Jellyfish and young chefs

Yesterday was hardcore. A degustation lunch and a dego dinner in one day. Needless to say, I pushed through and managed ok. The first was at the brand spanking new Jellyfish, John Kilroy's newest venture under Friday's at the Riverside. It was a media launch, which is not always the place to make up your mind, but so far so good. It's totally different in feel to his other place, Cha Cha Char, which always feels a bit boys club to me. It has spare, clean lines, a minimal palate of white and charcoal with a glass wall allowing unimpeded river views. I admit, I went with a good dose of cynicism-as with Chinese, I find seafood restaurants to be constantly disappointing, but was very excited in this case to be proved wrong.

There will be eight fresh daily fish on offer, depending on what's fresh, cooked in different ways, depending on the type- (fish, as Kilroy pointed out, don't all respond to the same cooking methods- some suit grilling better than frying etc). We tried a few different things from the menu, and I couldn't fault anything-all were beautifully cooked, looked gorgeous and tasted seriously good. (I left my menu on the table or would list a few) Kilroy says that he'll try to keep mains between $35-39 which is pretty good for fresh fish.


A few hours to digest and it was off to the Courier Mail Young Chef's Dinner at Restaurant Two. This was the chance for six of Brisbane's best young guns to show off their talents each cooking a course for invited guests including Brett Graham from the michelin starred The Ledbury in London and Xavier Pellicer from Abac in Spain. (Ok, I know this is the 3rd time I've mentioned Pellicer, but really, I'm not obsessed!) All six courses were exceptional, no mean feat when you're serving around 70 odd people at the same time. For me one of the standouts was the dessert-only because by that stage of a degustation it takes something pretty special to re-ignite the palate. This was it though- a very un cloying rectangle of white chocolate mousse with a layer of white chocolate showing off small circle of salted caramel served with slightly spiced morello cherries and a teeny pinch of basil powder. Fabulous. The chefs, all in their twenties and from hotels and restaurants all over Brisbane obviously have big futures ahead of them. It was back to reality today with a cup of the Courier Mail cafe's tomato soup for lunch. :(