Staying cool in the Sydney food scene can be challenging. One minute a restaurant is the “it place”, the next, the fooderati shifts its focus. Coolness fades.

Uccello, at the top of Ivy, was the city’s buzziest joint in 2008 when it opened under chef Massimo Bianchi. Eight years on, it is still one of the hottest tickets in town, mainly due to consistently excellent food.

Chef David Lovett elevated the food to new heights during his four-year tenure, which ended recently. In his place comes Ben Sitton, who arrives after a stint at The Savoy Grill in London, and pit-stops at some of Sydney’s finest eateries, 3 Weeds and Rockpool Bar & Grill among them.

At Uccello he has created a new menu of reliable ingredients treated with minimum fuss. A classic entree of Piedmontese steak tartare is made with ortiz anchovies and served on crunchy witlof leaves. Even better is a generous serve of Yamba prawns grilled and served split down the middle in the shell, with butter, chilli and parsley.

The standout pasta dish is another lesson in simplicity: a silky house-made reginette tossed through butter, garlic, chives and chunks of spanner crab.

Sitton makes the most of Uccello’s woodfire oven, turning out numerous meat offerings, including a dish of crumbed New England goat served with braised cannellini beans. I opted instead for a giant loin of Bangalow pork, served smoky and succulent if slightly overdone, with braised black cabbage and finished with melted butter and chestnuts and sage.

Everything else is the same: the outstanding service, the infectious ambiance and the seductive view over the pool bar. A change of guard hasn’t altered the fact that this is a blue chip restaurant in fine hands.

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