As we sit in quiet contemplation on the death of Chef Charlie Trotter, our thoughts travel back to 2005.
It’s a big week for us at Rockpool, this week. After nearly 25 years, the very first Rockpool is about to leave George St. Saturday dinner is our last service here. There is bound to be melancholy, there will be great stories being told and repeated – and we most certainly will be reflecting on all the great times had in this iconic space.
One such great memory involves this very man. It was July 2005, and the inaugural Ultimate Dinner for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Charlie Trotter and his team travelled from Chicago at Neil’s invitation to help stage a dinner – one that would continue for years to come as one of the most exciting charity fundraising dinners on Australia’s calendar. That first year, Rockpool (on George) hosted this gathering of extraordinary chefs – Neil, of course, and Rockpools Executive Pastry Chef Catherine Adams – Chef Trotter, Chui Lee Luk of Claudes, Phil Howard and Tom Colicchio.
Tickets were a tidy $2000 per head for 8 courses – but the room filled with philanthropists and food lovers, ready to indulge in a feast of champions. There was Neil’s goats cheese tortellini and tea smoked oysters, Chui created an extraordinary composed salad, Tom cooked a ‘selection from the Sydney Fish Markets’, Phil – Yamba prawns and Catherine her divine rhubarb and praline pudding – but we will never forget the painstaking precision of Chef Charlie Trotter’s ‘Raw root vegetable ravioli’ – the Trotter restaurant chefs sliced each paper thin slice of raw vegetable to the exact measurement, and I mean ‘exact’ – I was there, trust me. I watched it. In fact, I helped slice and am not sure I’ve sliced quite like it in my life. This was perfection in motion and nothing short of that would be acceptable. Quite a moment in time – watching this man and his team do what they do. It was amazing. Each thin slice of raw vegetable (I have memories of beetroot) was then filled with cashew ‘cheese’ and sultana puree – balance of textures and flavours incomparable.
It was an amazing night. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised for Starlight – the cooking community provided a once in a lifetime evening and it was the beginning of an ongoing commitment from Rockpool to Starlight, one we are truly proud of. For those of us that were there that night, and during those days prior – it was a treasured time to be amongst peers and heroes and we will never forget the perfection with which Chef Trotter worked, and what a polite, professional man he was, devoted to his craft.
Thank you for sharing time with us at Rockpool Chef Charlie Trotter. May you rest in peace.
