Mosman’s Ormeggio takes a five star detour to Spain
AFTER eight years serving dishes inspired by the northern Italian region of Lombardy, award-winning restaurant Ormeggio at The Spit has changed course.
Mosman
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One of Sydney’s favourite Italian restaurants, Ormeggio at The Spit, has come out as Spanish.
After eight years serving dishes inspired by the northern Italian region of Lombardy, the award-winning restaurant has changed course, with a new degustation menu that journeys a little further south.
Titled “A Trip Via Spain” the new menu has resulted from a culinary bromance between Italian executive chef and owner Alessandro Pavoni and his Spanish head chef and best friend Victor Moya, who thought the combination of cultures would make for an interesting collaboration.
“There is a constant stream of menu development happening in the Ormeggio kitchen. Being a contemporary restaurant, this evolution of ideas and inspiration is to be expected, and in fact is what keeps us all motivated,” says Moya.
The new menu, which launched earlier this month, features a mix of Italian and Spanish ingredients, techniques and traditions, and is served as part of a 20-course tapas degustation.
The adventure starts with six aperitivo bites, a concept native to both Spain and Italy, and includes tasty morsels such as crispy manchego cheese wafers and cold mussels topped with tiny diced jewels of cucumber, tomato and peppers.
One of the early standout dishes is the oysters topped with spherified rock melon and honey dew melon. While the tiny glistening pearls may look like caviar, it’s a real treat to discover sweet tropical flavours in place of the usual salty tang.
The menu then trespasses into tapas territory, with nine small plates, including deep fried pencil leeks dipped in romesco sauce, bottoni pasta “buttons” filled with jamón ibérico, and a scampi rice with seaweed aioli, which includes a crispy disc of “burnt” rice reminiscent of the tasty scrapings of a paella pan.
The menu concludes with two desserts and three petit fours, including a pumpkin crema catalana made with homemade buttermilk gelato and delicate floating elderflowers.
To match, Ormeggio has also changed up the wine list, with sommelier Alessio Domenici creating a Spanish ‘bodega’ of wines, heavy on local varietals.
For Pavoni and Moya, presentation has become a new focus for the restaurant, with the chefs working with many local artisans to create some interesting new servingware.
“The restaurant business is not just about food, beverage and service now but also more and more how you can present it in an exciting and unique way,” says Moya.
“We’ve been working with Chris Thorndike from Woodman Designs to design some wonderful service equipment. Another local artisan we’ve work closely with is Malcolm Greenwood who has created bespoke sculptures to present the snacks.”