Park Hyatt Chardonnay Dinner and bringing your manners to the table

It’s a nice feeling to be invited to events as a blogger. We don’t pretend to be all knowing food critics and eagerly look forward to expanding our knowledge of chardonnays and enjoying a degustation dinner thanks to the lovely Tasmanian winemaker Anna Pooley and Raje at the Park Hyatt Sydney.

Upon entering the room we are greeted with flutes of Seppelt Salinger Pinot Noir Chardonnay 2006 and a beautifully decorated table fills the Ocean Harbour room.


The view from our private room is amazing. Unfortunately there were people in attendance touted as “an expert in all things stylish and trendy” whose manners were so appalling it filled me with complete rage as they muttered condescendingly to their fellow highly coiffed dinner companion about how print media is more reliable than blogs. If you want to bitch about our incompetence and inexperience maybe do it when we’re not sitting directly in front of you!

Oh and tweeting “All those DSLR‘S don’t exactly make for polite dinner conversation”? we were invited to this dinner with the intention of taking photos of the food and the wines, we didn’t use flash and we didn’t move around in our seats or disturb the whole restaurant. We were well dressed, well mannered and interested in learning about chardonnay but the taint of your rudeness hidden poorly behind your plastic smiles and your sideways glances was more than enough to sour the experience and make us want to hide behind our cameras. We were definitely not going to make an effort to speak with you after learning your true thoughts about us.

The Ninja is much more eloquent than I, with a writing talent that belies his age: “we are people too, who recognise that not everyone will share the same opinion, that not everyone will like what another person does – no matter how allegedly well-cultured or authoritative they may be. Our taste-buds are just like yours or any others’: fickle, tempestuous and utterly unique.


Argh! Seriously is there not enough room for the both of us, print media? Anywhos. Enough with the rage for now. Oh look here’s some bread!


Local cow’s milk burrata with vine ripened tomato and Lakelands olive oil. The cheese of my dreams! Have you ever seen a photo of something and known instantly that you will love it? i first saw the wonder that is burrata here and ever since then the pouch of cheesey goodness has eluded me. Until now. The burrata appeared in all its glory- a glistening mozzarella bauble filled with a river of glorious creamy mozzarella. Oh gawd.

The lovely Anna was soft spoken but very passionate when describing what was involved when making the chardonnays. She explained that she had picked the wines for the evening and the Executive Chef, Andrew McKeehad had created a menu around them.


Lightly grilled tuna with green beans, olives and crisp potato served with a Rosemount Diamond Label Unoaked Chardonnay 2009. Whilst beautifully plated unfortch the tuna wasn’t sashimi grade and the crispy potato threads was at odds with the slightly grainy fish. Its saving grace was the perfectly cooked quartered quails egg which was saved till the end. This chardonnay was my favourite of the night- light, fruity and very smooth


Toasted fregola cooked as a risotto with Australian scallops and puffed pork
served with a Rosemount Show Reserve Robe ‘Cool Climate’ Chardonnay 2009. The frogola pasta grains fall a tad short for me, personally because i love risotto with a bit of a bite to the grains. The scallop slices were perfect but the ‘puffed pork’ was more like pork floss? i had hoped for pork crackle bits hehe


Mmm wine


Barramundi fillet with poached leeks, celery and smoked oyster emulsion
served with Heemskerk Coal River Valley Chardonnay 2008. The barra is fall apart tender with an earth shattering layer of crisp skin


Slow roasted lamb saddle with lemon potato and spring vegetables. The portion size of the rosy pink slabs of lamb is enough to push me over the edge and i end up sharing my lamb so i can fit in dessert


Vanilla creme brulee with rosemary sorbet. i loved the presentation of the unmoulded creme brulee but was saddened to find no crisp blow-torched sugary layer to dig into. Also i would have preferred that quenelle of rosemary sorbet to be on the side, or, as a trio of sorbets as there was just a bit too many flavours happening with the macerated strawberries fighting for attention.


Shards of an almost gingerbread-like wafer style biscuits are studded with dark chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and demolished immediately. The night draws to a close and the food bloggers rise as one, immediately gravitating to each other. We are family. And we will rage together.

Chocolatesuze attended the chardonnay dinner as a guest of the Park Hyatt Sydney and Hausmann Communications