Grand Richmond 130 Year Celebration for Zomato Meet Up
Iconic Grand Richmond is celebrating it's 130 year anniversary, and we were privileged to attend a superb night of festivities with bloggers and Zomato. Check out our Best Italian Restaurants in Melbourne.
Barnie and Tiur and the team from Grand Richmond went to tremendous lengths to bring us a fun evening and the best of hospitality and Italian food. Veuve Clicquot on arrival and top notch canapes (Cured Ocean Trout and Poached veal tongue and Bruschetta) gave us the perfect start to the evening.
We were then ushered into a function room with long table and elaborate table decorations and ingredients. To our surprise we were told the chef had "messed up the main course" and we were required to cook. Of course it was all a fun way of getting us to cook; Cone Bay Barramundi cooked in Terracotta. This was one of the best interactive cooking exercises we've ever done! We were supplied the fish by head chef Federico, and then shown how to wrap the fish after garnish had been applied.
Our terracotta effort below...
We were given a Grand Richmond apron and rolling pin to use and keep...
Then we were invited into the Como Room for our elaborate dinner. Bloggers had cameras at the ready for this amazing set up for the 130 year celebrations.
Pepper crusted venison carpaccio was a sumptuous dish, as well as art on a plate.
Emmy from Zomato welcomed us from Zomato in gracious style. This was also a Zomato meet up with Zomato keen to build relationships with bloggers.
Grand Richmond went "all out" with their celebrations, including stunning flower arrangements by The Three Piece Suit.
Agro dolce quail with porcini mushroom puree, brussel sprouts, quail egg and black truffles was a wonderful rustic dish.
Broad Bean, pecorino, and mint risotto was creamy with a compelling flavour combination of broad bean and pecorino.
A sense of theatre ensued with Mortadella cappellitti in brodo. The pouring of the broth...
It was then time to enjoy the main course, which we had prepared ourselves earlier, the Cone Bay Barramundi! Talk about rustic, the flavours were smoky and bold. My dish was complemented with potato, spring onion, chilli, olives and cherry tomatoes.
By now we were satiated with top class hospitality and food. Dessert was Lemon delizia, a play on textures.
The celebrations continued with stunning birthday cake from Bake and Co, competitions, along with speeches. Barnie gave us some of the fascinating history of Richmond and the Burnley St precinct. This was an exceptional night to remember.