What’s the strangest thing Sydney-based chef Lennox Hastie has ever grilled over flaming woods at Firedoor, his drama-filled restaurant in Surry Hills (which retained its exalted “two hats” in the 2019 Good Food Guide)?
“Caviar,” British-born Hastie replies.
It took a year to perfect. That meant finding the right caviar, the correct quantity (“anything less than 10 grams is pointless”) and the appropriate wood (“Australian ironwood burns 400 degrees hotter than the woods I used in Spain”). The final inspirational touch? “Wakamame seaweed between the wood and the caviar.”
Guests will have to wait until their meal arrives to discover what's cooking. Ken Butti
There’s no guarantee wood-grilled caviar will be served when Hastie unveils his wood-cooked menu at this Saturday’s Showcase dinner, following his spectacular Race Week debut last year.
Being the culinary magician Hastie is, smoke and mirrors are part of the act. Details are on a need-to-know basis until diners assemble at their tables on the lawn overlooking qualia’s Pebble Beach.
So what can you expect? Hastie worked in Michelin-starred British and French restaurants before discovering his calling: cooking over a wood fire in Spain’s Basque region under mentor Victor Arguinzoniz.
Lennox Hastie readies to do what he does best: prepare a barbecue like no other. Kara Rosenlund
He opened Firedoor in 2015, the only fine dining restaurant in Australia where everything is cooked over wood – even caviar. (Expect “briny, sweet and smoky” with “the flavour of black olives and hazelnuts”.)
Fortunately Penny Lawson, a self-confessed “curd nerd” who as a young woman travelled to Britain spurred by “a passion for cheddar”, is less reticent about the cheese course.
