ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars
BEST COFFEE
Out of six Victorian baristas battling it out for the title of Victoria’s best coffee maker on Sunday, five used coffee from Veneziano Caffe in Abbotsford.
David Makin, who is in sales and training for the company, won for the second year in a row and last year represented Australia at the world championships. Second was Erin Sampson from Coffee HQ at the Monash Campus in Caulfield. Third place went to Simon James from Coffee HQ at 367 Collins St.
FIFTEEN MINUS ONE
The man who banned Stephen Downes from the local version of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, general manager Carl Forrest, has left the building. He has joined the French-Algerian inspired Canvas Restaurant and Bar (Level 1, 302-320 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn), which opened in November.
PALATABLE REPLACEMENT
Don’t cross top Geelong-region noshery Pettavel (65 Pettavel Rd, Waurn Ponds) out of your address books yet. After losing two of its top chefs, James Hooper to SOS and James White to Bellbrae Harvest, sous chef Matt Dempsey is a more than palatable replacement having joined the winery restaurant in 2002.
GREEN KITCHEN
Carbon emissions are being cut at Pearl (631-633 Church St, Richmond) with the kitchen having moved to all induction cookware.
Because the new-fangled cooking method is not burning gas constantly, energy is saved, the kitchen is cooler and the chefs are less cranky.
Having outgrown the restaurant, the Pearl bar/cafe, famous for its deep-fried egg breakfast toasty, is moving out to
a new venue one minute away and
will open in about a month.
Best fed
MR MUSSEL / Portarlington Pier
At $4 a kilo, the mussels from Mr Mussel on Portarlington Pier are the food bargain of the week. Last Friday, Nigel Pitman, chef at The ol’ Duke
(40 Newcombe St, Portarlington), brought this ingredient together with local black bream, samphire and a mussel beurre blanc in what was the star of four dishes served at the inaugural Bellarine Seafood and Wine Dinner. Samphire is a succulent that grows in salt marshes and can be eaten raw or cooked. It tastes like asparagus, but better, and can be picked in Swan Bay.