‘Don’t call us fusion’: Cuisine-busting Penelope’s brings a melting pot of flavours to Circular Quay
Lee Potter Cavanagh of the now-closed Rosenbaum & Fuller at Bondi has combined forces with Cuong Nguyen of Hello Auntie and emerging talent Bremmy Setiyoko to bring Australian, Vietnamese and Indonesian influences to their new Sydney venue.
When Penelope’s opens at Circular Quay in November, the restaurant’s general manager, Lee Potter Cavanagh, says it will skip the standard restaurant practice of selecting a cuisine description such as modern Asian or contemporary Australian. “We want to ask what it means to be Australian,” he says of its menu inspiration.
It’s an idea Potter Cavanagh first explored at the now-closed Rosenbaum & Fuller at Bondi. At Penelope’s, the approach will reflect the different culinary journeys of the restaurant’s team: Potter Cavanagh’s Sydney food upbringing, owner Cuong Nguyen’s Vietnamese heritage (Hello Auntie) and head chef Bremmy Setiyoko’s Indonesian background interlaced with experience at some of Sydney’s best restaurants, including Sepia.
“Sydney is a mature enough city to have its own food identity. We say call us what you like at Penelope’s, just don’t call us fusion,” Potter Cavanagh says.
Setiyoko will take his cues “from my own journey as an immigrant”. He’ll also tap native Australian ingredients at Penelope’s, which slides into Quay Quarter Tower directly opposite the site of Sydney’s First Government House on Bridge Street.
“We’ll use bush tomato and desert lime in our prawn cocktail,” Setiyoko says. “Cuong [Nguyen] said to me ‘you can cook anything here, I just want it to serve great food, like you’re coming to my place for a dinner party’.”
Setiyoko, a finalist this year in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide’s Smeg Young Chef of the Year Award, points to Indonesian grilled bakar chicken as an example of their approach. He’ll match it with garlic sauce inspired by toum, the condiment served with the charcoal chicken he’s been introduced to since moving to Sydney.
When it opens in November, Penelope’s interior will be bold, colourful and maximalist, Potter Cavanagh says. The space will open onto a balcony, in a development brimming with new arrivals. Belles Hot Chicken opened its first fully fledged restaurant at Quay Quarter Tower in March, and Pearl, a modern Cantonese restaurant, joins the party on Tuesday, September 26.
Scott Bolles writes the weekly Short Black column in Good Food.