Croissants Worth Commuting For: Petit Loulou Opens in Martin Place

A pastry favourite has arrived in Sydney’s CBD, delivering flaky croissants, gourmet baguettes, and a Parisian café experience.

Article by Victoria Pearson

Petit Loulou_2Photograph courtesy of Petit Loulou.

Australians’ affinity for croissants and other manner of French bakery goods is well known. In 2016 The New York Times hypothesised that the world’s best crescent shaped flakey treats were in fact baked down under.

Now, Sydney CBD commuters will have the chance to sink their teeth into an array of pastry sensations courtesy of Loulou Bistro, Boulangerie & Traiteur Milsons Point’s latest venture, Petit Loulou – a boulangerie that focuses on classic French pastries, viennoiseries, and light meals, offering a blend of takeaway convenience and outdoor seating.

Located at 1 Elizabeth Street, above the Martin Place Metro, Petit Loulou will serve a selection of fresh baked goods, including croissants, petite tarts, and sausage rolls, alongside savoury options such as rotisserie chicken baguettes and Niçoise salads. The focus is on high-quality ingredients and traditional baking techniques, with an emphasis on accessibility for city workers and visitors.

Brendon Woodward, Loulou’s Head Baker, says the expansion is about bringing a taste of French baking to a broader audience. “We want to create an experience that feels both familiar and true to the traditions of French patisserie,” he said.

Shop This: A New Source for Specialty Fruits From Japanese Farmers

Sink your teeth into Ikigai Fruits’ soft, custardy crown melon, crisp soju pears and caramel persimmons.

Article by Cathy Erway

16-TMAG-PAINTERS-MESSAGES-4Strawberries in a range of shades from pearly white to crimson and fragrant crown melon are available through Ikigai Fruits, an e-commerce platform for a collective of small fruit farms in Japan. Photograph courtesy of Ikigai Fruits.

The Japanese term ikigai denotes a sense of purpose or passion in life. Ikigai Fruits, an online retailer that sells specialty fruit sourced from independent Japanese farms, was founded last year to showcase the result of such dedication — and to support the future of Japanese fruit growers. In Japan, where the average farmer is over 65, many businesses are shuttering with no successor to carry on the tradition. By selling soft, custardy crown melon, crisp soju pears and caramel persimmons to customers around the world, Ikigai Fruits hopes to play a part in reversing the decline. The company’s sakura pink Awayuki strawberries, for example, are grown at Berry, a farm in Mie Prefecture that was founded in 2017 and offers apprenticeships to people with disabilities or who are struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues. Strawberries, along with rainbow kiwi and fuyu persimmons, are currently included in Ikigai’s omakase box, which changes seasonally. From $89,ikigaifruits.com.

Three Impressive, Deceptively Easy Summer Dishes

The French chef Yann Nury elevates classic seasonal recipes with fresh flavour combinations and a few luxurious additions.

Article by Lauren Joseph

28-TMAG-EASY-SUMMER-DISHES-4Yann Nury’s alfresco summer meal of grilled flatbread, lobster rolls and peaches and cream can be eaten standing or at a picnic as easily as it can be served at the table. Photograph by David Chow.

When the chef Yann Nury, 39, was growing up in Ardèche, France, summer meant a frenzy for peak-season produce. “Melons, strawberries and peaches are my childhood,” says Nury, from the loft in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood that serves as his invitation-only dining room, La Residence. “For two weeks, that was almost all we ate — but only for two weeks.”

It’s no surprise then that Nury, who worked on Daniel Boulud’s private events team before setting out on his own almost a decade ago, is best known for delicate French fare made with ingredients at the apex of their micro-season prime. Often, he combines his fruit and vegetable obsession with formal technique: think turnip and seaweed mille-feuilles cut to sharp 90-degree angles and single-bite tartlets filled with nearly translucent petals of heirloom carrot. But he’s also hailed for his exactingly prepared versions of American comfort foods like burgers and s’mores, making him an ideal cookout host.

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Nury customised this original 1952 Vespa Stabil, once used to transport produce and wine in Italy, to be a portable outdoor food prep station. Photograph by David Chow.

During the summer months, Nury brings his enormous portable grills — custom-made for him by the artisanal wood-fired grill manufacturer Grillworks — to lawns across the Hamptons, where, along with his fleet of chefs, he caters cocktail parties and elaborate barbecues for clients, many of whom work in fashion and art. At home in Westchester, he cooks solo but still prefers at least a medium-sized crowd of diners. “Eight to 12 people is the ideal number of guests,” he says. “Less and it’s not worth the effort.”

Whether in his own yard or on a job, Nury relies on reimagined summer classics that can be scaled up or down with ease — three of which he shares below. He scatters heirloom tomatoes on a bubbly, grilled sourdough pizza base; lightens the classic New England lobster roll with a sweet summer corn sauce; and nestles grilled peaches into layers of vanilla cream, mascarpone, ricotta and crumbled shortbread cookies. Each recipe features an unexpected, luxurious touch. The tomatoes are sprinkled with caviar, for instance, and the peach cream gets a drizzle of cognac. “I love a mix of high and low,” says Nury. But, he stresses, these extras are purely optional. His advice: Start at the farmers’ market. “If they don’t have it, you probably don’t need it.” Then, says the chef, “Take the extra five minutes to make it look great.”

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Nury uses a variety of heirloom tomatoes, removing their skins before layering them on the flatbread. Photograph by David Chow.
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For a luxurious touch, Nury sometimes dollops caviar — here, a golden variety — atop the finished flatbread. Photograph by David Chow.

Tomato Flatbread With Vanilla and Basil

Blanching and skinning the tomatoes might seem tricky, but when the fruit is perfectly ripe, “the skins almost fall off,” Nury says. The sweet, pliant flesh that remains, stripped of all its roughness and acidity, feels almost buttery when piled atop a grilled pizza crust. Leftover vanilla oil can be drizzled over avocados or clementines.

Yield: 2 flatbreads

Ingredients:

  • Heirloom tomatoes in assorted colors (2 to 3 slices per flatbread)
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 1 lemon
  • ½ cupextra-virgin olive oil (plus more to taste)
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • Espelette pepper (to taste)
  • 1 16-ounce ball store-bought pizza dough (for a homemade option, see below)
  • Finishing salt (like fleur de sel)
  • Basil (flowering if possible)

To prepare the tomatoes, cut a shallow cross shape into the bottom of each tomato and submerge in boiling, salted water for 30 seconds. Remove and plunge into a bowl of ice water until cooled. Pat tomatoes dry and remove the skin. Cut the flesh into thin slices (aim for between ¼ and ⅛ inch thick) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let sit in the refrigerator or at room temperature to release their water for a minimum of 2 hours. Drain and set aside. Zest the lemon into the olive oil. Cut the vanilla bean open lengthwise to expose the seeds and add to the oil along with a dash of Espelette pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Divide the dough ball in 2 and shape each half into a roughly 12-inch-long-by-5-inch-wide oval, stretching with your hands rather than using a rolling pin if possible. Brush the dough with the vanilla oil, reserving some to brush onto the tomatoes. Grill the flatbread over medium to high heat until it releases easily from the grill and has some char marks. Flip and cook on the other side until golden. Layer on the tomato slices, overlapping and varying the colors, and brush lightly with the reserved vanilla oil. Finish with flaky salt and basil blossoms or leaves.

Optional: Layer a bit of caviar on top.

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Nury recommends looking for an olive oil with a harvest date on the label. For best quality, an oil should be used within one year of harvest. Photograph by David Chow.
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Air pockets in the dough, the result of fermentation and hand-stretching, become crispy edges on the grill. Photograph by David Chow.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Yield: 8 flatbreads

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilogram 00 flour
  • 650 grams water
  • 30 grams olive oil
  • 15 grams fresh yeast or 8 grams dry
  • 25 grams salt

Using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix flour, water and olive oil on low for 1½ minutes. Add yeast and salt, mix another 1½ minutes on low speed, then 3 minutes on medium.

Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 3 or 4 hours. Punch down the dough to remove all the air and shape it into a large ball. Place the ball into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 3 days, which will impart a fermented, almost sourdough-like flavor. When ready to make the flatbreads, shape the dough into 8 balls and let them sit, covered airtight with plastic wrap at room temperature, for 2 hours.

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Nury uses popcorn as a crunchy garnish. Photograph by David Chow.
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Nury doesn’t cook with many spices, but he does collect peppers. Here, he adds Espelette, a sweet and smoky variety from the French Basque region, to the lobster meat. Photograph by David Chow.
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Puréed corn is used as a lighter, sweeter alternative to mayonnaise. Photograph by David Chow.

Sweet Corn Lobster Roll

Growing up in a forested region of southeastern France, “there was not a lot of seafood-driven cuisine,” says Nury. It’s understandable, then, that the chef lacks nostalgic affection for the mayonnaise-coated lobster rolls popular in New England. “To be honest, I don’t particularly love them, so I wanted to change them,” he says. His lush version tastes more like the butter-dunked variety of the sandwich but is dairy-free. Instead, sweet summer corn, blitzed into a quick sauce, coats the meat. Nury, who always likes to contrast textures, tops the rolls with popcorn for some crunch.

Ingredients:

  • 6 whole lobsters (live if possible, or steamed from your fishmonger)
  • 12 ears corn in the husk
  • 4egg yolks
  • 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1lemon, zested and juiced
  • Espelette pepper to taste
  • 12 store-bought potato or brioche rolls
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 bunches chives, chopped
  • Fresh cilantro, dill, fennel fronds or popcorn, to finish

If you’re cooking the lobster yourself, boil the tail and claws separately, 3 minutes for the tail and 8 minutes for the claws. Cool to room temperature in an ice bath. Remove the meat from the shells and chop.

Remove the first few leaves from the corn husk and discard. Wash and add the corn, with the rest of its husk intact, to boiling salted water. Simmer for 15 minutes. (Cooking the husk intensifies the flavor.) Let cool slightly and remove the husk, then slice the kernels from the cob.

Reserve ⅓ of the kernels and add the rest to a blender along with the egg yolks, mustard, 2½ tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon zest and the juice of one lemon. Blend, then add Espelette pepper to taste. Blend again until very smooth and pass the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any remaining solids. Cool and reserve. (Sauce can be made one day ahead. Store in the refrigerator and bring back to room temperature before using.)

To serve, slice the crust of the buns and cut in half. Brush with butter and toast each side until golden brown. Mix the lobster meat with the sauce, adding the chopped chives and reserved corn kernels. Fill each bun very generously. Finish with more lemon zest, fresh herbs (cilantro, fennel fronds or dill) or a sprinkling of popcorn.

Optional: Top each sandwich with a few slices of soft bottarga.

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The finished pots of peaches and cream, topped with nasturtium flowers. Photograph by David Chow.

Grilled Peaches and Cream

“Grill flavor is not something that should be overpowering,” says Nury. To get just a hit of char and caramelization on your peaches, “it’s always safer to go for a lower temperature for longer.” A maple syrup balances the tang of ricotta and mascarpone, while shortbread cookies provide crunchy texture. You could easily assemble these in advance or layer the ingredients in a large bowl for a trifle.

Ingredients:

  • 24 ripe peaches (local if possible)
  • 8 -10 ounces maple syrup
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter
  • Fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
  • Sea salt
  • 32 ounces mascarpone
  • 16 ounces ricotta
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • Black pepper
  • Store-bought shortbread cookies

Slice the peaches in half and remove the pits. Melt the butter and combine with the maple syrup, thyme leaves and sea salt to taste. Brush the peaches with maple butter and grill them face down over medium heat until clear grill marks appear on the bottom. Let cool slightly and slice into chunks. Set aside.

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add vanilla seeds to the ricotta, mascarpone and lemon zest. Add maple syrup and sea salt to taste and whisk until combined. Crumble the shortbread, then, in individual jars or a large bowl, layer the sauce, peaches and crumbled shortbread. Repeat until filled. For added sweetness, finish with a drizzle of maple butter.

Optional: Add a splash of XO Cognac to the ricotta and mascarpone mixture.

A Restaurant Where the Pasta Is Handmade and the Interiors Evoke Summer

At Dario, communal dining areas meet textured, summery interiors.

Article by Devorah Lev-Tov

15-TMAG-BALTIMORE-CHOCOLATE-Left: at Dario, a new restaurant in Minneapolis, the dining room has pink and teal touches. Right: the menu’s vegetable section features marinated beets with gribiche sauce and dill pickle chips. Photographs from left: Wing Ho. Right: Isabel Subtil.

The chef Joe Rolle had been working in Minneapolis restaurants for 18 years when he decided to open his own place. He asked his former co-worker, the bartender Stephen Rowe — who refined his cocktail-making skills at the city’s now-closed Marvel Bar, known for its experimental drinks — to be his partner. At the end of January, the pair opened Dario, an Italian-leaning restaurant in the city’s North Loop neighbourhood. One star of the menu is Rolle’s Doppio Ravioli, filled with half sunchoke purée and half whipped ricotta, served with brown butter, honey, fried rosemary and hazelnuts. To accompany the dish, Rowe created the Bad Apple, a cocktail featuring vermouth and Calvados. Dario’s pastas are made by hand daily in a room at the back of the restaurant. In the evening, that space, with its 14-foot butcher block table, becomes a communal dining area. In the main dining room, the interiors are textured and summery: Potted plants fill the corners, banquettes are upholstered in teal velvet and an oceanic grey-blue and, at the bar, custom-made pink stools line up like flamingos. dariorestaurant.com.

In Marrakesh, an Expanding Cafe With Roots at a Local Farm

Travelling to Marrakesh? Don’t skip this cafe and farm shop in the busy neighbourhood of Gueliz.

Article by Gisela Williams

12-TMAG-BALLET-FLATS-1Blue Ribbon, a bakery and cafe in Marrakesh, is inspired by the bounty of ingredients grown on Sanctuary Slimane, a farm outside the city. Photograph courtesy of Blue Ribbon.

When the Moroccan financier Aziz Nahas decided to buy and regenerate a farm outside Marrakesh about two decades ago, he underestimated how much would grow there. Now, the 10-acre plot produces organic vegetables and fruits as well as hosting an artist residency program and a ceramic studio, all under the name Sanctuary Slimane. In 2021, Nahas’s friend the French restaurateur Benjamin Pastor suggested they partner up to start a cafe and farm shop in the busy Marrakesh neighbourhood of Gueliz. Last spring, they opened the coffee shop Blue Ribbon, with offerings including fresh salads served with halloumi or beets and almonds and a bánh mí sandwich on fresh sourdough. In the fall, they added a seating area next door and the Slimane Farm Shop, which sells vegetables and products like honey and dried herbs that are grown and produced on the farm. Up next: Farmers, a restaurant headed by Blue Ribbon’s chef and located in the same building. The 46-seat space, lined with colourful Popham tiles, is scheduled to open at the end of February. blueribbonmarrakech.com.

A Taste of Home

A limited-edition release from The Macallan bottles the enchantment of Lunar New Year and the sensory memories of a rising art star.

Article by T Australia

MACALLAN_1The Macallan A Night on Earth: The Journey (700ml), $235, themacallan.com. Courtesy of Macallan.

Established in 1824, The Macallan may be among Scotland’s most storied distilleries, but it wears the weight of heritage lightly. The single malt whisky maker is forever innovating through a growing number of limited-edition releases and collaborators, from the James Bond franchise to Stella and Mary McCartney. The latest release is A Night on Earth: The Journey, created with the Shanghai-based mixed-media artist Nini Sum, whose pop-bright, dreamlike screen-prints have earned global acclaim.

The Macallan’s global creative director, Jaume Ferràs, says The Journey “focuses on the idea of bringing something special back to your family when you return home: the coming together of old friends and family, with reflection on the past year, and hope for the coming one.”

The whisky conjures Nini Sum’s sensory memories of Lunar New Year, with notes of vanilla, toasted coconut and oak, citrus fruits and subtle nuttiness capturing the aromas of sweet rice pudding and toasted oak from rice popcorn vendors, the pop of fireworks and the taste of milk lollies and sunflower seeds snacked on between excited talk of New Year’s plans. 

Continues Ferràs, “A Night on Earth: The Journey is a remarkable whisky which draws on inspiration from Lunar New Year. These complex and comforting flavours play an important role in this celebration, and an essential role in the flavour profile of this single malt.”

Nini Sum sums up the experience: “The steam coming off hot food during the New Year dinner is one of the most vivid ‘home’ feelings I remember. I wanted to recreate that atmosphere, those precious moments of gathering and reunion under a bright moon bringing us all together.

During this time of year, people who work in big cities go through the world’s largest annual human migration to go back to their hometowns for that moment of reunion with their families and friends,” the artist continues. “When the fire is lit inside and paper lanterns hang from the roof, you know there is someone waiting for you to come home so they can welcome you with a hot meal and a hug.”

Adds Ferràs, “This is the perfect whisky to savour at special moments, best enjoyed with friends, family and loved ones while reminiscing of the year past and looking to the future.”

Nini Sum designed special packaging that tells the story of homecoming over three layers of nested artworks: a bold red outer box decorated with a landscape of trees and mountains under a starry night sky exploding with fireworks; an urban scene in blue tones streaked with bolts of bright colour representing people flocking from the cities; and a final layer in yellows and oranges evoking a warm reception under soft lantern light. The ultimate homecoming, wherever you call home and whomever you share it with.

The Macallan A Night on Earth: The Journey (700ml), $235, themacallan.com.