It's not just any menu, of course. It's a menu from Alio in Surry Hills from about 10 years ago, signed to me by the Naked Chef himself, Jamie Oliver (well, he was known as the Naked Chef back then anyway).
I was going to use it to illustrate a nostalgic post about my memories of Alio, wittily tied into my recent gastronomic adventure at Alio's Greatest Hits Dinner celebrating 10 years in business. I was going to tell you about the first time I babysat my barely-weeks-old niece Hope while my sister and brother-in-law went to a special dinner at Alio, cooked by Jamie (the first time they'd been out since Hope was born), and how upon after chatting with them Jamie signed a copy of the menu for me, writing something along the lines of: "To Ylla, Thanks for looking after the baby. Pukka! Love Jamie".
All of which I suppose I have just told you about but without the visual proof it's a bit of a lame story...
Oh well, I'll just have to share the text from the menu for Alio's Greatest Hits Dinner (available until the end of June), the idea being this is a degustation menu made up of one dish from each year the restaurant's been open.
2000 Alio hand made focaccia and grissini with 36 month old Reggiano Parmesan and warm marinated olives
From Day one we have made our own bread and grissini.
2001 Stracciatella - Roman chicken broth with cheese ravioli
Prior to your meal a signature soup arrives at the table a little amuse bouche so to speak this equates to 20,000 litres of complimentary soup since we started this custom in early 2000.
2002 Bresaola - air dried beef fillet with truffled baby green peaches and parmesan
Truffled baby green peaches started coming into Australia in 2009 and have featured on our menu as an accompaniment to anti pasta ever since.
2004 Char grilled eggplant baked with buffalo mozzarella and dressed with 25year old balsamic vinegar
Mozzarella has been a regular feature on our menu, this dish was first introduced in the winter months of 2004. I had to explain in the early years exactly what buffalo mozzarella was. A guest one posed a question to me one night in the restaurant. Are the buffalo's wild? Ever since I have had an image of a milk maid chasing wild buffalos with a bucket up a field for milking!
2003 Hawkesbury river calamari with fresh chilli and lemon
Straight from our time at the River Café. A simple yet very popular dish in its time on our menu.
2005 Red wine pancetta and raddicchio risotto
Risotto are made to order and yes they really do take 20 minutes. Our risottos are not fast food. Our risotto takes time care and love. It's hard to find a restaurant that is truly willing to do this.
2006 Barramundi baked in a bag with black mussels, thyme and vermouth on cavalo nero
Ashley often uses a white fish like Barramundi and snapper baked in a bag. This is possibly the one dish which recipe we have constantly been asked for.
2009 Lightly beaten char grilled fillet of black angus beef with fresh baby peas and potato al forno
In 2009 we started sourcing black angus from a Port Macquarie farm. It's a great combination.
2007 Blood orange sorbet
2008 Panna cotta with fruit salad and mint
Our panna cotta has always been a very simple dessert very similar to the way in which the River Café served it. As time went on it became, like a lot of Ashley's food uniquely his own with definite roots from his training in London and Italy.
For the record my favourite was 2002 - the acidic tang of the truffled peaches contrasted beautifully with the almost sweet bresaola, lingering on the palate afterwards. It was definitely a very good year.
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