At the risk of offending the sensibilities of some of my readers, I am forced to use a misquote of Usher in order to describe my experience last night at Federal’s latest property, Saffire at Coles Bay – omifuckinggod!
Rita was invited to eat at Saffire’s restaurant, Palate, so bought a small, select group of like-minded food and hospitality fans along to share in the experience of seeing around the property then dining in the restaurant.
We were requested to arrive at 5 pm sharp in order that we might witness the sunset from the restaurant. The view of the Hazards in the setting sun was indeed a sight to behold.
The ethos behind the whole property of top-of-the-range time-out, with absolutely no expense spared, ensures that anyone prepared to fork out the cheapest room price of $1250 per night (exclusive of dinner and dinner beverages) for a Deluxe Suite, or the most expensive rate of $2550 per night (inclusive of dinner and dinner beverages) for a Premium Suite is guaranteed to have THE most fabulous time ever.
(this light, above, was specifically designed to replicate the Hazards)
Generally, you just can't walk in off the street and have a meal there. You need to be staying there in order to experience the luxury of Saffire, hence it was a great honour to have been invited along there this weekend.
I’m sure you are all capable of googling the Saffire
website and checking it out, so I won’t do a sell job on you, but will cut to the chase and speak about the food and service.
I left it to Exec Chef Hugh Whitehouse to select what he fed us, so he had prepared the most wonderful 6 course degustation for the 6 of us to indulge in. Four of the group had matched wines with each course, one was a beer drinker so had matched beers to accompany each course, then there was Rita who unadventurously sat on bitters, lime and lemon all night! It was priced at $135 a head for the food, with an additional $50 if you had matched wines.
The matched wine drinkers had:
2009 Milton Reisling, East Coast, Tas
2008 South Chardonnay, Tamar Valley, Tas
2007 William Fevre Petit Chablis, Chablis, France
2007 George Duboeuf Fleurie, Beaujolais, France
2008 Pizzini Sangiovese, King Valley, SA
2009 Craigow Dessert Gewurtztraminer, Coal River Valley, Tas
They absolutely couldn’t shut up about the magnificent choice of wines, with sommelier Andrew doing something no one had witnessed before – he went round each person’s glasses (one by one) for the next matched wine, placed their glass onto his tray, poured about a tablespoon of the wine they were about to drink into their glass, swizzled it around on his tray, tipped the wine back into another glass, then replaced their glass onto the table. Apparently that prepares the glass for the wine about to be poured into the glass. All present agreed you live and learn!
So:
The food……first course was, for me, head and shoulders above anything ever, in the world, ever! Yellow fin tuna, buck wheat and szechwan pepper encrusted, with sweet ginger and eschalot dressing. I wished I could die after eating that plate of food, as I was sure perfection in food could never again come anywhere near that dish. The separate flavours which assaulted your palate as you slowly ate and assimilated each mouthful was mindblowing.
Congee ‘split rice porridge’ king crab, southern rock lobster, oyster bay calamari. This dish also had samphire in it - the first time I had tasted this ingredient, despite having seen it added to countless dishes on British cooking shows! Interesting.
Hapuka, jerusalem artichoke, lemon thyme butter – my second favourite. The hapuka was wrapped in beautiful jamon iberico. The artichoke was more creamed than mashed so I suspect the Thermomix had a hand in the process, and the lemon thyme butter was perfection itself.
Rare roasted squab (baby pigeon, for the uninitiated), boudin noir (black pudding, also for the uninitiated), muscatel raisins, spiced apple. Out of all the courses this one was my least favourite. Others at the table loved it.
Clover Hill lamb, slow cooked 8 hours, winter vegetables, spatzle dumplings - a simple but tasty dish.
Blood orange crème caramel, citrus fruits, ruby grapefruit granite, marmalade ice cream – I enjoyed this one but was feeling quite stuffed by this stage, so couldn’t really do it justice.
Before the meal, after we had been given the royal tour of the property by fabulous Campbell, we had pre-dinner drinks sitting in the sumptuous lounge area, and were force-fed the most delectable canapés of chicken liver pate-filled mini profiteroles, baba ganoush tartlets and arrancini. Ah to be rich and famous!
The service at Saffire is unbelievable, and trust me, you really do need to go there to understand what I am trying ineffectually to tell you here. Shannon was our main waitperson, and did a fabulous job of anticipating all needs. Andrew the sommelier was a wizard in his wine knowledge and expertise. Hugh himself assisted in the delivery of 4 of the courses (to both our table and all others present), which was exactly what I reckon all chefs in the higher calibre restaurants should do. Naturally we plied him with many technical questions! Brady also contributed to the perfection in customer service from staff there.
Absolutely nothing has been left to chance at that place. Every little want, need and desire of all guests has been anticipated, and seen to, before you have even been aware that you wanted it, or needed it!
I find it noteworthy too, that of all the meals I have eaten this year, the two that stand out head and shoulders above all others, in various ways, are the two I have eaten in two Federal properties – the meal at Country Club a few months back, and this one last night at Saffire. Say what you want about Federal but I reckon when it comes to hiring great chefs and letting them have their wicked ways with as much locally sourced fresh food as possible, and giving them free reign with their menus, and you easily come up trumps!
Anyway – I am aware Christina is dying to read all about this weekend’s experience so I am now going to finish, and retire to bed exhausted after a hectic weekend up the east coast, hopefully to dream about meeting that rich millionaire who will sweep me off my feet and transport me to Saffire to rough it there for a few months in one of the Premium Suites!
Saffire - you have a firm fan for life in Rita! My humble thanks to everyone at Saffire, from General Manager Matt (ex Henry Jones) outwards.
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