Hotel Holds Australian Festival
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Millennium Seoul Hilton's Mediterranean restaurant Cilantro is holding an Australian festival, featuring aboriginal artworks and cuisine, which will continue until the end of September.
For the festival, the restaurant has invited Australian Tony Hart, executive chef at Fiji Beach Resort & Spa, as a guest chef to bring authentic cuisine from Australia. He will stay at the restaurant until Sept. 8.
The chef believes that the festival will offer a chance for food lovers to enjoy a diversity of Australian dishes developed in its multi cultural history.
``Beginning with the aboriginals, then the English and Chinese followed by the Italian and Greeks immigrating after the war and then in the 1970's the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lebanese, the (Australian) cuisine is a melting pot of all these cultures,'' Hart said.
The typical Australian dish uses beef, lamb and seafood. The menus will feature a variety of different meat and seafood dishes.
The chef plans to especially utilize the barbecue at the restaurant for dishes including eye fillet steak with cafe de Paris butter among other delights.
But based on his experience as an executive chef at the resort hotel, Hart also promised to offer dishes a little more relaxed and not as constructed as those in restaurants of city hotels.
``At Fiji Beach the focus is definitely on fresh products, good but simple flavor combinations and light refreshing food. I try to steer away from heavy sauces, butter and cream based dishes and focus on clean flavor profiles that suit the climate,'' he said.
``I want to work the flavors in the dishes quiet hard without introducing too many flavors. My philosophy is to keep the food simple and let quality produce speak for itself,'' he said.
Apart from Australian dishes, guests at the festival can also enjoy a range of aboriginal artworks that are on display by Australian artists including Judy Napangardi Watson, Betsy Napangardi Lewis and Willy Tjungurrayi.
The Cilantro buffet at lunchtime is priced at 38,000 won for adults and 22,800 won for children aged 12 and under. The dinner buffet is priced at 41,000 won for adults and 24,500 won for children aged 12 and under.
The restaurant also serves a brunch on Sundays, available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the price of 45,000 won (55,000 won with a glass of champagne) for adults and 27,000 won for children under 12.
For reservations or enquiries, please call Cilantro at (02) 317-3062.