Sydney chefs begin a culinary marathon

Sydney: Sydney's fishmongers and top chefs have begun a culinary marathon, with kitchens open until 3.00 am and deliveries around the clock, to satisfy Olympic partygoers' insatiable appetite for Australian seafood.

Sydney's top hotels and prime harbourside restaurants have doubled orders of everything from sweet coastal prawns and wild barramundi fish to Tasmanian salmon, lobster and oysters.

Australia's oceans, and the waters off nearby New Zealand, are being plundered for Olympic seafood. "Usually we do 1.4 tonnes of wild barramundi in a week, now it's three tonnes and that's just one line of fish," said George Costi, owner of Sydney's largest fish supplier, Costis.

"Hotels are now ordering 8,000 to 9,000 dozen oysters a week. Prawns are now around 4.5 tonnes or more," Costi said from Sydney's fish markets.Costi said he was operating 24 hours a day to cater for the increased demand, which includes supplying a Japanese cruise ship on the harbour with up to 500 sushi lunch packs a day.

While Australia has an international reputation for the quality of its seafood, Costi said the cheap prices, especially with the Australian dollar at an all-time low, were also fuelling demand. "Many of the Europeans here can only dream of seafood at these prices, let alone the variety," he said.

Sydney's fish market has no concerns about supply, with barramundi being flown in from the remote waters of Australia's Northern Territory, John Dory and blue-eyed cod from New Zealand, salmon from the island state of Tasmania and prawns brought in trucks from along the eastern seaboard."As long as the good weather holds, the fishing co-ops can continue getting us the goods," Costi said.

Aussie chefs break boundaries

But Sydney's food marathon is a relay event, with the second leg being taken up by the city's top chefs, who are firing up kitchens under special Olympic laws until the wee hours of the morning to show the world "modern Australian cuisine".

"The athletes are going to gold, but so too is Sydney and the city's restaurants are very much a part of the city lifestyle," said Neil Perry, whose Rockpool restaurant overlooking the Sydney Opera House is one of the trendiest eateries in town.

"It is going to be tough. It is a marathon. I just hope I last the distance," said a pony-tailed Perry. Sydney chefs say Australia's food culture has come of age, leaving behind the meat pie and burned BBQ to embrace a multi-cultural cuisine that can challenge the traditional culinary capitals of the world such as Paris.

"One of the great things that happened to Australian food was that 200 years ago, we were discovered by an Englishman and not a Frenchman," Perry explained. "It means we do not have a food culture to hang on to. As a result we have developed a hybrid, exciting food scene."

Australian cooking has been heavily influenced by migrants from 140 nations, especially Asians, but has its foundation in the freshness and variety of produce.

"It is a fusion people like to call modern Australian cuisine," Perry said, nominating stir-fried bock choi in olive oil and garlic or mud crab in chilli, washed down with a crisp Australian riesling, as the quintessential modern dishes.

Australians have a reputation for irreverence and Sydney chefs have been true to type when it comes to breaking traditional cooking laws. "Back in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, anything went. The more shocking the better. If you could disturb an ingredient you did," Perry said.

"But those early mistakes pushed the boundaries. As they say you break a few eggs to make an omelette. Now there is more sensibility, but there remains a spontaneity and richness. Sydney is now on par with Paris or London or New York."



(c) Reuters Limited.