Celebrity chef Neil Perry curates daughter’s wedding menu
Celebrity chef Neil Perry knows good food so it’s no surprise the guests at his eldest daughter’s wedding were treated to a tasty menu like no other.
Confidential
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It was the hospo royal wedding that guests are still recovering from — a week on.
Held at Neil Perry’s flagship food altar Rockpool on Hunter St, the pony-tailed celebrity chef walked his eldest daughter Josephine — or JP as he calls her — down the aisle last weekend in a celebration that laid on all of the culinary bells and whistles one would expect from a family of foodies.
“Hundreds” of Negronis, oysters, caviar tarts and prawn cutlets were served to guests — along with a sit-down dinner of coral trout and an aged Cape Grim rib-eye steak with Cafe de Paris butter.
The proud dad — who curated the menu personally — admits he had his work cut out catering to guests who knew their food more than most.
Along with the bride, who works front of house at Icebergs in Bondi, groom Michael Clift comes from a serious cooking pedigree also having plied his trade under Perry for years before teaming up with the Hubert crew of Dan Pepperell and Andy Tyson.
“The problem with those kids is, geez they can drink,” laughs Perry, who describes seeing ‘trays and trays’ of Negronis and giant magnums of Pol Roger champagne ‘flying around’.
“The last round of drinks served at midnight was 60 negronis. It was … a big night.”
It was, however, a wedding that almost didn’t happen with the couple originally slated to tie the knot last March but forced to delay proceedings due to COVID.
The honeymoon, too, is on hold as for Clift it is straight back to work. He and Pepperell are set to open a new venture — a French bistro in the old Lotus site in Potts Point — next month.