It’s a new era for Sydney restaurant Ormeggio, with chef and owner Alessandro Pavoni drawing from the season to craft a relaxed Italian menu that’s as good as a holiday.
Ormeggio was sailing into its 11th year, when chef and owner Alessandro Pavoni decided he wanted to change course. “I’m a more mature person now. I like to eat in a different way. I like to share food and I like a more relaxed style of dining,” he says. The idea was to loosen the sails of his Italian fine diner and relaunch it as a breezy new restaurant and bar. “I wanted it to be a place where you could forget about the frenetic life in Sydney and just spend some time eating and drinking with your friends as though you were on the Riviera.”
When lockdown hit, Pavoni knew this was the moment to make it happen. First thing overboard was the degustation, which has been replaced by a sharing menu that stars in-season frutti di mare. Expect summery seafood plates from yellowfin tuna crudo on brioche crostini to spaghetti chitarra tossed with Fraser
Island scallops and lime. “We’re creating dishes in a more spontaneous way, where we just let ourselves be inspired by the produce,” says Pavoni. For a leisurely lunch on the port, there’s build-your-own piadinas, filled with charcoal-grilled Moreton Bay bugs and sautéed cime di rapa, which are eaten by hand. “It’s a really fun way to eat and that’s what we’re doing – bringing the fun back.” However, the biggest grins are reserved for after dinner. The new dolci menu consists only of gelati, whipped to order and served sundae-style. “And then to finish, you can take a walk around the marina, which is just beautiful.”
Back in the city, Pavoni is channelling his love of classic Italian dining into a’Mare, a new venue set to open in Crown Sydney. “a’Mare will conjure the old-school Italian restaurants,” he says. “The dishes will be simpler and we will focus on service and regional Italy.”
ZUCCHINI FLOWERS
“I love zucchini flowers because they are so delicate and ephemeral. As soon as you buy them, you really need to cook them and eat them that same day, they can go downhill very quickly. You can cook them a few different ways, but I like them best deep-fried. They can be stuffed with just about anything, but I like to fill them with cheese.”
STRAWBERRIES
“Strawberries are known for being sweet, but I really love the acidity they can bring to a dish. The best way to eat them is fresh. I like to cut them in quarters and toss them together with an aged balsamic vinegar and some torn basil leaves.”
MUSSELS
“Mussels have to be one of my favourite ingredients in the world. For me, it’s the flavour of the sea. I always debeard the mussels after cooking them, not before. If you debeard the mussel when the shell is closed, you can damage the mussel. It can also cause little bits of the beard to break off inside. If you do it after, you can just snip them off cleanly with scissors. My favourite way to eat them is sauteed with a Napoli sauce and a small pasta like risoni or fregola that can fit inside the shell.”
BARRAMUNDI
“Barramundi is a very sustainable fish. It’s also foolproof. Because it has a high fat content, it stays moist and it’s hard to make a mistake with it. I like to cook it skin-side down in the pan with a weight on it to give it that really crispy skin. It also works well in a salt crust because it has that perfect shape, a bit like a sea bass, which is what we use in Italy.”
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