Exciting News - I'll Be Working At Steer Bar and Grill

641 Chapel Street
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Ph: 9040 1188
Website: Steer Bar and Grill

So my exciting news is that I'll be working at Steer Bar and Grill...for two weeks anyway. No, I'm not changing profession, instead I've been given an opportunity to see the other side of restaurants and experience all the joys and problems first hand.

Let me start from the start. A little while back, I was invited to the Steer Bar and Grill launch. After hearing about the concept of a Brazilian restaurant, I was excited when I was invited back again for a full degustation meal, and also a big surprise. The surprise was that of the bloggers invited, a few of us would get to do a couple of weeks "boot camp" at Steer, learning all aspects of how a restaurant operates. We would work the kitchen, front of house, bar and learn about wines and how to match them to food.

Lucky for me, my submission to be involved was chosen, and along with Penny and Mish, we will be working shifts at Steer Bar and Grill and learning the ropes of the restaurant industry. Of course, we will be documenting every step of our journey for you to read about. So I hope you will follow us on our very exciting venture into the "dark side" of dining and help bust some myths about the restaurant industry. We will be guided by some industry heavyweights, with Raul Moreno Yague, former sommelier for Marco Pierre White and Shannon Bennett guiding us about wines, and Paul Wilson of Albert Park Hotel, Middle Park Hotel, Newmarket Hotel, The Undertaker and Archies on the Creek Gippsland guiding us on the food. You may remember about my chef crush on Paul that I wrote about here, here, here and here, so you can be in no doubt that I'm extremely excited to get to work with him.

I will be blogging, but for more up to date news, please also join me on
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr

Mish is already working there now so photos are up for you to look at. I also hope to be making videos and uploading them to Youtube and also doing live webcam streams, so keep your ears open for those updates.

I hope you can be involved in this event by asking questions, giving feedback and encouragement. I'm looking forward to doing my stint starting next week so please start providing your questions and suggestions.

To give you a feel for the restaurant, below are some photos of the meal that we were invited to about a month ago.



Deconstructed Brazilian dish of soft shell crab legs, prawns and cashew shrimp paste had a unique combination of flavours I hadn't tried before.
Below left, right: Amuse bouche of wagyu short ribs and eel; Octopus and squid ink gnocchi were both very good.



The most amazing wild mushroom dish I've ever tasted. The flavours of the mushroom were so intense and fragrant.


Beautiful churrasco, different cuts of beef all extremely tender and flavoursome.
Below left, right: Roast duck breast with brazil nuts; acai sorbet. Both were again unique flavours I hadn't tried before.



My favourite dish of the night, surprise, surprise, it was a dessert. The most sublime caramel fondant, with a moreish pistachio cake and goiabada, which is quince paste I believe.



Just to conclude, I hope that from this boot camp, both you and I will both be able to get a better understanding of how a restaurant works, meaning that we may be more tolerant of dining issues in future, but also expect a level of quality and not take excuses from restaurants when it's clearly their responsibility to deliver a level of quality.