Volume IX · Autumn 2026 Redfern, Sydney 02 9698 4477

The Chef's Letter

A restaurant that publishes a menu the way other restaurants publish a magazine
Issue No. IX · The Autumn Edition

On the weight of a good apple in late April.

Chef Eloise Wren's letter from the kitchen — three dishes, one fermentation, and the year she spent learning how to braise a duck.

The Editor's Letter

A note from the chef.

Eloise Wren · Head Chef · April 2026

We've been writing this menu for eleven years now, and every season I sit down at the long table in the back of the kitchen and try to think about what I actually want to cook for people for the next three months. Not what is fashionable, not what the magazines are saying, but what tastes right when I think about it on a quiet afternoon in March.

This autumn, that meant going back to apples. Pink ladies from the Wandin orchards, the same farmer we've used since 2018. He picks them in a particular order — the brightest red ones first, the slightly smaller ones for braising, the late-season fruit for the tarts. We don't get to choose; we get what he sends.

The duck took most of a year to get right. We tried six different cures, three different braising liquids, and went through about forty ducks before the version on this menu emerged. It's not complicated. It's just a duck leg, very slowly cooked in its own fat with bay and juniper, served with the same apples I just wrote about.

There's one new fermentation — a koji-cured lamb belly that's been hanging in the cold room since February. I won't pretend it's traditional, but it works on the plate and that, in the end, is the only test that matters.

We hope you'll come and eat with us. The room is small, the music is quiet, and the kitchen is one short flight of stairs from the dining room — so if you have a question, you can usually find one of us behind the pass.

— Eloise Head Chef · Owner
The Autumn Menu

Three dishes from the kitchen.

01

The Wandin Apple, Slow-Roasted

A whole pink lady apple, eight hours in a low oven with butter, calvados and a single bay leaf.

We started serving this in the second week of April. The apples are at their peak right now — fragrant, firm, the slightest bit tart. We roast them whole on a tray with butter and a splash of calvados, basting every hour until the skin has wrinkled and the flesh is yielding.

The accompaniment is one spoon of crème fraîche, lightly whipped, and a piece of toasted brioche that has been brushed with brown butter.

Course One $24

Duck Leg, Eleven Years in the Making

A free-range duck leg, slow-cooked for nine hours, with braised apples and one good spoon of jus.

This is the dish I mentioned in the letter. It took us about a year of testing to land on this version, and another six months to convince ourselves we shouldn't change it. The duck comes from a small farm in the Southern Highlands; the apples are the same ones from course one.

We finish it with a single sprig of fried sage and a spoon of the deeply reduced jus. Nothing else.

Course Two $48
02
03

Apple Tarte Fine

Thinly-sliced apple on rough puff pastry, with a single quenelle of vanilla bean ice cream.

The traditional French version, made the traditional French way. Apples shingled in concentric circles, brushed with butter, baked at high heat until the edges have caramelised and the pastry has shattered.

Served warm, with one quenelle of ice cream made yesterday in the same kitchen.

Course Three $22
A restaurant is a magazine you can sit inside for two hours.
— Eloise Wren, Editor · Head Chef
From the Pass

This week's pass.

Colophon

The Chef's Letter

Address
14 Marriott St
Redfern 2016
Hours
Wed — Sat
6pm — 10pm
Sun — Lunch 12–3
Phone
02 9698 4477
Subscribe
Each issue mailed quarterly. Free.