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L’Enclume review: Does three Michelin stars equal three hats?

The latest high-profile international residency arrives in Sydney, bringing an eight-course tasting menu of tiny tartlets, oscietra caviar and inspired silken custard with charming English references to rosehips and crumpets.

Terry Durack
Terry Durack

L’Enclume’s new home in the ever-handsome Bathers’ Pavilion dining room.
1 / 10L’Enclume’s new home in the ever-handsome Bathers’ Pavilion dining room. James Brickwood
Go-to dish: Seaweed custard, beef broth and bone marrow, Royal Miyagi Pacific oyster and oscietra caviar.
2 / 10Go-to dish: Seaweed custard, beef broth and bone marrow, Royal Miyagi Pacific oyster and oscietra caviar.James Brickwood
Dorper lamb loin with horseradish cream, tiny lamb-fat crumpets and a pot of rich lamb ragu.
3 / 10Dorper lamb loin with horseradish cream, tiny lamb-fat crumpets and a pot of rich lamb ragu.James Brickwood
Leopard rockcod and zucchini, fennel pollen, marron and rosehips.
4 / 10Leopard rockcod and zucchini, fennel pollen, marron and rosehips. James Brickwood
Fritter of Bundarra pig and smoked eel, lovage and fermented sweetcorn.
5 / 10Fritter of Bundarra pig and smoked eel, lovage and fermented sweetcorn. James Brickwood
Dessert of camarosa strawberries, bee pollen, camomile cake, milk ice-cream and cream of sweet herbs.
6 / 10Dessert of camarosa strawberries, bee pollen, camomile cake, milk ice-cream and cream of sweet herbs.Edwina Pickles
The signature “anvil” dessert, a soft miso caramel mousse.
7 / 10The signature “anvil” dessert, a soft miso caramel mousse.James Brickwood
Chef Simon Rogan (second from right) with his team.
8 / 10Chef Simon Rogan (second from right) with his team.Edwina Pickles
Michelin-starred L’Enclume chef Simon Rogan at Bathers’ Pavilion.
9 / 10Michelin-starred L’Enclume chef Simon Rogan at Bathers’ Pavilion.Edwina Pickles
Executive chef Oliver Marlow (left) prepares a L’Enclume dish in the  Bathers Pavilion kitchen.
10 / 10Executive chef Oliver Marlow (left) prepares a L’Enclume dish in the Bathers Pavilion kitchen.Edwina Pickles

Good Food hatGood Food hat17.5/20

British$$$

What’s it to be? Stay home for the much-anticipated second series of The Bear, or go out for the much-anticipated L’Enclume Residency at Bathers’ Pavilion? Both will be riveting expressions of the cut-and-thrust, boiling-point pressure and high stakes of the dining world.

But given that I pre-authorised $840 for L’Enclume back in February, The Bear can wait.

This is Big Deal dining, cooked up by Bathers’ owners, Ian Pagent and Jessica Shirvington, and L’Enclume’s Simon Rogan in 2019. Since then, the restaurant in Cartmel, Cumbria, has gained its third Michelin star, and was named best restaurant in the United Kingdom for the sixth time in its 20 years.

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Go-to dish: Seaweed custard, beef broth and bone marrow, Royal Miyagi Pacific oyster and oscietra caviar.
Go-to dish: Seaweed custard, beef broth and bone marrow, Royal Miyagi Pacific oyster and oscietra caviar.James Brickwood

Potters have been turning bowls, woodworkers carving spoons and gardeners growing rock chives just for this event, and eight chefs and key senior staff are here from Britain. There hasn’t been a chef residency handled this rigorously since Noma Sydney in 2016.

Soon, I’m stepping through a specially commissioned hand-painted veil by Australian artist Janet Laurence and into the ever-handsome Bathers’ Pavilion dining room. L’Enclume is a long way from its 13th-century stone-walled blacksmith’s workshop home, but it is immediately warm, comfortable and welcoming. And just like that, dinner is off and running.

You begin with your fingers, picking up a tiny tartlet that’s sweet and salty with beetroot pastry and trout roe. A Faberge egg of a fritter is stuffed with confit Bundarra pork and smoked eel, covered in what look like (but aren’t) Rice Bubbles, and bejewelled with fermented corn kernels. Later, slender Cutipol cutlery lines up like surgical instruments.

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The kitchen has that proper English way with seasoning, packing in the flavour. A seaweed custard is like silken umami, bearing a Royal Miyagi Pacific oyster and a turban of oscietra caviar. To then add a rich-but-not-too-rich beefy broth with bone marrow over the top is divine inspiration.

The kitchen has that proper English way with seasoning, packing in the flavour.

L’Enclume’s Valentin Mouillard brings energy and a wonderfully waxed moustache to the role of sommelier, never failing to point to how the wine relates to the dish in front of you. It’s something we should insist on from all our somms.

The pairings themselves are inspired. My eight-glass taster pairing ($190) sets off with a crisp Grosset Polish Hill riesling, moves on to an earthy, dry, Tengumai Kimoto Jikomi sake and ends with a chilled, honeyed Ridgeside Icewine Vidal from Canada.

Leopard rockcod (similar to coral trout) is a perfect disc of just-set fish seemingly floating in a foamy bisquey broth.

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Dorper saltbush lamb loin, turnip and fig leaf vinegar, ragout, fermented runner beans and black garlic.
Dorper saltbush lamb loin, turnip and fig leaf vinegar, ragout, fermented runner beans and black garlic. James Brickwood

Dorper lamb loin is a right proper main course, pink from edge to edge under a lovely jus bubbled with tapioca. It comes accessorised with horseradish cream, tiny lamb-fat crumpets and a little pot of rich lamb ragu that’s like warm rillettes.

An earthy dish of Jerusalem artichokes and goat’s cheese feels a bit twiggy, and a bowl set with frozen Tunworth cheese leaves me cold.

There’s charm in the English references to rosehips, tapioca and crumpets, and petits fours that taste of Cumbria’s Kendal Mint cake. Desserts are floral riffs with strawberry leaves, camomile, calendula.

The signature “anvil” dessert, a soft miso caramel mousse.
The signature “anvil” dessert, a soft miso caramel mousse.James Brickwood
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The signature “anvil” dessert (a reference to the smithy), is a soft miso caramel mousse, so don’t try to crack it with a spoon or you’ll end up wearing it.

Guest chef extravaganzas, we’ve had a few, from the “greatest hits” of Gordon Ramsay, to the vegan evangelism of Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, and the poetic botanicals of Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur.

Contextually, this is more exciting than Ramsay, less visionary than Humm, and more cohesive than Colagreco. If a restaurant experience can ever be worth $420, this comes close.

The bits of L’Enclume I would like to snip off and keep in Australia are the confidence with seasoning, and the attention paid to wine pairing. And the staff. They’re young, lively, funny and quick to engage, working together like minnows in a pond. Despite 15-hour days and being half a world away from home, they look like they are having fun, which has a wonderful capacity to transmit itself to the diner.

The low-down

L’Enclume Residency at Bathers’ Pavilion

Open: Lunch Tue-Sun; dinner Tue-Sat until Aug 20

Vibe: Three Michy stars on holidays by the sea

Go-to dish: Seaweed custard, beef broth and bone marrow, Royal Miyagi oyster, oscietra caviar

Drinks: The tailored wine flights are inspired ($190 a head, $290 a head and $750 a head), running from Australian greats to the rare and special

Cost: Eight-course tasting menu, $420 a head, plus wine

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Terry DurackTerry Durack is the chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food.

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