A few weeks ago I experienced a wonderful day out on a Gourmet Safari, the French, On Wheels, one.

I’ve enjoyed the list of foodie series on SBS TV with Maeve O’Meara, starting with Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia then Food Safari, then Italian Food Safari, and now French Food Safari (which has just started). Maeve has introduced us to the best of the international cuisines we can experience right here in Australia. And so when I heard about the Gourmet Safaris she organizes, I wanted to go on one of them.

In Sydney Gourmet Safaris has On Wheels Safaris, where you hop on a bus and are driven from place to place scattered over a distance; Walking Safaris, where you’re based in one location and explore on foot; Banquets and Cooking Classes. And then there are more Safaris, around Australia, and overseas to locations such as Greece and Vietnam.

A friend gave me a gift for my birthday an On Wheels Safari which travels on a bus around Sydney looking for some of the best French food places around the city. Here’s the description of the day from their web site:

We start with a coffee and explanation of what makes French pastry so exquisite and meet a master patissier who creates macarons of amazing flavour and beauty; we visit a kitchenware store that has many French gadgets and cookware classics and great cookbooks. We explore some luscious French cheeses, hand-made chocolates and enjoy lunch at a renowned bistro – with a glass of wine of course!

I’m not going to go in detail, or even list all of the places we went, because I hope you get to on the Gourmet Safari yourself, and it’s fun having a bit of a surprise to see where you end up! If this Safari was anything to go by, on the Safaris you get a chance to hear experts of the cuisine talk about their food passions, their food skills. Even if you discovered all of those places yourself, you wouldn’t get to meet the experts, or hear their stories.

Baroque

We hopped on the bus at Central about 8am, heading for breakfast. All we knew was that we were going to a patisserie. As we got closer to The Rocks, we found out we were going to go to Baroque Bistro / Bar / Patisserie. I had been to their patisserie La Renaissance, in Argyle St in the Rocks, but not to Baroque, so was excited to check it out. Coffee and croissants are one of my favourite breakfasts.

We had the place to ourselves the whole time we were there. Baroque were generous with their time, considering they also had to do all of the usual baking and preparations for lunch. The long table set with goodies for breakfast looked a picture, with the morning sunlight streaming in the windows.

Jean-Michel Raynaud (in the photo below, standing, with the microphone), patissier extraordinaire, talked about making the macarons there for both Baroque and La Renaissance. They sell an amazing number of macarons each day.

Jean-Michel was awarded top patissier prize in France in his early twenties, and worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in France. In Australia he has been head chef at Sweet Art and Planet Cake.

The other two people standing in the photo above are Maeve O’Meara at the left, and on the right in the white t-shirt is Christophe Charkos, one of the owners of Baroque, serving us coffee. I don’t know why I don’t have any photos of his brother Olivier, who was there, too. That’s silly.

The table looked gorgeous, with the plates of pastries for us to sample.

We tasted a butter croissant, a pastry with pistachios, a pain au chocolat, and a brioche. All so good.

Then we tasted the macarons (at the top of the post Maeve is serving us). Their current flavours are: chai (the white one with dark specks), chestnut and pear (the one that’s the speckled green and burgundy colours in this shot – looks much better in reality), salty caramel (Fleur de Sel de Guerande) (the caramel-coloured ones at the back of the plate), rosewater, and I think the last one was a lamington version of a macaron. There is also a truffle one at the moment (one of their seasonal macarons).

In the kitchen Jean-Michel described the macaron-making process. Here you can see the beautifully rounded macarons being sprinkled with cocoa before resting.

Mmmmmm… I’m hungry for macarons again seeing these photos again! And then here are some of the other delights Baroque offers:

We didn’t try any of those, so I have to get back there to do that!

Also there were some people there from The Wine & Truffle Co. in Manjimup, WA. They had just harvested the first of their Perigord truffles for the season. This is one of fresh truffles:

We sampled some of the truffle products, including truffle mustard, truffle honey, and truffle honey with hazelnuts. Heavenly. The truffle honey with hazelnuts would make a luscious component on a cheese-platter.

Also for the truffle season, Baroque are offering fresh truffle added to any of their dishes.

To give you a feel for the bistro menu here are some of the dishes they offer:

• Entrees
  • A salad of organic beetroot, breakfast radish, carrot and cumin bavarois
  • Burgundy poached hens egg, speck, beech mushrooms, brioche, Burgundy glaze
  • Grilled scallops, shitake confiture, fried pine nuts, Jerusalem artichoke, butternut pumpkin
  • Charcuterie plate
• Mains
  • Ricotta gnocchi, zucchini, onion bouillon, rose pickle
  • Grilled yellow eye mullet, puy lentils, olive, grilled fennel, bacon vinaigrette
  • Braised cheek of Angus beef, roast parsnip, fried garlic, vanilla parsnip cream
  • Confit leg and grilled breast of duck, ragout of mushrooms, wilted spinach, onion arlettes
• Desserts
  • Valrhona chocolate curd, preserved cherries, pistachio
  • Pink lady apple sorbet, yoghurt mousse granola, mint granité, wood sorrel
  • Chocolate soufflé, malt ice cream, salted peanut caramels

Looks good, heh! Baroque’s on my “must visit” list.

Update (Sep, 2011): Baroque has been selected by the Restaurant and Catering Association as winner of the Best French Restaurant category at the Sydney Metropolitan and Surrounds awards. Congratulations!

The rest of the Gourmet Safari

From Baroque we hopped on the bus, and continued our day exploring inner Sydney, looking for some of the best French food places.

We stopped off at one of the best kitchen supply places in Sydney, a chocolate shop making hand-made exquisite chocolates, a place which sells the most incredible charcuterie items, had lunch in a French bistro (including champagne and wines), and a cheese shop with a superb range of cheeses from around Europe. In each place we taste-tested the food, so we were eating almost all day!

I never cease to be amazed at how multicultural Sydney is, and how you can find authentic food from so many nationalities dotted around the city.

The guide for the Safari was Marie-Helene Clauson, originally from Aix en Provence, a food stylist, someone who loves food and cooking. She gave helpful tips and insights about French food along the way.

Maeve O’Meara was at several of the stops along the way, and was just as delightful and warm and effervescent in person as on her TV programs, making sure we were well looked after, teaching us about the food and techniques along the way.

One of the good thing about going on the bus Safari is that you can buy things as you go, and leave them on the bus on successive stops. Some people on my tour (who obviously knew what they were doing!) brought shopping bags and cooler bags with them, to stock up on supplies.

Another element of the Safari which I enjoyed was meeting the other people on the tour. It was interesting hearing stories about their adventures in travel and food. People had come from as far as Canberra and Tamworth and Newcastle for the day. Quite a few people on the tour had been on multiple Gourmet Safaris, and they keep on going back to the places discovered on the Safari.

This Gourmet Safari was a good day out, discovering new food places, learning more, and meeting some interesting people. Now I’m pondering which Safari to do next.

Details

Gourmet Safaris

Here are the details about Gourmet Safaris at time of posting. Please check their web site for more current details.

Web site	http://www.gourmetsafaris.com.au
Phone	(02) 8969 6555

 

Baroque – Bistro, Bar, Patisserie

Here are the details about Baroque at time of posting. Please check their web site for more current details.

Web site	http://www.baroquebistro.com.au/
Address	88 George Street (corner of Hickson Road) The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone	(02) 9241 4811
Open	Monday – Friday: Midday – Late Lunch* 12 – 3pm Dinner 6 – 10.30pm Patisserie menu 12 – lateSaturday: Midday – Late Lunch* 12 – 3pm Dinner 6 – 10.30pm Patisserie menu 12 – late Sunday: Midday – 4.30pm Lunch* 12 – 3pm Dinner Closed Patisserie menu 12 – 4.30pm *Reduced lunch menu
Menu	Entrees: $16-20, Mains: $26-35, Desserts: $16

Where are some of your favourite French food places (bistros, patisseries, charcuteries, etc.)?