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Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Three

roots hold him firm, Australia is his home. He began his own restaurant in the mid 1980s in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Senso Ultimo, which was the inner-city echo of his father’s vanguard La Zagara Ristorante in Leichardt, which boomed in the mid 1970s. He ran Senso for nine years before moving to the Gold Coast and finally to Brisbane, whose riverside dynamism and easygoing community reminded him of a 1970s Sydney. He incorporates this love affair with every dish, sourcing all products within a 200-kilometre radius of Brisbane, and reflecting them in seasonal variation. Finally, the night melts into saccharine satisfaction with the Panna Cotta al Miele & Vaniglia, whose balance of honey and vanilla bean with the toasted crunch of honeycomb shards is the evocation of a summer night’s dream. Similarly said for the presentation: a crumbling frame of honeycomb and fruit jellies surrounds the silky vanilla dessert as though Tony has thrown them to see how they fall. Though Sydney might have made Tony the masterful mediator between Italian and Australian cuisine that he is today, Brisbane is where he took that flame and made a fire that burns ardently in the city’s budding dining scene. With Italy in one palm and Australia in the other, Tony deftly applauds the past and present with the traditional flavours and ingredients of two eras. Stepping back onto bustling Anne Street is like greeting reality well satisfied after a night of European reverie, and as the red glow and jet-black interior fades into evening like embers in an old fire, it becomes apparent. Tartufo is the best of both worlds, which earns Tony a thank you, and two kisses, for a little taste of history. pm dining pindaramagazine.com.au Pindara Magazine 109


Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Three
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