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Rob Cockerill has just taken over as executive head chef of one of Sydney's most iconic restaurants, but he knows this kitchen better than anyone. He's been cooking here within the Opera House sails for more than 20 years, including 11 as head chef. He even helped Peter Gilmore – who has departed Sydney to live in Tasmania – design the kitchen. Cockerill is a chef who knows Bennelong from the foundations up, and his first menu shows he understands that a new chapter doesn't require rewriting the story.
Thankfully, he's keeping the things that have always made Bennelong special: exceptional Australian produce treated with meticulous technique to create delicious plates of food.
I've been lucky enough to dine here a few times and I'm always in awe when I enter – it's one of Sydney's great dining rooms, with those dramatic concrete beams that hold up the Opera House sails, the glowy glass-bulb lighting, the views of the Harbour Bridge, and the warm welcome you get.
My evening starts with a Bennelong Negroni, followed by pretty canapés: a delicate pea and caviar tart; bresaola with radicchio rosa and panisse; and Sydney rock oysters with lemon pepper granita.
For entrées, I order the mud crab dumpling with brown butter and white flowering kale, which feels like a very Bennelong kind of dish – intricate without being very showy. There’s a distinctly Australian- and seasonal-produce thread running through these starter dishes – for instance, coral trout from North Queensland with a braised leek and bergamot emulsion; and a salad of persimmon, golden beetroot, goat’s feta, hazelnuts and caramelised Chardonnay vinegar.
The mains follow a similarly “heroing the produce” approach. There’s Aquna Murray cod with garden greens and lemon and fennel purée, Gundagai lamb with pickled globe artichoke and sauce Paloise, a chestnut and ricotta raviolo with black garlic and Jerusalem artichoke – and the pure-bred black Angus with parsley, kombu, horseradish and maitake mushrooms, which I go for.
Dessert is a choice between pistachio choux with greengage plum sherbet, and a sour cherry, dark chocolate and almond treat, which is my pick. The chocolate half-sphere looks like a big, shiny cherry in a bowl of tempered chocolate curls.
All of the dishes are still special and delicious, as they’ve always been – what I find interesting about Cockerill’s Bennelong is what hasn’t changed. His challenge will be to evolve this place without losing what makes it Bennelong. Judging by this first taste, he’s off to a great start.
Bennelong is definitely a special-occasion treat, but here’s an insider tip if you want to tick this bucket-list institution off, try their ‘Bennelong In 45 Minutes’ experience – perhaps before or after a show at the House. For $50 per person, you’ll be served three bar snacks and your choice of cocktail from their signature menu while lapping up the harbour views from the Bennelong Bar.
NOTE: I was hosted by Bennelong, but our editorial recommendations are always honest. Time Out doesn't write star-rated restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – when we review, Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here.
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