Pazar Food Collective accuses Mona Vale venue of copying dishes

Inner west Sydney venue Pazar Food Collective has launched a social media assault on Mona Vale's newly minted Park House Food & Liquor.

Pazar owner Attila Yilmaz has questioned the originality of the Mona Vale arrival, which at one stage he considered joining in a consultancy capacity, by highlighting the high number of dishes he believes are replicas of his current and past menus.

"As chefs we all take inspiration and borrow elements from each other adding our own unique touch and twist. This is expected and normally respectfully acknowledged in return. The question we ask is how far is too far?" Pazar posted on its Facebook page.

Yilmaz has also posted photographs of Park House dishes alongside those of his own on Facebook and Instagram. He then lists a number of his signatures, including ember-blackened pumpkin with pepita chimichurri feta and toasted almonds.

"These are dishes we have worked on and developed and cooked over the last four years, in fact our entire lives. They are dishes inspired by our travels and childhood memories that we are proud of and that we have poured our hearts into. Yet these are dishes that the Park House Food & Liquor promote heavily across their social media streams and website," the Facebook post says.

Park House fired back in a media statement: "The allegations made against The Park House menu are based upon words on a menu, which might represent the ingredients of a dish, but the essence of a dish is the recipe and how the produce is sourced, handled and created with a mix of flavours making each and every dish unique."

They conceded they did meet with Yilmaz in the early stages of menu planning, but say at no stage did they step foot in a kitchen with him or share recipes.

"Fraser Short has employed a group of passionate and highly capable chefs and designers to bring this vision to life … Sydney Collective sent its executive chef to travel across the United States and parts of Mexico to gain his own inspiration and influence for The Park House menu."