Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has revealed his top restaurant picks in Sydney at the weekend, including the Good Food Guide Chef of the Year Josh Niland’s “exceptional” St Leonards restaurant, Petermen.

The television personality and cookbook author visited Sydney for a one-off show at the Sydney Opera House, where he spoke candidly about his career with Dessert Masters judge Melissa Leong.

Afterwards, he took a group of former MasterChef contestants to dinner at two-hatted restaurant Petermen, where they were served a “stunning” five-course seafood feast. The custom menu featured yellowfin tuna tartare on rice blini, abalone schnitzel sandwiches, charcoal-roasted pipis and Davidson plum madeleines, with Malfoy’s Honey cream.

Niland’s salt and vinegar garfish with Gordal olive brine was a highlight, said Oliver.

“Dunking the bread in the brine and the oil and eating [it] with these chunks of semi cured fish was a dream,” he said.

“[And the hand line-caught charcoal coral trout] was exceptional. Dry-aged, giving the most amazing clean flavour, [with a] firm but flaky texture and grilled crispy skin.

“Just wonderful.”

Oliver described the kitchen team as “wonderful, young, diligent and fastidiously talented”, and said they were likely to look back on their time working at Petermen as a pivotal moment in their career.

“Simply stunning food and service,” Oliver said.

“The desserts didn’t hang around long enough to take a picture, but they were epic.”

On the advice of fellow celebrity chef Donna Hay, Oliver booked his first meal in Sydney with his daughter Poppy (one of his five children) and her boyfriend Ben at Circular Quay restaurant Clam Bar.

Clam Bar is a New York-style steakhouse from the team behind Bistrot 916 and Pellegrino 2000, and recently received two hats in the SMH Good Food Guide.

“It did not disappoint!” Oliver said.

“A very strong front of house team and delicious food.

“Nice one, head chef Sam [Galloway].”

Oliver’s third pick was Bar Copains, an intimate Surry Hills wine bar by Nathan Sasi (former executive chef at Nomad) and Morgan McGlone (founder of Belle’s Hot Chicken). The hatted restaurant served Oliver their chickpea panisse with wild green garlic sauce; chicken liver parfait with sauternes jelly and brioche (“the pickles were the bomb”); anchovy on puff pastry; and McGlone’s famous chicken wings (“a triumph, as expected”).

The standout, however, was the signature dish: the pig’s head fritti with sauce gribiche (a herbaceous, cold egg sauce).

“Pig’s head was a game changer,” Oliver said.

“Every plate was so well executed, [there were] so many great flavours and textures.”

The three restaurants join a growing list of Oliver’s Sydney haunts, as revealed to Good Food prior to his trip in October. These include Good Food’s Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year Margaret (Double Bay) and Saint Peter (Paddington).