Passione.
The cuisine of Chef Maurice Esposito is an evolving journey. With the mastery of French technique applied to his interpretation of Italian cuisine. Esposito brings an eloquence and imagination to the plate. The focus is seafood, but not exclusively. Land animals still find their way onto the menu, for Esposito can’t resist a perfect rib eye with a rich port wine sauce, or the comfort of Maria’s (his mother) hand-made pasta.
Esposito starts with strict selection of the best quality ingredients, many of which are specially grown for him: French breakfast radishes, cima de rape, arugula and Amsterdam Giant, a wonderfully intense flavoured variety of spinach dating back to 1921. All organically grown with not a pesticide to be reckoned with. Just heirloom seeds, soil, sun, pristine water and all lovingly hand-harvested. We think you can taste the sweat of love in them.
Then there’s the seafood that has been hauled from waters the day before, the organic duck from the Hinterland in Queensland and the aged beef from the Western Plains. Esposito talks about his cuisine in terms of preserving the true flavour of the product. To that end he likes to concentrate flavours reducing them to their very essence, tonic like, offering them as a flourish to finish the composition of the dish.
Esposito defines his approach simply: “I want to taste the fish, the integral flavours that make that fish unique from another variety. I want our guests to be able to distinguish what it is they are eating – the taste memory of sweet-fleshed whole whiting, grilled with an accompaniment of simple herbs, lemon and small black olives. It takes me back to my childhood - fishing with my father, eating the succulent fish just caught that evening with fresh produce gathered from my mother’s garden. To me, this is the pure joy of food”.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things.”
Let’s start with some oysters. Like Lewis Carrol’s colourful Walrus, we’re rather partial to them. But not so the big, fat oysters that tend to be all substance but lacking in taste. No sir. Like him, we prefer the fresh, intensely flavoured young ones.
And we left no stone unturned ‘til we found them, tucked a way in Tathra on south coast New South Wales. Come by and try them, we believe that Tathra’s are the finest oysters you’ll ever sink your teeth into. Or let slide down, as you wish.
“A loaf of bread,” the Walrus said, “Is what we chiefly need. Pepper and vinegar besides are very good indeed.” Perhaps that old Walrus had dined with us before? We drizzle our Tathra Rock Oysters with a little sauce of red wine vinegar, ginger, soy, shallot and toasted sesame. “Now if you're ready, Oysters dear. We can begin to feed.”
Into the Seafood.
So how do we cook that perfect Salmon? Simple: We start with the perfect Salmon. We heard about this small mountain stream in Tasmania that is home to the most prized Salmon. We have it caught at dawn and packed on ice, then flown straight away to the waiting hands of Chef Esposito. Maurice then works his magic, and you have before you the most spanking fresh, most mouth-watering Salmon you’ll ever taste.
Our King George Whiting is line-caught in the waters off South Australia. We insist on line-caught, as opposed to being netted where they die slowly and can be banged around, because the fish doesn’t suffer any anxiety and the flesh doesn’t become deteriorated with adrenalin. This way the fish keeps it’s delicate flavour and texture.
We roast our King Prawns on rosemary branches and garnish them in summer with a tomato puree made from tomatoes picked from Maria’s garden. These have been lovingly grown from seeds bought from Naples and smuggled on board the SS Vinciene, when the Esposito family first migrated to Australia.
The Ironic Duck.
Ironically for a fine seafood restaurant, one of Maurice Esposito’s signature dishes is The Duck – an organic bird from the Hinterland in Queensland. A confit leg, and in contrast, the breast roasted, skin rendered of its fat, enveloping a rosy breast – succulent and full of flavour. And not forgetting a majestic rib eye surrounded by its subjects of sweet baby root vegetables, in rich red wine sauce. We like to serve it together with a little copper pot of potato purée, adorned with fresh horseradish.
The Best Bread.
Our bread comes fresh from our old friend Baker D. Chirico: A small artisan baker in St Kilda with a reputation that is gaining momentum worldwide amongst the bread cognoscenti. Daniel Chirico bakes “Artisan Bread”, using live cultures and 100% natural leaven and bio-dynamic flours, which is proved in baskets made from old French mail sacks brought back from Montpellier. Divine!
And the Good Oil.
Like most Italians, Chef Esposito is very particular about his olive oil. His choice is Toscana: An organic olive oil from the Grampians. Established in 1943, The Toscana Olive Plantation is in the foothills of the Grampians in North West Victoria, and is irrigated by natural rainfall, so the oil produced from these olives is very concentrated in flavour. This is indeed “The Good Oil” according to Chef Esposito. because it’s lushly fruity with no harsh acidic or spice overtones, and so it harmonises with his drive for balance in flavour. Take his word for it – you can’t argue with Italian’s about Olive Oil.
More Seductive than Sweet.
We like our desserts to be subtle and intelligent. Not overly sweet, but seductive in their restraint - like our Pear Bomb: A cleverly baked pear holding refreshingly herbal Lemon Verbena custard, with Marsala stained pear puree and pear sorbet.
The Perfect Finish.
What better than Italian coffee to round off your meal? But again, not just any old drop. As Maurice puts it: “Il caffé si prende caldo e corretto”: coffee should be had hot and seasoned (with Grappa).
Which leads us to a close - If you’re lucky or you’re a much-loved patron, then you may get to share a glass of Uve Bianche - Chef Esposito’s “special” grappa with him. His tipple of choice is made from malvasia and chardonnay and is very, very refined - like everything else at Esposito.