Tuesday 16th September, 2014
Neil Perry AM is Australia’s leading and most influential chef. He has managed several quality restaurants in Australia and today concentrates on his flagship brand, the Rockpool Group, which includes Rockpool, Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne, and Rosetta Ristorante.
Perry also heads a team of seven consultants to Qantas, developing quarterly menus for First and Business travellers, overseeing the implementation and introduction to catering centres at key ports. Since 1997, Perry’s Rockpool Consulting team has played a pro-active role in the entire menu development process, from designing the dishes, to writing and testing the recipes, training chefs in ports all over the world and communicating to and training the cabin crew who cook and deliver the food on board. In 2010, Rockpool Consulting’s work with Qantas expanded to include the set up and implementation of domestic Business Class menus and a stronger focus on the Qantas First and Chairman’s Lounges.
Perry is also author of eight cookbooks – Good Food, The Food I Love, Rockpool, Simply Asian, Balance & Harmony, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Easy Weekends and Simply Good Food – and a television presenter with regular appearances as a judge on MasterChef Australia as a part of Qantas’ guest challenges and his own show on The Lifestyle Channel. He also has a weekly food column in Good Weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and contributes a monthly food column to Qantas: The Australian Way magazine.
Perry’s career in hospitality began at Sails restaurant at McMahons Point and in Rose Bay. Neil then became head chef at Barrenjoey Restaurant, Palm Beach and was also given creative control over Perry’s in Paddington. In October 1986, he opened the Blue Water Grill at Bondi Beach and took the site from a 20-year failure to an overnight success. He then opened Rockpool in February 1989 with his business partner Trish Richards, which has developed into a world-class restaurant, winning many awards both in Australia and overseas.
The restaurant was recently awarded Three Hats and is a past recipient of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award, Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year and was voted in the top 50 restaurants in the world by UK magazine Restaurant seven years running. Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney won the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Wine List of the Year in 2011 and Best New Restaurant and Wine List of the Year in 2010 while Spice Temple Sydney with Two Hats, won Short Wine List of the Year in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2013 and 2011.
In Melbourne, the two-hatted Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne won The Age Good Food Guide’s Restaurant of the Year award in 2008 and Gourmet Traveller’s Wine List of the Year in 2008 while Spice Temple received Two Hats in 2014 and won Wine List of the Year in 2012. Rosetta also received Two Hats in the 2014 Guide.
Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth has won West Australian Good Food Guide’s Restaurant of the Year and Wine List of the Year in 2012 and 2014 as well as Two Hats, and Gourmet Traveller Wine Best New List and Best List in WA in 2011.
Influential Wine Spectator Magazine has also acknowledged the Rockpool Group’s restaurants for their extraordinary wine programs by awarding Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney a “Grand Award” for the fifth consecutive year, while Rockpool on George, Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne and Perth and Rosetta all received a “Best of Award of Excellence”, and Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne received an “Award of Excellence”.
Through his involvement in the Starlight Children’s Foundation and various other charities, Perry was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for ‘significant service to the community as a benefactor of and a fundraiser for charities, and as a chef and restaurateur’.
Perry’s passion and the importance he places on quality are evident in all his dishes, the business projects he undertakes, the charities he supports and the success his restaurants enjoy.
Neil Perry’s Menu
Entree
David Blackmore’s Full Blood Wagyu – Chirashi Zushi of, Sirloin, skirt, brisket & tongue
Main
Rangers Valley – Rotisserie of Rib, Spicy oxtail broth, baby vegetables, tea smoked oysters & oats
Dessert
Date Tart (original since 1984)
If you would like to attend Neil’s dinner Register your interest here