Bento boxes, Greek-style crumbed lamb cutlets and fried chicken with waffles: this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival menus combine snacking and style, much of it from Sydney restaurants.
The Melbourne Cup Carnival’s glam Birdcage enclosure tapped some of Sydney’s freshest culinary stars to head to Flemington Racecourse this year, some of whom are embracing AI to develop menu ideas.
Josh Raine, chef and owner of 40Res wine bar in Surry Hills, leads at Landmark by Lexus, bringing his fine-dining credentials as former executive chef at Tetsuya’s to the most sought-after invitation at the track.
Raine admits he experimented with AI for advice, with one suggestion making the cut.
“I put elements together that I thought would work for a dish and asked AI how it would create flavour layering,” says Raine.
The result was sushi rice cooked in wattleseed, a native Australian ingredient with a bittersweet, roasted taste.
“Obviously, I took the AI advice with a grain of salt, but putting wattleseed with rice worked well. I used it in one of the bento box dishes,” says Raine.
His menu heroes Victorian produce through refined Japanese cooking techniques. Kingfish sashimi is marinated in lemon myrtle for 12 hours, then accompanied by compressed apple with anise myrtle, yuzu ponzu and shiso oil. Wagyu dressed with a white charcoal oil to create smokiness comes on a bed of warrigal greens with roasted kombu and saltbush.
To match Landmark’s Japanese listening bar theme, Raine has crafted a bento box that includes white miso and avocado mousse with char-grilled prawns, and smoked zucchini and asparagus.
Also sailing in from Sydney is Olympus Dining co-owner Jonathan Barthelmess, who brings spring-ready Greek cooking to G.H Mumm.
VIPs will be treated to ntomata tart – layers of heirloom tomato within crisp filo pastry. Crumbed lamb cutlets are finished with a G.H. Mumm Champagne beurre noisette sauce, merging Greek tradition with French finesse.
“The menu … is inspired by the idea of a sun-drenched lunch aboard a yacht on the Aegean Sea,” says Barthelmess.
At Crown’s marquee, French chef Guillaume Brahimi returns with crab sandwiches and sausage rolls tricked up with truffle, while Indian Australian chef Mischa Tropp’s Kolkata Cricket Club will serve chicken tandoori to soak up the champagne. Crown’s LA-inspired restaurant Marmont will serve Baja fish tacos. There’s also a ticketed Marmont Bar within the Birdcage this year, dishing out fried chicken, waffles and Yarra Valley caviar.
Victoria Racing Club was asked about the strong Sydney skew to this year’s Birdcage.
“Wherever possible, we prioritise supporting local talent,” says chief commercial officer Fran Vavallo. “However, The Birdcage is a space where our partners and sponsors are encouraged to bring their creative visions to life in ways that best represent their brand.”
The duo behind Melbourne patisserie Le Yeahllow, Samsky Yeung and Steven He, also turned to AI for a new dessert, Cosmos L, served on level three of the Lexus pavilion. The technology helped to perfect the form of the planetary-inspired sweet.
Fun-loving sandwich bar Piccolo Panini (South Yarra, Hawthorn) will also be in the Birdcage for the first time since opening in November 2023, with a hit-list of bite-sized carbs, including its popular cotoletta (crumbed chicken) sandwich.
The Melbourne Cup Carnival runs from November 1 to 8.
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Jane Rocca is a regular contributor to Sunday Life Magazine, Executive Style, The Age EG, columnist and features writer at Domain Review, Domain Living’s Personal Space page. She is a published author of four books.Connect via Twitter or email.
