Nel's Christmas Degustation 2023

Overview

There's no such thing as an ordinary dish to chef Nelly Robinson, namesake of and driving force behind Sydney restaurant Nel, as his degustation menus keep demonstrating. KFC? Lamingtons? French onion soup? Pots of honey? They can all be given a fine-dining twist, and have. And if it can work for Moulin Rouge! and Paddington Bear, it can work for Christmas.

Nel is no stranger to Christmas spreads, but it is celebrating 2023's jolliest time of year with a specific range of treats. The Christmas Degustation takes its cues from European festive meals and traditions. It's also filled with culinary traditions, but not as you know them — from roast spuds to Christmas Day seafood.

Nel's chef and namesake Nelly Robinson has found 11 ways to interpret Christmas food staples from around the world while still giving them his usual creative spin.

Available from Tuesday, November 14–Saturday, December 23, the Surry Hills institution's new Christmas degustation features a Nel take on seafood blinis featuring crab salad and flowers on mini crumpets, a black charcoal crumbed sausage in the shape of a star that's paired with curry sauce, and a delicate rendition of silly season carbs called Nanna's Potatoes.

There are also dishes named after Love Actually, 'O Christmas Tree' and 'Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer' — we can all imagine what that one might be.

Rounding out the menu is a reinvention of the traditional Danish Christmas dessert risalamande. In Denmark, a whole almond is often hidden in rice pudding, with anyone who finds it given a prize. In Robinson's version, there's just big flavours instead, with the dessert starring a vanilla rice pudding foam, amaretto ice cream, and an almond, cinnamon and wild rice granola.