By Franz Scheurer
Mark Miller, recognized for his innovative style of modern Southwestern cuisine at Coyote Café in Santa Fe and Las Vegas and western-themed cuisine at the Red Sage restaurant in Washington, D.C., has arrived Down Under.
Miller has received tremendous publicity and numerous awards over the course of his career, including the 1998 Food Arts Silver Spoon Award, the 1996 James Beard Award for Best Southwest Chef, and his 1991 induction into the Nation’s Restaurant News’ Fine Dining Hall of Fame. Red Sage was awarded Esquire’s 1992 Restaurant of the Year, and Mark was featured in a special 1980s edition of Life magazine as one of the most influential American chefs of the decade.
Despite his success, Miller’s culinary career was hardly planned, but cooking
became the practical application of his anthropological interests and studies.
Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Miller studied
Chinese art, history and anthropology at University of California at Berkeley
in 1967. After a period of postgraduate work and teaching, Miller took a break
from academia and pursued his passion for cooking by seizing an opportunity to
work with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.
In 1979 Miller left Chez Panisse to open his own restaurant in Berkeley, the
Fourth Street Grill, where he was able to cook spicier, more rustic food drawn
from ideas formed during his travels throughout Central America, North Africa,
Southeast Asia, and the Southwest. In 1980 Miller opened his second Berkeley
restaurant, the Santa Fe Bar and Grill. There he served Cajun, Creole, and
Southwestern food.
Miller sold both restaurants in 1984 and decided that the logical place to
further develop his modern Southwestern cuisine was in Santa Fe. The Coyote Café
took two years to complete and opened in 1987. Red Sage opened in 1992 and he
opened another Coyote Café in December 1993, in Las Vegas.
Miller has nurtured his passionate and varied interest in food through his
publications: Coyote Café, The Great Chile Book, Coyote’s Pantry, The Great
Salsa Book, Mark Miller’s Indian Market Cookbook, Flavoured Breads from the
Coyote Café, Cool Coyote Café Juice Drinks and Red Sage: Contemporary American
Cuisine.
And now it is Sydney’s turn.
With his business partner, New Zealand restaurateur Tonci Farac, Miller has just opened Wildfire, located within the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay. With fabulous views of the Opera House and the Quay (providing there isn’t a large ocean liner parked right outside) Wildfire features a main dining room, a cocktail area and two private rooms on the mezzanine level. The theme is fire and ice and designer Thomas Bucich used lots of exposed timber and clean, rounded lines of high tech materials to create a comfortable, modern space, without ever losing the impact of the glorious view.
The bar, or cocktail area, is a kaleidoscope of liquid colours reflected by the warm, orange décor. Try one of the many innovative cocktails or linger longer with a Pastis du Bois Emenaude.
The kitchen is equipped with a bank of wood fire ovens, rotisseries and grills, a separate pastry kitchen, and a “sea bar” on the opposite side of the room, featuring a huge selection of fresh, raw seafood. One of the design features that caught my eye is the fact that they have their own meat aging room.
The food is mainly cooked by the Churrasco method, a Brazilian from of wood-fire rotisserie, and many of the dishes are based on such time-honoured methods as curing, ageing and smoking. They make their own sausages and bake their own breads on the premises.
Asked why he is a partner in a Sydney restaurant, Miller says: “Australia is a culinary frontier, where anything is possible. Its place in culinary history is in the future, not in the past, and that is why it’s such an exciting dining scene. “
As they say: the proof of the pudding is in the eating and having been there more than once within the last few days I’d like to add that it helps if you do your homework first.
The menu can be a bit of a challenge. It seems a little disjointed at first and you might find it hard to decide what to eat and in what order. Once you realise that with the sea bar you are really dealing with a restaurant within a restaurant it becomes a little easier, although you still have to decide if you order à-la carte or convince the table to share in a carnivore’s dream Churrasco style. I suggest you simply relax, close that menu, lean back in your seat and let the chef bring the food… after all, chef knows best.
Enter, stage left: Amuse Gueule: salt and pepper white bait
Enter, stage right: From the Sea Bar:
“Oyster Samba”, five rock oysters in five different flavours: fiery granita, pineapple and habanero, spicy seaweed salad, black pepper Yucatan and tomato salsa. Superbly fresh oysters infused with flavours both known and unknown. We tried the “Trio of Tartare” featuring salmon with black pepper, tuna with shitake and black truffle oil and blue eye with mayonnaise and chive. A perfect accompaniment to the selection of flavoured, brioche style breads. Then we devoured the “Octopus Carpaccio”, with hot sesame chile oil and wasabi mustard sauce, a wonderfully balanced dish which was followed by “Sugar cane skewered shrimp meat” with orange chipotle sauce and finally the star of the night, the “Teriyaki glazed stuffed baby squid”, with shitake mushrooms, served on two skewers.
Enter, stage left: Main Course
“Lobster Sausage” with beluga lentils, saffron-cardamom sauce and a fresh herb salad. The presentation was every bit as good as the flavours. Using natural sausage skins and the wood-fire ovens they add an extra dimension to the silky texture and long flavour of the lobster.
As for desserts:
The “Fresh Pistachio Soufflé” served with fresh pistachio ice cream and truffled honey pistachio bread definitely rose to the occasion, at the same time as the “Coconut Panna Cotta with Cointreau infused tropical fruit soup” wobbled its way into our tummies.
By that stage, we felt like turkeys just before Christmas and we hadn’t even tried the Churrasco or the Wood Fired Pizzas yet.
I must admit I went to Wildfire with the expectation of “just another waterfront restaurant with lots of hype” and with my particular dislike for what passes as TexMex or Mexican cuisine in this country, I did not expect to like Miller’s food.
I thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of food at Wildfire. The service is adequate, the atmosphere good, the wine list, a never-ending work in progress under the very capable Ben Moechtar, is very impressive.
When we finally met Mark Miller we met a passionate, hyper ball of energy that manages to be in seventeen places at once, sees everything and commands his troupes with an electric, hands-on attitude, but still finds time to stop, talk to his guests and make them feel special. A born performer and a driven personality, no doubt, but what makes him special in my book is his food!
Unfortunately, though, when Mark isn’t there (and that’s most of the year) the food deteriorates, the service slackens and standards slip. I scored this restaurant 8.5/10 in the first few weeks of opening, now it is struggling to stay on 6/10
Score: 6/10
For more information or bookings:
Wildfire
Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay
Tel.: 02 9252 5077