Chef drives an innovative concept in fine dining

For the past two weeks, chef Stuart McGill has been peddling lamb belly buns and ancient grain salads from his Eat Art food truck fit for the taste of high-end diners.

Both are signature dishes of MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan, usually served from a hot, bustling kitchen, and not from a cramped one balanced on four wheels.

But with Mehigan's direction and blessing, McGill has served hundreds of portions to Sydneysiders around Sydney out of his truck, renamed the Citibank dining truck for Good Food Month. People have embraced food truck fare, McGill said, in trend with the ''casualisation'' of dining out in Sydney.

''It was inevitable,'' said the former Tetsuya's chef. ''The dining public are more savvy than ever and know they don't need food with the fine trimmings. Food trucks are part of that middle-ground sort of dining available in Sydney.''

He said the trick to serving seemingly complex food out of a truck was to refine the steps, to spend extra hours beforehand preparing ingredients and to make sure the components can be quickly assembled. "We limit it to five or six components."

At the Night Noodle Markets last Friday, McGill served up to 200 lamb belly buns - with cucumber pickles, rose ginger, and a dose of hoisin sauce - for $15 at Hyde Park with Mehigan on board. He had provided them with photographs and specifications, to make sure any dishes bearing his name would meet his standards.

Mehigan said Australian food truck vendors sold food with "a lot more style and better quality'' than their overseas counterparts.

"If your food is kept simple, and elegant, then anything can be done," he said. "A lot of chefs could learn from the fact that you can definitely produce great food without all the whiz bang appliances, which we all love, but don't always need."

From next week McGill will serve sake-cured ocean trout with smoked enoki, sesame and crisp seaweed designed by Ross Lusted, head chef of The Bridge Room in the CBD. The dish, said Lusted, was similar to a popular item on the menu and used the some of the same ingredients. ''It's an opportunity to showcase what we do at the restaurant,'' he said. ''The food scene is shifting in Sydney. People expect food will be deep fried or cheap food if it's made on a truck but the pedigrees of the chefs are good.''

Food trucks also presented an alternative to chefs who want to open restaurants but could not afford it, said Lusted. "It's the democratisaion of dining. If you're doing good food, it doesn't matter what tier you're doing it in, you're going to be embraced by the public."

The City of Sydney council has received more than 500 inquiries relating to food trucks since it rolled out a trial involving nine trucks early last year.

"A review of the food trucks trial is close to completion and any proposed changes to our policy will be put to council and on public exhibition in the coming months," a council spokesman said.