You might not be able to afford a Picasso original but there’s always the chance to master the art of lunch high above the city at Sofitel Melbourne On Collins.

Chef Rony Parienty, of signature dining experience No35 Restaurant, located on the 35th floor, has devised a lunch menu that’s a highbrow celebration of Pablo Picasso’s inspirations and his Spanish heritage in a partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). It’s timed to run alongside Melbourne Winter Masterpieces: The Picasso Century, which runs until October 9.

“We’re thrilled to be relaunching our lunch menu following a two-year hiatus as a result of the impacts of the pandemic,” says Clive Scott, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins general manager.

Diners quite literally step through the early periods of Picasso’s career from the Blue Period where Parienty uses blue cheese and blueberries with leek, prosciutto, salsa verde and brioche, to the Rose Period where the chef draws mainly on colour inspiration for a decadent steak tartare with precise plating to match. Red, orange, pink and earth tones are carried through the dish with the use of the beef, while the orange tones in the egg yolk and the feted artist’s heritage meet in a Spanish staple: an elevated patatas bravas.

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And it wouldn’t be fine dining without at least some form of deconstruction, would it? The chef uses Picasso’s Cubist Period as inspiration, where objects were “analysed, broken up and resembled in an abstracted form”. Parienty interprets this in his presentation of a barramundi, chorizo, cauliflower and octopus dish, “brandade de bacalao”. Diners will no doubt be snapping dishes for the ‘gram. It leaves us wondering, would Pablo approve?

While the artist spent much of his adult life in France, Parienty further pays tribute to Picasso’s formative years in Spain with his take on a traditional Spanish estofado, a hearty stew of slow cooked beef, mushroom, potato, parsley emulsion and cornbread. On a sweeter note, Basque cheesecake with dulce de leche will be hard to ignore. So too, the Anna Pavlova with fresh berries, mascarpone and coulis, inspired by Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova.

Melbourne Winter Masterpieces: The Picasso Century, has been exclusively developed for the NGV by the world-renowned Centre Pompidou and the Musée National Picasso-Paris, which holds and conserves over 5000 works, and tens of thousands of archived pieces.

The exhibition charts the career of Picasso in dialogue with the many artists, poets and intellectuals he interacted with throughout the 20th century, including Salvador Dalí and Henri Matisse. Over 80 works by Picasso feature in the exhibition, alongside more than 100 works by more than 50 contemporaries, drawn from the French national collections and the NGV Collection.

The No35 x Picasso Lunch is available on Thursday and Friday between 12.30pm and 2.30pm with a choice of two-courses for $55 or three-courses for $65, with Champagne Pommery available by the glass for $22 or by the bottle for $145.

No35 x Picasso Lunch
25 Collins St, Melbourne
Thu–Fri 12.30pm–2.30pm
2 courses for $55, 3 courses for $65
no35.com.au/

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