Tetsuya's

The first thing we did upon arriving in Sydney was to try and book up this amazing restaurant everybody kept telling up about. Sadly they were booked up till feb/march, so we were put on the waiting list thinking nothing of it. Out of the blue Jude gets phoned up saying they have a table at 7pm the following day, and do we want it. Its pricey, I'm not earning yet, hmm..... hell yeah! I'll let the following explain the place and food, but it took 4 hours for us to finish, and there were 5/6 dishes which we felt were truly out of this world.

Tetsuya Wakuda has refurbished a heritage-listed site in the city to create his dream restaurant. The restaurant offers sophisticated and intimate private dining rooms overlooking a Japanese garden. His cuisine is unique, based on the Japanese philosophy of natural seasonal flavours, enhanced by classic French technique.

Tetsuya’s serves a thirteen-course degustation menu, which is matched with wine by the glass.

He has been in the top 10 best restaurants in the world since 2003, has three Chef's hats (there version of Micheline stars) and tons of other awards.

The Menu

Chilled Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice Cream
Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar
Leek & Crab Custard
Marinated Crystal Bay Prawns with Soy Caramel
Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon & Wasabi, and a Seasonal Green Salad
Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avocado
Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel
Grass Fed Beef Fillet with Nameko, Shimeji & Enoki Mushroom
Twice-Cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Foie Gras & Red Wine Jus
Comte with Lentils
Green Apple Sorbet with Sauternes Jelly
Strawberry Shortcake
Lemon Scented Floating Island with Vanilla Bean Anglaise
Chocolate Ganache with Green Tea & Red Beans


This is his signature dish, the ocean trout.

Bring on the lamb

Yummy Tuna

The entrance.... a hidden oasis in the City

The Chef

Blue Mountains

Our first trip together outside of Sydney. We got up early to get the morning train to Katoomba, the touristy spot in the blue mountains (its called blue mountains from the oil that's released from the eucalyptus trees). The journey takes 2 hours, with pleasant countryside abound, though the journey would only take an hour if it wasn't stopping every 5 minutes!

We did a 3 hour circuit, encompassing the town, lookouts, and depths of the jungle. Apart from some wobbly legs going down the many step to the bottom, it was a pleasant day and good to get out of the city. Its quite amazing to have such wonderful countryside so close to beachy Sydney. We'll definitely have to come again, but to one of the less touristy towns next time.


Rugged up against the 7C temperature, and gusty wind making it even colder!

Echo point lookout to the West, with the 3 sisters (rock formations).

Echo point lookout to the East, with Jude looking quite Russian in her hat.

Katoomba Waterfall

The view of the valley from the bottom

A smaller waterfall in the thick of the jungle.

A hearty lunch in the heritage listed cafe Paragon in Katoomba. They also make homemade chocolate and have signed photos of all the starts who've visited.

The cocktail bar at the back of the restaurant.

New Zealand - Methven/Mt Hutt/Christchurch

I realise after a week of living in our lovely new pad that I'm not going to get any work for another couple of weeks as Oz has there end of year accounting in June. So after a very kind Jude gives me the nod, I jump on a plane to Christchurch to get some powder action. We never got to this side of the south island last time, so it was good to check it out, and see NZ in the winter. This is the area that is seen as the most similar to England, which is no surprise as it was created by the English as a home away from home. It has a rich agriculture, but also some of the best early snow in New Zealand.


Methven - A tiny little town nearest to the slopes. I noticed in the monthly magazine that the worlds ploughing competition with be held here later in the year.....Hmm, interesting!

Mt hutt is the highest ski slope in NZ, with a very flat countryside below.

This is the view over the other side of the mountains.... off piste anyone?

The temperature was -4C, but then with the wind you're easily up to -11C!

This is the winding road that you need to take ever day to get to the slopes. It takes about an hour from Methven, requires snow tires, has drops on either side, but is just beautiful. A car slid of the road 2 weeks beforehand and somehow they didn't die!

Me somehow still in one piece after a long week of snowboarding

As the slopes were only occupied by locals and a few tourists, it was easy meeting people. This is a group of crazy NZ guys, and US girl, i met who start every evening drinking jagerbombs at 7pm, owch!

Can you believe, a drum and bass night in Methven!

I got to Christchurch late in the afternoon, to check it out before my early morning flight. This is the square, with a conical statue to celebrate the millennium.

The canal that winds through town. You could easily believe you were in England.

Forbes on Forbes

So we're all settled in the flat, which after speaking to others Sydneysiders, we're told is an absolute find, with hardly any fully furnished pad's about. And after purchasing 2 cases of scrumptious vino for £3 a bottle, we had to share the love and have our first house warming.


The living/dining room

The bedroom has 2 glass sides which open out to a balcony area

The view from the balconcy of the city. We're 15 mins walk to jude's and my work!

Kent, Ely, and Toby with little Isla

Isla not so happy to have a camera shoved in her face

Jude looking scarily relaxed!

One Green Bean Annual Party

Its a bit difficult for me to tell you much about this as i wasnt there, but from what i know, Jude and the rest of the company went to a member of staff's parents house about 3 hours south of Sydney. The theme for the party was Ferrero Roche's Ambassadors Ball, but looking at the pic's it looks like it was whatever spangly stuff or old wigs they could find. Jude turned up on the Saturday a little worse for wear!


The whole team, plus some members of the sister company Host

Jude and Lizzie looking rosy cheeked

Dean and Sarah going for it!

Jenice's Bday and the Eastern Coastel Walk

So our first weekend in Sydney, and its my old school mate Toby Bellingham's finance's Birthday. So we hot foot it over to the Sydney sailing club in Abbotsford. A beautiful place overlooking about 6 bays which are all around us, through a wall of glass which is on one side of the building. Luckily for us, is a sunny 21C with clear blue sky's, so it just cant be any better! There to meet us with Toby and Jenice, was little Isla, who popped out into this world only 10 weeks before. After a lovely day making new friends and sampling Sydney's wine and food, we felt we needed to actually do some exercise.

Since landing back in April in the UK, I have had one 'dry' day, that's about a month and a half of drinking, and lets not talk about the food in France! So as the weather was again blistering, Jude, Hannah, and I started off from Coogee and walked north along the eastern coastal walk. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was a nice reminder that we were in Australia. After making it to Bondi we had to sample the local fish and chips, which Jude would describe as YUM! Then as we watched the sun go down, a bottle of vino was shared..... perfect!


Jenice and Ely

Isla looking to get served as she wants a piece of the action!

Probably the nicest bowling green in the world at Clovelly. Bowling is very popular with everybody over here, as its seen as more a social game to play with friend whilst having a few drinks or two!

Jude and Hannah at the open sea baths in Bronte (where the super rich live)

A great surfing beach at Tamarama

Our first glimpse of Bondi. Even though Jude and I have been to Sydney before, we never made it here, which is crazy when you see how amazing it is.

Even more surprising about Bondi is how wide and deep the beach is, which is quite unusual for Australia!

Starting up in Sydney

Hello world. Its the first time I've written on the blog in a long while as usually I have the fun task of loading the many pictures onto the blog, whilst Jude does the writing. But as Jude has been working since the day after she arrived, I've now taken the role of house husband. I now spend my days looking at millions of flats, sorting out ridiculous banking forms, dealing with prepubescent shop assistants, whilst still finding the time to have a lovely home cooked meal on the table. I'm starting to see why so many house wives take Valium!

But there is light at the end of the tunnel,! Whilst we are staying in a homely little flat in Coogee with Jude's friend Hannah, it seems the wrong time of year to be by the beach. So we've found a lovely sunny pad in Darlinghurst, right in the centre of everything. Its a 15 minute walk for Jude's work and CBD (the centre of Sydney), with lots of bars, cafe's, and restaurants on our doorstep. And it seems it was absolute fate as the road we'll be living on is called....... Forbes Street!


Coogee beach in the late winter sun (its still only 20C though). Some crazy cats were actually in the sea!

The view from one of the many flats i looked at. Sadly it was in the middle of nowhere!

We'll hopefully be staying in the ground floor flat of this beautiful house!