver parfait with sauternes jelly and brioche, and McGlone’s famous chicken wings.
A signature dish of the pig’s head fritti with sauce gribiche was also on the Oliver menu.
Find out more about Sydney’s newest restaurants.