Aussie Guest Chef Turns Aubergine Visit Into Festive Evening

I’ve attended so many guest-chef dinners over the years that didn’t pan out that I’m wary of most such events. It’s never easy cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen with unfamiliar ingredients. I vividly remember when L’Orangerie invited Michelin three-star Paris chef Pierre Gagnaire to cook for a week. Even though he brought his kitchen crew, the food presented was so stepped down in ambition, I hardly recognized it as his.

A recent dinner at Aubergine in Newport Beach changed my mind about such chef dinners. Dan Philips, the inventive mind behind the Grateful Palate, an importer of Australian wines and artisan food products (with mail-order catalog and Web site) based in Oxnard, had invited his favorite Australian restaurant to cook with his favorite Southern California restaurant.

It was an inspired match: Like Tim and Liza Goodell of Aubergine in Newport Beach, Sandor Palmai and his wife Amanda from the 16-seat Barossa Valley Landhaus Restaurant are both trained as chefs, though Liza and Amanda now run the front of their respective houses. “Sandor has melted our kitchen,” said Amanda Palmai in a mock-wail, “he spends so much time--16 hours a day--there.”

Although they met only a couple of days beforehand, Goodell and Palmai cooked alongside each other as if they’d been doing it for years. And the food they turned out was extraordinary. Palmai had considered the wines (from Torbreck and Three Rivers estates in Australia) in writing the menu, which is something that doesn’t happen as often as it should.

Rockford’s sparkling Shiraz was a real surprise for an aperitif, a sophisticated ruby beauty with a dry finish and tiny bubbles. A sumptuous leek tart with a melted coverlet of Taleggio and a hint of white truffles and brown butter was a brilliant match with Torbreck’s White 2000, a voluptuous Rhone-style white. Winemaker Dave Powell of Torbreck poured three of his well-crafted reds--the 1999 Woodcutters, 2000 Juveniles and the 1999 Steading--with Palmai’s terrific boudin noir (blood sausage) and Maine diver scallops garnished with a swath of gorgeous Shiraz lees. And the 1996 Three Rivers red stood out with sauteed foie gras, a delicious little roasted apple and a hazelnut and prune “gastrique.”

We arrived just before 8 and went home long past midnight. I’d never seen Aubergine so festive--it was a particularly convivial group, all lovers of boutique Australian wines. This was one guest chef and winemaker dinner that came off better than anyone could have anticipated. And I’m sure everyone there made a vow to get to the Barossa Valley soon to visit the wineries involved and have the chance to try more of Palmai’s cooking at Landhaus Restaurant.

*Aubergine, 508 29th St., Newport Beach; (949) 723-4150.

* Landhaus Restaurant, Bethany Road, Bethany, South Australia; telephone: 011-618-8563-2191.

* The Grateful Palate, (888) 472-5283; https://www.gratefulpalate.com.