Neil Perry you just can't help yourself [Food review on QF Dom J]

[simongr]

Well last night I had my first experience of the new NP inspired DOM J menus. And I can say I am not surprised at the outcome and as ever I am disappointed with NP designed dishes.

Just to go back a few steps - I have repeatedly complained about QF food in J/F Int'l because of NP menus. My main beef has been that often I have been unable to avoid a dish that has some Asian inspired influences.

Don't get me wrong I like some Asian foods - I just want to have the choice.

So last night I upgraded to J dom MEL-SYD and sat and waited for my meal - I opted for the Steak with mushroom sauce. No reason to be nervous at this point - out comes the nice looking steak and the nice rich mushroom sauce - oh wait what sort of mushrooms are those - surely putting enoki, shitake and oyster mushrooms on a steak sauce would be totally pointless? Well Mr Perry well done - yet another unnecessary Asian inspired dish - phew bet you are relieved that you didnt just deliver a nice tasting Australian dish...

Makes me wonder what the new int'l J menu will be like

 

[ejb]

Simon,

Try PER-SYD yesterday afternoon, the new entree service in J, Cream of Asparagus Soup! YUCK!

Then the mains were no better so I stuck with Wild Turkey and nuts until the cheese service.

I hope it gets better.

ejb

 

[Homer]

“phew bet”

Very droll.

 

[gumpy]

To the OP

It's a good thing QF aren't using the head chef from Universal =)

I personally don't mind NP's food. It's consistently decent in J

 

[anat0l]

The idea of mixing different kinds of mushrooms with steak actually sounds appealing. At least to me.

Sure I like your run of the mill mushrooms ("English" ones, if you will) too.

It was picked up in an article some time ago that NP is obsessed with Asian flavours. So I think you can't get away from that. If you want to, fly someone else, or BYO.

Even though I am Asian and I want a bit of variety beyond that, I find that most of the premium dishes served out by QF are a good balance of Asian and Western ideas. "All out Asian" food is usually horribly cooked by non-Asian descent Australians (or Westerners for that matter), but on the other hand plenty of purely Australian food is just plain boring.

Then again, we all have different tastes. One person's tolerable is another person's "send the plate back and stuff it down the chef's throat until he chokes and dies a horrid death..."

 

[gumpy]

The idea of mixing different kinds of mushrooms with steak actually sounds appealing. At least to me.

Sure I like your run of the mill mushrooms ("English" ones, if you will) too.

It was picked up in an article some time ago that NP is obsessed with Asian flavours. So I think you can't get away from that. If you want to, fly someone else, or BYO.

Even though I am Asian and I want a bit of variety beyond that, I find that most of the premium dishes served out by QF are a good balance of Asian and Western ideas. "All out Asian" food is usually horribly cooked by non-Asian descent Australians (or Westerners for that matter), but on the other hand plenty of purely Australian food is just plain boring.

Then again, we all have different tastes. One person's tolerable is another person's "send the plate back and stuff it down the chef's throat until he chokes and dies a horrid death..."

I completely agree with this Anat0l

 

[anat0l]

I forgot to mention that just as much as food (style, taste) can divide people (as much as art and so on), when you start to mix ideas (fusion) then the polarity of such division increases immensely.

And such as we have here.

 

[simongr]

I totally agree - many people rave about NP - I personally do not like his food and was very disappointed when I went to Rockpool.

 

[drron]

The idea of mixing different kinds of mushrooms with steak actually sounds appealing. At least to me.

Sure I like your run of the mill mushrooms ("English" ones, if you will) too.

It was picked up in an article some time ago that NP is obsessed with Asian flavours. So I think you can't get away from that. If you want to, fly someone else, or BYO.

Even though I am Asian and I want a bit of variety beyond that, I find that most of the premium dishes served out by QF are a good balance of Asian and Western ideas. "All out Asian" food is usually horribly cooked by non-Asian descent Australians (or Westerners for that matter), but on the other hand plenty of purely Australian food is just plain boring.

Then again, we all have different tastes. One person's tolerable is another person's "send the plate back and stuff it down the chef's throat until he chokes and dies a horrid death..."

Not sure I agree.Have had some very ordinary asian stuff cooked by Asians-particularly chinese trying to cook Thai dishes.Then we have people such as David Thompson who doesn't do a bad impression of Thai cooking.And my Thai curries are OK too!

 

[Flying Fox]

I agree with the OP.

I like Western food, Asian food and just about any food. I don't mind a bit of fusion but I think that NP simply tries too hard to jam it in most of his cooking.

I would have thought that a western dish like steak with mushroom sauce could be left alone and then offer a fision dish of something.

I have been to Rockpool and enjoyed the steak that I had there. It was a while ago but from memory it was non-fusion.

 

[samh004]

While I don’t mind Asian dishes, I’d agree that if you’re going to tout Qantas as an Australian airline with an Australian chef, you should be getting a fair amount of uniquely Australian dishes, not fusion or Asian-inspired, as is his strength, which is why he’s not a great fit for Qantas. Though I’m not saying you should only have Australian food, variety is the spice of life, but it does seem the majority isn’t.

 

[zzyss]

Neil Perry's a sellout that's trying to make it in the world doing "side jobs" because the restaurant business is poor. Hence the Qantas gig and the atrocious Iron Chef Australia...

 

[bossreggie]

I am not the biggest fan of QANTAS food in J or F really.... However this has not necessarily become worse under NP.

I have eaten better and worse food on other airlines. I'd be really satisfied with a FRESH tasty sandwich during a morning or afternoon flight. 99% of the time I'll just have a salad during an evening flight and they are usually OK.

I think NP gets a bit of a hard time on this forum. No SINGLE chef will EVER please everyone. We are a pretty diverse country and I'd be thinking that for MOST.... An Asian fusion type of meal would have some appeal.

I have eaten at NP's restaurants many times and I have not had a bad meal. Nor though, have I had the best meal of my life.

Personally I think he makes a good ambassador for QANTAS but probably more so in Y.

I'd REALLY love to see Tetsuya Wakuda or Peter Gilmour head the team looking after the catering in the premium cabins. Especially long-haul.

 

[milehighclub]

I think NP is more a marketing gimmick than anything.

I've eaten at all of his restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed every meal.

Now obviously there is a difference when it comes to preparing dishes on an aircraft with no more than an oven so I don't quite expect them to be the same, and some of the meals onboard are very good. But there are some dishes that if I was NP I would be absolutely appalled to have my name along side some of the dishes onboard, which makes me believe he has no idea what his name is being put too.

 

[TonyHancock]

I think NP is more a marketing gimmick than anything.

Indeed. I think it is just a bad one.

I'd love to see some "traditional" Australian food on the menu. Nothing pretentious or fancy. How about some Doyles Fish & Chips or a Chicken Parma?

 

[pauly7]

Indeed. I think it is just a bad one.

I'd love to see some "traditional" Australian food on the menu. Nothing pretentious or fancy. How about some Doyles Fish & Chips or a Chicken Parma?

Sorry 'dislike'. Heart attack for dessert on your menu?!

 

[JohnK]

Do we really need to have "designer food" in the air? How about some plain food that tastes good and I could not care less who designed it or where they found the inspiration.

I know this was about business class food but to me domestic just gets worse with every flight. Some sort of tasteless stir fried beef last night with potatoes and beans. Boiled potatoes and beans were bland but were much tastier than the tasteless beef.

 

[oz_mark]

How about some plain food that tastes good

Are you saying that NP's Plane food doesn't taste good? :mrgreen:

 

[Fantic125]

Given that the flight time for most AU domestic flights is less than 4 hours I say get rid of all the food for domestic flights.

Problem solved.

 

[MatF]

Wasn't in the air, but I had my second go at the pizza/etc on the new menu int he SYD T2 QP tonight.

Pizza was pretty tasty, but still inconsistantly cooked - some soggy, some burnt to a crisp - but I did enjoy it.

Best thing about the change IMO is the real ham in the cold cuts section instead of the old processed stuff.