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Hilary McNevin and Roslyn Grundy

Money well spent: Heston Blumenthal has defended the $525-a-head bill at Fat Duck Melbourne.
Money well spent: Heston Blumenthal has defended the $525-a-head bill at Fat Duck Melbourne.Simon Schluter

Heston Blumenthal defends Duck bill

The backlash was swift last week when Heston Blumenthal announced that a meal at Fat Duck Melbourne would cost $525 a head, excluding drinks, making it one of Australia's most expensive restaurants. In defending the bill, Blumenthal said shipping restaurant equipment from Bray, outside to London, to Crown

"We're basically picking up the entire kitchen and staff from the Fat Duck and relocating across the world," Blumenthal said. "The cost structure for the Duck is like no other restaurant in the world. It can take one chef days just to make one item for the menu. Dining at the Duck is four and a half hours of entertainment. Add all of that together, and Melbourne is going to be about 40 or 50 quid more expensive than Bray."

is putting up his entire British staff of around 50 at Southbank for six months. Blumenthal said he had had some difficulties getting visas sorted but he is worried they won't want to go back, when the restaurant returns to its newly renovated premises in Bray.

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To date, Crown has received almost 40,000 booking inquiries for the Fat Duck. Australian fans willing to brave the expense will have to go into an online ballot for a chance to experience his 12 to 16-course set menu. The ballot, to be run through Crown's Fat Duck Melbourne website, will be open from October 8 to October 26, with about 16,000 diners expected to visit the restaurant when it opens on February 3.

Teage Ezard to open Yarra Valley restaurant

Forget galangal, kaffir lime and chilli. For his new restaurant project, chef Teage Ezard is setting aside the Asian ingredients that have helped define his cooking and will instead lean heavily on his European training.

Work began last week on Ezard at Levantine Hill, a 100-seat restaurant and cellar door in Coldstream that's being called the most ambitious project in the Yarra Valley since Domaine Chandon opened in 1986.

Designed by Karl Fender of Fender Katsalidis Architects, it is part of a multi-million dollar plan for the 18-month-old Levantine Hill wine label, which began with planting 23 hectares of premium grapes and which may eventually encompass luxury accommodation beside the Yarra River.

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The gently curved space will include three barrel-shaped private tasting booths, a bar, retail outlet, a terrace overlooking the vines and a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. The food will be recognisably "Ezard-esque", says the chef, but will be designed to complement Levantine Hill winemaker Paul Bridgeman's labours and showcase Yarra Valley produce.

Ezard at Levantine Hill is expected to open in July 2015.

A perfect cross-cultural marriage

After supplying their distinctive tarts to cafes like the CBD's Traveller and Place Holder in Fitzroy, the folks behind indie bakery Nora Melbourne are set to open a place of their own in Carlton tomorrow. Wed 24th

Clocking up stints at Longrain, St Ali and the Commoner, multi-talented owner Sarin Rojanametin✓ (an artist/photographer with a background in advertising) and his life/business partner Jean Thamthanakorn✓ (a tax accountant who just loves to bake), says the idea was "to bring something different to the area and to create the type of place that we'd want to go to".

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Their tarts match Western technique with south-east Asian flavours such coconut, tamarind and pandan, resulting in a perfect cross-cultural marriage. They're also offering a full breakfast/lunch menu as well as tea pairings, Small Batch coffee and excellent sourdough bread, also baked on-site daily. Open Monday-Friday 7am-4pm; Saturday-Sunday 8am-4pm. Leanne Clancey

Nora Melbourne, 156 Elgin Street, Carlton, 9041 8644.

Just Open: Back Room Bar

From High Street, Carwyn Cellars looks like an old-school bottle-o. But since 2012 owner Ben Carwyn has been quietly building a reputation as a craft beer specialist, with more than 200 on the shelves. Now he's transformed the storeroom into the Back Room Bar, with 16 beer and cider taps under constant rotation and a short but ever-changing wine list.

Behind the bar is a display of 150 whiskies from Scotland, Japan and Australia, along with a range of mezcals that is expanding as customers discover there's more to the Mexican spirit than a worm in a bottle, says manager Ben Duval, who, like Carwyn, comes from a family of winemakers.

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Inside, there's room for 50, and another 34 can take a seat at one of the four communal tables under the trees outside. The bar serves cheese and charcuterie boards, along with "inauthentic pizza" from the Moor's Headacross the road.

On October 4 and 5, six Danish breweries will stage a tap takeover to show off their wares. Will they ever host a Kiwi tap takeover? "Not until they give up the Bledisloe Cup," says Carwyn.

Back Room Bar, Carwyn Cellars, 877 High Street, Thornbury, 03 9484 1820.

Piccolo

  • Hospitality company Colonial Leisure Group has bought the Albert Park Hotel and the Middle Park Hotelfrom Melbourne Pub Group. CLG, founded by Computershare chairman Chris Morris, runs 15 hotels in Victoria, including the Botanical, Half Moon and Portsea, along with businesses in Western Australia, Queensland and the UK. MPG retains two St Kilda hotels, the Newmarket and the Prince of Wales. The deal is subject to transfer of liquor licences.
  • Katie Marron, of Miss Katie's Crab Shack fame, is teaming up with Brigitte and Jon Costelloe, [correct both names] who own Abbotsford venues Aviary Hotel, the Vic Bar and Dr Morse, to find a bigger shack. Marron finishes up at the Public Bar in North Melbourne on December 21. Crab Shack 2.0 is expected to open by early February 2015.
  • Pierre Roelofs will pipe his last dessert test-tube on December 18. The master pastry chef has been running dessert evenings at Collingwood's Cafe Rosamond every Thursday since April 2010. Details: pierreroelofs.com.✓
  • After great reviews at duNord in Melbourne's CBD, chef Matti Fallon is looking for a place of his own, inspired by Copenhage's Relae. He has a name, Pervia ("accessible"), and a concept – low-priced but high-end dishes mainly using vegetables. Now all he needs is the site.
  • Rabih Yanni, who sold Albert Park's the Point in late March after 14 years, has taken over the Grosvenor Hotel in St Kilda East. He's aiming for "a good simple pub" rather than a gastropub. Expect dry-aged, grass-fed Victorian beef, wood-fired pizzas, chicken parmas and "a good local feel". The Grosvenor, at 10 Brighton Road, is open daily for lunch and dinner.
  • Pocket-sized Crossley Street bar Von Haus has changed hands. Business partners Joe Jones and Rita Ambroz[correct], who worked as bartenders at CBD bar Lily Blacks, have taken the keys and changed the bar's name to Romeo Lane. This was the lane's original monicker before it became Crossley Street in 1876. Jones says they'll retain the bar's intimacy and "romantic vibe" with a strong cocktail list and a short menu of sharing dishes. Romeo Lane is due to open September 29.
  • Jewish Eastern European street food is about as niche as food trucks get, but that's the plan of cook Aviva Minc, who is crowd-funding through startsomegood.com to realise start the business she'll call Aviva & Co. Minc wants to "heal the world, one dish at a time", donating 10 per cent of profits from her signature dish, chicken soup (Jewish penicillin), to the Gay & Lesbian Switchboard counselling service. Details: startsomegood.com/healingtheworld.✓
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fresh now

in now Favourable fishing conditions have enabled Bass Strait Direct to catch a greater variety of fish such as school whiting, tiger flathead and pink snapper. Find their haul at Bentleigh on Saturday.

try this Werribee market gardener Rita Faranda loves the freshness of green spring garlic - an excellent substitute until the local garlic season begins in November. Use the whole plant, including green leaves and white stem.

in the vegie patch Plant carrot seeds in light, fluffy soil. If it's too heavy, the roots may distort or fork.

accredited farmers' markets Saturday, September 27: Bentleigh, Casey-Berwick, Coburg, Fitzroy Street (St Kilda), Lancefield, Mansfield, Slow Food (Abbotsford). Sunday, September 28: Eltham, Flemington, Mount Eliza, Inverloch.

Sophie O'Neil, vicfarmersmarkets.org.au

Roslyn GrundyRoslyn Grundy is Good Food's deputy editor and the former editor of The Age Good Food Guide.

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