Some say love is the true international language, but few things can communicate across all boundaries nor leave such an indelible mark like food.

It can infer ideologies; represent the past, the future, the now and it can even tell one’s tale. Food can be much more than the sum of the flavours on a plate or the technique that supports them.

We may not have the rich culinary history of the likes of France, Italy or say China, but our restaurant industry is built on the wonderful tapestry woven by those that dared to enhance it. Often their impact is ongoing and interchanging.

Take Regatta for instance. The relatively new restaurant on the water is in the same site that once housed former award-winning restaurant – Pier.

Back then it was owned by chef Greg Doyle and produced pan-handlers such as fish king Steve Hodges and Grant King (now owner of culinary playground Gastropark).

While Doyle and Co. were showcasing the denizen of the deep blue at the extreme pointy end of the dining pyramid, a chef and restaurateur named Damien Pignolet was giving Sydney a serious crash course in French dining. First at Claude’s, then at The Woollahra Hotel’s Bistro Moncur.

Now Pignolet has washed up on the shores of Rose Bay, and his impact is obvious.

Windows wrap all the way around this slender wharf dining room awash with aquatic blues and greys. Even the ceiling with its felt fish scales acknowledges the swirling seas that surround it. If it weren’t for the fact one is stationary, you’d swear you were headed for a day on the water.

It’s far more casual than both Pignolet’s past endeavours, and of course, that of the space too – albeit for the brief tenancy of Sailor’s Club that followed Pier.

It may be less tweed jacket and more top button open, but the service staff are clearly well-trained in silver service – they strike a nice balance between affable and militant ministration.

Pignolet’s menu is European at heart – even with a pasta section, though it leans heavily on French technique and flavours – a trend we will see a lot of during 2016.

There’s a sense of old world classic, that some may consider old fashioned, but for the most part dishes are exceptionally executed and reliant on simple, tried and true flavour combinations. Plus there’s a few Pignolet classic to-boot.

Figs are quartered and bring a soft fresh jam riff to perfectly pungent sheets of wagyu bresaola. The twang of verjuice tempering the gorgonzola nose of the cured beef. Meanwhile Salmon roe adds ocean pop to sugar-cured ocean trout that grabs at pickled cucumber to find its feet.

Then roast NZ King Salmon, that our waiter wrongly assured was caught wild in Port Lincoln, is gorgeously pink on its outer flesh and opaque orange at its core. It’s a riff on his original Atlantic salmon dish – as part of a four course menu – from the days of Claude’s, though it was much lighter then. Here it’s atop a potato galette and bold anchovy butter that I’d really love more of – it’s stunning.

Having crossed the city in my past to eat Pignolet’s steak and frittes with café de Paris in the Bistro Moncur days, I found it hard not to order The Ranger’s Valley sirloin with café de Paris and French fries. The meat is charred beyond just caramelisation, and delivers an unsavoury burnt bitterness. It’s a shame. It’s blushingly pink inside and the café de Paris butter is, as one might expect from Pignolet, bloody beautiful. But the experience wouldn’t stop me ordering it again – it’s the best café de Paris downunder.

Then the intensely flavoured air of his passionfruit and praline soufflé adds an exclamation to remind me of why he made such an impact on sin city in the first place. It’s a classic that relies on getting lots of air into the egg whites, the use of a copper pot and whisking it from the shoulder, not the wrist or elbow. You’d be a fool not to order one. Any aspiring chef looking to master the soufflé art could do worse than pulling up a pew at Regatta and sampling his.

Regatta is honest, stunning in its simplicity. Mostly though, it’s quite nice seeing Pignolet with a platform to tell, and perhaps add to, his own culinary tale once again.

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