Let’s get the random out of the way first. With three weeks to go, I had decided I do indeed need to get inspiration while I’m here. Sure, I cook amazing stuff, but I need to recalibrate what I think is amazing – so I booked a degustation with Celcius, apparently one of Adelaide’s top restaurants. From my research, the head chef there used to work in Noma and Marque and a few others I don’t remember off the top of my head. They do, essentially, modern Australian/Contemporary cuisine, which always causes me to giggle as the term is rather akin to what the English language actually is – a mash of other things all in one.

First, a picture of some new flower jars at Argo on the Square! I really liked the purple-ness.

I went to a place called Andre’s Cucina one night, as apparently there was supposed to be after work drinks hosted by our GM – who didn’t appear. So instead I drank water (which everyone disapproved of) before slipping out to eat, as I was starving. With no idea what to eat, I figured I may as well go to this cucina since I found their business card at Paddy’s Lantern a while ago. I really had no idea what to expect except that it had polenta, and was a bar. Well, there was amaretto and there was WOW POLENTA SO CREAMY IN SAUSAGE RAGU WITH A HINT OF CHILLI. No picture, but it was definitely a good choice! The polenta was amazing, well flavoured and really great texture.

Also, buskers at Central Markets, who I threw money at. I thought they had a cute setup!

NOW ONTO THE GOOD STUFF – my official Celcius entry. I accidentally stumbled past Celcius while getting lost one day, and upon looking at the outside, I noticed that they do the fancy plating that I liked. They also seemed to boast being the best restaurant in Adelaide. Then I saw the degustation menu (5 course and 8 course) and I thought, wow, I should do some research on it. The eye catcher was a vegetable garden dish they had when they first opened – I would have loved to try it, and it really does attract attention. After doing my own cooking and feeling I had reached a level of cooking (sometimes) that was really quite genius, absolutely had to visit and try it out – to compare me vs them vs Quay/Tetsuyas. I finally summoned up the courage to book for myself. Turns out it is actually very difficult and super awkward to do this.

I rocked up on a Saturday night, freaking out, this was way scarier than going to the movies by one’s self, and borderline plain wrong. I then pretty much oggled the Riedel glasses in front of me and asked for tap water. Which they poured into one of these Riedel glasses. Why do I keep mentioning that they were Riedel? Because Rockpool Bar and Grill – their little introduction on their menu about their glasses has stuck with me, even though I don’t remember exactly how many Riedels form their decor. I was marvelling at how thin the walls were and very impressed. I should get myelf some Riedels to serve my coffee in.

I was so flustered that I conveniently forgot etiquette when it came to complementary bread. I totally missed the bread plate + knife and used the entree knife! Oops! I didn’t notice till I was wondering how I was a knife short and the waiter just kind of rearranged by cutlery.

Anyway, actual pictures, description and pseudo-reviews now.

First up, the bread. House baked, white sourdough and rye, with apple-smoked butter. I liked the rye better than the sourdough, and I was pleasantly surprised by the smoke butter. It was smoke trapped in a jar with butter – the butter was just the right consistency, and the opening of the jar was fun as the smoke escaped. The butter ended up having a smoky flavour that went really well with the rye – for some reason I didn’t get as much of it on the white.

Since I am still clueless when it comes to drinks, I ordered a cocktail which I thought had two alcohols in it, until I asked that I wanted no gin in the drink… which made it non-alcoholic! I thought elderflower liquor meant alchocol… but I guess it was a fancified version of elderflower cordial. So at this point I figured I got it at mocktail price (which was correct at the end). It had aloe, basil seeds and lemon too. Quite nice but very sweet, and reminded me of asian drinks that contain basil seed.

First of the colds/entrees was salmon with pickled ginger, avruga, cucumber balls wrapped in cucumber, nasturtium, watercress, and cucumber and wasabi sorbet. At first glance, I thought, “Quay?” as the presentation I felt was quite similar. Very delicate and fancy. I loved the salt from the avruga in combination with the ginger. The cucumber balls were cute – I’d love to try to make it one day though I feel it causes waste since spheres don’t stack without gaps. Though that’s probably how the cucumber wasabi sorbet was made. It was actually quite refreshing, but it did burn if I had too much. All in all a standard and pretty starter.

Next, tuna tataki with foie gras, brioche, olive oil, watercress, and dehydrated pork crackling. Wow. So the tuna tataki was what I expected, especially since I can now make it exactly the same way – so the two things that really stood out and impressed me were the foie gras and crackling. The last time I had foie gras (at Marquis) was too rich and heavy so I couldn’t finish it. However this one was light and fluffy, and all of it was enough with the crunchy, toasted brioche provided. A great pairing made mind blowingly fantastic with the addition of the pork crackling sprinkling. It added that burst of salt and the general awesomeness that is the crackling, and made the tuna and foie gras that much better.

I didn’t expect the next dish to be 1. warm and 2. as.. blobby as it was. Sweetcorn ravioli (3) with ash covered goat cheese, roasted corn, tomato and basil. This was the only dish whose presentation wasn’t the same delicate, minimalistic style as the rest of the degustation, however I loved the flavour. Sweetcorn is always a winner with me (incidentally I felt stupid for accidentally undercooking my corn that day – though I did have to move from my apartment to a hotel, so change of cookpot as well as stovetop, so I blame teething XD). This was actually one of my favourite dishes of the night, as the first course was standard, and the second had only 1 element that made it godly (the dehydrated crackling) plus foie gras which always tempts me. The only thing I wished was that the pasta itself was a little less cooked through.

Market fish with squid ink, calamari, watercress, potato and fennel. What cute little potato bits! They were tasty. The fennel was plain roasted, and the fish that day was snapper. Personally, I like my snapper the slightest tad less cooked, but now I know I can go crazy with squid ink if I ever wanted to experiment with it – it’s mainly for the colouring and didn’t contribute a super fishy flavour (if at all). For me, this was neither here or there as I feel I’m now capable of making something similar (though I wouldn’t try and replicate it) except for the sauce, since I am not a sauce master.

I decided to be brave, and finished off my mocktail. Here I ordered a wine – 2008 Murray Street Vineyards “Benno” Shiraz, Mataro (Barossa Valley). From the wine tasting I had at Jacob’s Creek in Barossa, I remember liking a mataro they had, so here I ordered it. Since I only know coffee terms, I found it to start of being very bright, but then the aftertaste was very nice. Apparently I had made a good choice, as the couple on the table opposite me wanted to try it too and they were swishing and swirling and smelling and also very impressed by it!

Next was duck breast with mushrooms, peas and olive liquorice. The waitress explained that the duck was cooked via sous-vide for 1.5 hours at 57 degrees, before being pan fried to finish it off. Well there we go, always twice cooked duck! I don’t feel so bad now :). I was a little concerned as I had some sinew that I had to fight while also trying to look like I was sophisticated and not struggling with cutting the pieces. It was nice, and duck skin is always so tasty. There was a combination of mushrooms there, the peas were blanched so some of them were a struggle to attack with my fork so I ended up scooping them, but what I really liked that I had no preconceptions of, was the olive liquorice. Sweet, salty and olive! I really liked how they made it like that. The duck, well, I reckon I do something similar in terms of how happy eating it makes me feel, though my technique of twice-pan grilling is completely different. And mushrooms are mushrooms.

The last of the mains was suffolk lamb (I suspect the same stuff from Rockpool Bar and Grill) with garlic sauce and roasted vegetables – parsnip, turnip, leek, ad heirloom carrots. The vegetables may have been just barely seasoned, but I didn’t mind as I believe vegetables are meant to be eaten with their true flavour (even if I don’t like it). Those heirloom carrots were tiny and cute. The lamb itself was amazing with the garlic sauce, though I believe the lamb and garlic aioli my brother had at Rockpool Bar and Grill was better. The jus was well flavoured and peppery and brought the whole thing together. What I was amused with was that the knife had a beetle on the spine! So cute and fancy!

Since this was pretty much going to be my only visit to Celcius, I asked for the optional cheese course. I anticipated gruyere as that was what the menu had said (I think), only it ended up being goats cheese – almost a goat brie. I cringed a little because goats cheese, is like witlof. I have a love/hate/masochistic relationship with it. I love the though of goat cheese but can’t stand the flavour. It came with vanilla candied celery which was a mind-trip and a half (but very nice), apple, peeled grape, and toasted brioche crumbs. What can I say, I’m a sucker for cheese plates. The goat cheese was pungent and creamy – would get again as it’s my weakness even though I don’t like that quantity of goat cheese because of the flavour of goat dairy in general. Would recommend to those who love goat dairy!

The first dessert was lemon curd enrobed in a dome of tempered white chocolate, dehydrated lemon curd shards, blackberry sorbet, blackberry sherbet, blackberry jelly, fresh blackberry, passionfruit meringue, fresh passionfruit, and nasturtiums. Wooooow. I personally loved the jelly and lemon curd shards the best. The curd itself wasn’t citrussy enough for me but it was creamy and fluffly, which made up for that fact. With so much blackberry, the white chocolate cut the acidity really well. I didn’t realise just how tasty this was until comparing it to the second dessert. Standalone though, while pretty, would have impressed me more if the lemon curd had a little more kick, and say, the theme was raspberries. Also, I couldn’t help but be unimpressed with the sherbet as I know the secret to sherbet after making it in science class in high school – but hey, sherbet is sherbet is fun! All in all a fantastic dessert.

Last of all, Peach, raspberry, dehydrated raspberry shards, raspberry mousse, nasturtiums in pastry with chammomile ice cream, white chocolate covered rice puffs and fresh raspberry. I was impartial to the pastry and while the shards were tasty, they were a little hard and sharp so I had to be careful chewing it. Compared to the first dessert, it was rather uninteresting… EXCEPT WOW CHAMMOMILE ICE CREAM YES PLEASE. This was the best ending to the degustation as it was creamy, mellow, tea-like and just such a palate cleanser. It was the definition of “I hope you enjoyed your dinner” and I was very happy with it.

Four hours after starting, I was very happy and very very full. The mains were on average larger than the portions at Tetsuya’s and Quay. Celcius seems to focus on minimalistic presentation and very natural, fresh flavours. The waitress also informed me that the chef owns a farm where most of the ingredients are sourced, which I really liked. Nothing better than knowing exactly what goes into the food that makes your food! The atmosphere was very casual as it had a bar component, so people were underdressed in my eyes – but that’s normal in Adelaide and makes me feel like a snobby Sydney-sider, not that I really minded. These days I’m glad fine dining is so accessible. This has also made me now really want to go to Sepia, Est and Marque as I want to experience the personality of each restaurant. And continue to inspect their bathrooms haha.

To finish off, a piccolo which I knew would be so-so, but I wanted as much of the experience as I could get. Overall it was less than $200 for all of the above, which was so painful but I don’t regret any of it, including the tip to top it off at exactly $200. I once read that the top restaurants use tips to re-invest into the restaurants through taking the cooks and waiters to other restaurants to experience the difference and to further be inspired to create awesome food, so I hope Celcius does this too.

Next time, I should always see if I can con someone into being my food buddy. The presence of friends definitely would have made my dining experience that much more memorable!