Transporting three Michelin-starred restaurant L’Enclume from a 13th century blacksmith’s workshop in the Lake District of England countryside to Bathers’ Pavilion on Balmoral Beach is a feat unlike any other head chef Simon Rogan has attempted.

It has taken three years of sourcing producers, growing rare ingredients, hand-crafting crockery, cutlery and screen-printing custom curtains to prepare for the L’Enclume residency, which opened last Wednesday for five weeks.

A total of 4200 diners have forked out upwards of $420 a head to get a taste of Rogan’s eight-course menu, but the acclaimed chef insists there’s far more to the experience than “eating some damn tasty food”.

“For me, eating a meal is not just about the food on the plate. It’s the whole experience: the table you’re eating at, the cutlery you have in your hands and what you’re looking at,” Rogan says.

“We have absolutely thrown the kitchen sink at this.”

Sydneysiders have enthusiastically embraced L’Enclume - which achieved its much-coveted third Michelin star after 20 years in 2022 - the fifth international restaurant residency this year, following Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Eleven Madison Park at Aria, Maaemo at Berowra Waters Inn and Mirazur at The Gantry earlier in the year.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done something under the L’Enclume banner in another country, let alone another continent on the other side of the world,” Rogan says.

“It would have been really easy to ship all the ingredients in and just do what we do over there, over here, but that’s not what’s happening,” says Sam Ward, managing director of L’Enclume’s parent company, Umbel Restaurant Group.

“We have to understand the food and meet the people in order to recreate the concept and ethos of L’Enclume here.

“You can’t do it with just a phone call to your supplier, that doesn’t work. You have to get your boots on the ground, look the people who produce your food in the eye and get to know them.”

Rogan and several members of his UK team (including his head waiter, sommelier and chefs), touched down in Sydney on the night of Monday, July 11, and have been rising at dawn each day to prepare (after sneaking in a swim in the cold waters of Balmoral Beach).

With the assistance of Bathers’ head chef Cameron Johnston and co-owner and managing director Jess Shirvington (both of whom visited L’Enclume earlier this year), Rogan has been connected with a team of Australian craftsmen and producers such as Warren and Marina Higgins at Local Dorper Lamb and Dylan Abdoo at Newcastle Greens.

Over the past six months, Abdoo has grown celery cress, chrysanthemum and Aztec marigolds to a specific size just for Rogan, who sought small sizes and concentrated flavour. The marigolds, typically a summer crop, required Abdoo to build a custom growing environment for the occasion.

Last weekend, Rogan and his team ventured into the Southern Highlands to meet “the formidable duo”, Michael and Cressida Cains at Pecora Dairy. After four months of searching for the perfect supplier for his signature Yarrawa pudding, Rogan says he was blown away by the quality of their product.

“There are no tricks. The cheese from Pecora is all about the quality of the milk,” Rogan says.

The Pecora Dairy feta (which is made with raw milk, prepared using a traditional Greek method, and matured for a minimum of 75 days) left such an impression the team elected to change their cheese trolley selection at the ninth hour to focus entirely on cheeses produced by the Cains.

Similarly, alterations were made to the recipe for Rogan’s seaweed custard to accommodate the brininess of royal miyagi oysters, sourced from Boomers Bay in Tasmania.

“They’re really salty, and then you’re hit with a lingering sweetness,” Frank Theodore from GetFish told Rogan as he shucked the fresh oysters in a watered-down production room at the Sydney Fish Market on Friday afternoon.

Rogan tried two, nodding as he thought.

“It’s a lot of salt, a bit like seagrass,” he said.

The attention to detail extends to the dining room, where each spoon for the seaweed custard has been hand-carved from American black walnut by Potts Point woodworker Ted O’Donnell. During a visit to his studio on Friday, O’Donnell showed Rogan several prototypes.

The team has considered everything from its mouthfeel, to the flavour of the oil used to seal the wood, to the way the spoon sits on the table. The finished product is remarkably light, with jewel-like bevelled edges created by a small, carving knife.

The spoon will appear alongside a cup hand-thrown by Blackheath ceramicist Simon Reece. Reece, alongside Malcom Greenwood and Leia Sherbloom (Grit Ceramics) have created 2000 pieces of ceramic tableware for the event.

Bathers’ Pavilion was stripped bare on Sunday to make way for the residency. By Monday, it had become a hive of activity, with dozens of formally clad staff (up to 37 of whom will be working during each service).

There is new cutlery, new glasses and, in some cases, new tables. Australian artist Janet Laurence oversaw the hanging of the screen-printed sheer curtains she custom-made with botanical illustrations. A cabinetmaker installed the last of many new service stations, necessary for the demands of top shelf hospitality.

In the kitchen, leaves made from roasted strawberries were dehydrating, sugared kelp was being carefully tweezered into bowls and Cascada’s eponymous ’90s dance hit Everytime We Touch blared over the speakers. At about 3pm, Rogan finally signed off on the menu.

“It’s a bit like Ocean’s 11, how it all comes together,” observed Ian Pagent, co-owner of Bathers’ Pavilion.

Rogan, who will be on the tools for every one of the 53 services, admits he is quietly confident.

“It will be the most amount of covers I’ve done in five weeks: 80 people for lunch and 80 people for dinner almost every single day,” he says.

“But that’s what we’re here for. We want to make a good impression and hopefully people will think this was an event that was truly unforgettable.”