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Enoteca
262 Carrington Street
Adelaide SA 5000
W www.enotecacucina.com.au
E enoteca@italiancentre.com.au
T +61 8 8227 0766
F +61 8 8223 1140
OPEN Lunch Wednesday to Friday 12 noon till 3.00 pm, dinner
Wednesday to Saturday 6.00 pm till late
in the gg Adelaide top 20
if you love the bread at Enoteca and would like the recipe please click here
FOOD Brent Kemble–Beech stepped into the much older and more experienced shoes of chef Sarah Turner, there were many, including myself, who doubted that a chef who was just 22 years of age could fill her shoes. After about three weeks in the position he invited me by email to come and criticise his food, give him some honest feedback with the full understanding that there would be no review until he had been there three months. This is not as uncommon request as many might think, but it is a request that rarely receives a positive response. Over the years one learns that honesty, even though asked for is not really what most chefs want to hear. Riding that fine line between being a still practicing chef and restaurant reviewer is a tight rope that often makes me feel sick with fear. Fear that I have the right to criticise, fear that I am not a better chef than those I criticize. Yet I know that it was, and still is, that frank criticism of my own cooking, frequently unwelcome and unsolicited consumer feedback that shaped and refined my own cooking.
There is something about Kemble–Beech that made me think he “really” wanted feedback. In another setting, photographed outside of a restaurant environment he could be mistaken for a young Amish, with his beard, clear skin and bright fresh eyes. He looks too clean, too controlled too wholesome to be a chef, especially a young talented chef. One has come to expect disproportionate egos and generally weird behaviour (like master chefs for instance, too daft to understand they haven’t even started their apprenticeships yet) but Kemble–Beech displays none of this.
Kitchen staff and front of house equally adore him and share a pride in his culinary skills, amazement at his youth.
Kemble–Beech’s admiration for former chef Timothy Montgommery is an appreciation we share. Montgommery’s move to Europe and most recently to the Hunter Valley was a belly blow to the meager Adelaide fine dining scene.
So, I went along to eat a succession of dishes put up by Kemble–Beech and returned next day to frankly give feedback and received an email a few days later saying that every comment had been addressed. Scary!
Returning last week for lunch I was a lone diner and quickly spotted. It makes me angry that a restaurant serving such beautiful food is so poorly supported especially knowing that just five minutes away on Hutt Street there will be any number of mediocre restaurants packed to the gills. To be fair the restaurant totally lacks ambience, and was aptly described by a friend quick and clever with words as, ““like having dinner in a coffin” a notion that has lingering amusement. To dull the noise ricocheted by hard surfaces, the room has been swathed in diaphanous white curtaining and is indeed like the carefully ruffled inside of an expensive coffin. But, hell, you can’t eat the décor, and anyway Adelaide just doesn’t have original decors.
Transitional menus especially from winter to spring have an awkwardness about them. Too light for a cold day, not light enough for a hot day and then it is really the end of September before the best of spring produce is readily available and at its best. Two beautiful warm, thick slices of crusty Italian bread, a gorgeous Coriole extra virgin and olives arrive. None of those terrible, often cold stale rolls found in abundance at some of Adelaide’s better restaurants. Even my mother knows a roll can be freshened by a dunking in water and a few minutes in a hot oven. The bread and oil were gorgeous and salt and pepper arrived promptly when requested.
I enjoy the evolution of a signature dish and opted to order Quaglia scottata nel burro, butter poached quail, cauliflower puree, crispy pancetta, hazelnut vinaigrette $26 one of the dishes tried some three months previous. It was exquisite! Better yet it came on a hot plate and all of the components were hot. Gorgeous creamy clinging cauliflower sauce, complimented with tiny butter poached cauliflowerettes, crisp pancetta with the right amount of meat and fat, tender set quail breast that whilst served rare was perfectly set without any running blood. The hazelnut vinaigrette was flawlessly balanced with a wonderful crunch of coarsely crushed roasted peeled hazelnuts. A complex dish, but beautifully restrained, all temptation to go overboard resisted but an intriguing variety of textures from crunchy to crispy and salty to soft and tender.
Gnocchi con sugo, confit beef brisket, Swiss mushroom ragu $20 entrée size was rich and voluptuous and would be a struggle as a main course for a dainty eater. It was an excellent dish, simple and rustic with in your face flavours but a vast contrast to the sublime quail. My own fault completely it was a poor choice to follow such delicate perfection.
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from left sous chef Jodie Zerna and right apprentice Hugh Duckworth
Desserts range from a selection of house–made gelatos $9, Affogato of vanilla ice cream, espresso and choice of liqueur, Cannolo con crème di limone, Tortina calda di triplo cioccolato and Budino di riso nero all $16 and cheese $25 for a selection of three Italian cheeses and condiments. A rice pudding hater the idea of a pudding made with black arborio, a relatively new ingredient to South Australia, the dish was irresistible. Not at all milky the rice was coated in a sweet fragrant purple black glutinous sauce, just like a conventional risotto only sweet and black, topped with crumble balls that were short and crisp and sweet and gave a wonderful contrast to the porridge like texture of the rice. Add to that half a naked orange, neatly sliced providing sweet acidity and a perfect foil for the richness of the other ingredients. It was surprising and wonderful.
Floor staff are young and in the main inexperienced and the room and facilities are not amazing, but then it is time we admitted Adelaide doesn’t have any of the flash glitzy decors of the eastern states but then, they don’t have a Brent Kemble–Beech and I know which I’d rather have!
A small and constantly evolving menu Enotecca does not have to be the big night out, but if it is, we suggest letting Kemble–Beech have his way with you, go their degustation a miniscule $100 for six courses, $145 with matched wines and keep this talented young chef enthused and inspired with your support.
WINE wine list has been trimmed but remains seductive but the by–the–glass selection needs some serious work to align with the pleasures of the food.
RESTAURANT MANAGER — Paula Kudler
CHEF — Brent Kemble–Beech
Executive Chef Italian Club and Enoteca — Peter Kudler
OWNERS — Steve Blanco, Paula and Peter Kudler |
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