Ready for an extraordinary experience? Norway’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Maaemo – located in Oslo and known for its innovative Norwegian cuisine and zero-waste philosophy – is heading Down Under this July for its second residency at Sydney’s Berowra Waters Inn. Australian-born executive chef Jay Boyle will join Berowra Waters Inn owner and executive chef Brian Geraghty to serve an exceptional 14-course menu of Maaemo dishes, reimagined using local ingredients, at the fine diner located on the picturesque Hawkesbury River.
The pop-up will run for four days only – July 24–27 – with just 250 seats available. I’d say run, don’t walk, but you can only reach the waterfront restaurant by seaplane or boat. If you’re due for a go-hard-or-go-home outing, this is it.
The menu will feature a mix of signature Maaemo dishes, including “Oyster Tradition 2010”, which will see Norway’s Bømlo molluscs swapped for Hawkesbury oysters, as well as a handful of yet-to-be-revealed plates.
Boyle says: “It’s a major and slightly terrifying challenge to recreate these dishes without a single item from the Maaemo pantry – there’s a whole alphabet of ingredients we need to replace – but it’s very exciting to recreate and even elevate dishes through a purely Australian lens.”
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“Dishes will closely resemble those served in Oslo, but will also be completely bespoke, taking on the unique flavours of Australia, cooked up by a couple of Australian chefs at the top of their field, in an iconic Australian setting,” says Geraghty.
Hailing from Newcastle, Boyle is one of only three Aussie chefs running a three-Michelin-starred restaurant globally, alongside Matt Abé (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay) and Brett Graham (The Ledbury). YTB.
Boyle will be sourcing top Aussie produce to reimagine the dishes. Instead of king crab and hazelnuts, there’ll be Hawkesbury mud crab in macadamia milk. Wattle seeds will replace coffee in the smoked Atherton raspberries and brown cheese dish. There’ll be pistachio miso in place of pumpkin seed for the lamb course, and marron will sub in for langoustine.
Other native ingredients being celebrated include emu egg, bunya nut, Atherton raspberry, Geraldton wax, Australian tamarind, sunrise lime, Davidson’s plum, cinnamon myrtle, rosella flower and rye berry – sourced via local suppliers including Tinja Farms and Newcastle Greens.
Geraghty adds: “This is our second Maaemo x Berowra Waters Inn collaboration in two years, and with this uniquely all-Australian version of the menu highlighting incredible native ingredients, we’re expecting it to be even more special than the first.”
The Maaemo x Berowra Waters Inn 14-course tasting menu is $420 per person, with two optional wine pairings at $220 and $340. Book here.
Can’t make it this time? On a related note, Jack Brown – proud First Nations man and head chef at Berowra Waters Inn (ex-The Zin House) – has created the July menu now available at Two Good Co Café in Darlinghurst. Designed to spotlight native ingredients, the menu features dishes like a pastrami Reuben with a lemon myrtle mayo-mustard spread; Warrigal greens soup with smoked ham and native dukkah; and wattleseed and macadamia blondies. Find out more here.
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