Hot List Update: Beige Is the New Black at Surry Hills’ Newest Wine Bar

The Hot List is the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

This week’s Hot List activity

• Added: 40 Res
• Most trending restaurant: Neptune’s Grotto
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Cafe Cressida

These are the must-order (and very beige) dishes at 40 Res

Beige always gets such a bad wrap. In interior design, it’s a cowardly move, in fashion, it means you’re playing it safe. And in cooking, beige food usually falls under the jurisdiction of picky eaters.

But at 40 Res, in Surry Hills, beige is the king of the colour wheel. The neutral colour is the star of the show in nearly everything on the menu – from sell-out snacks like the coral trout fish fingers to the prawn risotto and other large dishes.

“We do have a lot of beige things on the menu,” says chef and co-owner Josh Raine, the current culinary director of Canvas at the MCA and former executive chef of the legendary Tetsuya’s. “The dishes have connections with things I loved to eat from my childhood and travels – taking simple things and elevating them.”

“And I’m from England, which a hundred percent has beige weather and beige food.”

So in honour of 40 Res joining The Hot List this week, consider this your cheat sheet for the best beige dishes to order when you visit. The beige comeback starts now.

Coral trout fish finger, pil pil

Photo: Yusuke Oba.

“I was brought up with fish fingers, and this was my kind of take on that,” Raine says. The fish finger here is the early bestseller, for good reason. It’s made with coral trout, a coral trout mousse and accompanied by a pil pil made from – yep – trout skin and bones, emulsified with roasted garlic and chilli oil. “It’s a very fancy mayonnaise,” says Raine.

Confit chicken croquette, manchego

Photo: Yusuke Oba.

Raine’s parents lived in Spain and you’ll see nods to the Iberian peninsula throughout the menu. Like these croquettes. “We confit all these chickens down and we also take the chicken skin and render out the fat to use as a base for our bechamel,” Raine says. “We don’t use any butter in the bechamel, just chicken fat.”

Celeriac, miso, soy milk

Photo: Yusuke Oba.

This veggie dish (which is appropriately beige), is Raine’s pick for the dark horse of the menu. “Basically, we braise off celeriacs in a dashi and serve it with smoked leeks and roasted miso. It’s a bit unusual, but the flavours from it are incredible.”

Potato, burnt butter, anchovy

Photo: Yusuke Oba.

This is like a seriously tricked-out potato pave.

“We put clarified roasted kombu butter through each layer of potato, then we press it together and roast it in the oven,” says Raine. Tinned anchovy oil is also added to the potatoes, “which emulsifies with the starches and makes it all juicy inside.” Then it’s deep-fried and topped with anchovies and chives. (Not beige, but we’ll allow it.)

Casarecce e pepe

Photo: courtesy of 40 Res.

“We roast a parmesan rind in the oven – you know the side of a cheese toastie, when you get that caramelised cheese? It tastes like that,” Raine says. That’s made into a parmesan sauce, which is then turned into a light foam thanks to an aerator. “It’s a little bit lighter on the palate but it’s big on flavour.”

Sugarloaf cabbage, chicken crackle

Photo: Yusuke Oba.

Raine braises this showstopping cabbage in a sous-vide bag with yuzu kosho – Japanese fermented chilli paste. Then it’s charred in “what’s almost a woodfire oven, which gives it heaps of colour.” Then it’s showered in a smoked chicken skin crackle. “So you get this richness from the skin and then spiciness from the braised cabbage.”

Prawn bisque risotto, kombu creme fraiche

Photo courtesy of 40 Res.

The risotto rice is roasted in a pan and deglazed with wines. “Then, we make a prawn bisque with the prawn heads and roast it off with a bit of fish stock, finished with cognac.” That becomes the base for the risotto, before it’s finished with mascarpone, parmesan and roasted kombu creme fraiche. “Then we just speckle it with beautiful prawns.”

Wattleseed ice-cream, macadamia brittle

Photo courtesy of 40 Res.

Wattleseed is one of Raine’s favourite ingredients. Here it’s roasted and cooked down into an ice-cream base, “which gives it that cereal, nutty, coffee taste.” Then it’s given a whizz in the Pacojet and served with roasted macadamia, caramel and a dusting of wattleseed powder.

“And we add a wattleseed tuile on top,” Raine says. “I guess this is a pretty beige dish, too.”

broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/sydney

The Hot List is proudly sponsored by Square.