THE highlight of my visit to Sydney was lunch at Opera Kitchen.
The informal eatery, which only opened in December, is set on the Sydney Opera House's lower concourse level to let diners enjoy the vistas across Circular Quay but it wasn't the view that appealed to me.
It was the fact that someone has created something completely new when it comes to eating in a city that is saturated with restaurants, bars and cafes.
Instead of opening a restaurant, hiring a chef, and serving a collection of completely expected dishes, Opera Kitchen has brought together four of the city's most popular restaurateurs and got them to contribute a few dishes to the menu.
Guests at Opera Kitchen can enjoy dishes from Justin North (Becasse Bakery and Charlie & Co Burgers), John Susman (Cloudy Bay Fish Co), Nahji Chu (Misschu) and Kenji Nishinakagawa (Kenji).
The kitchen is divided into five sections, so each restaurant gets its own space, and after diners order their food at a central point their request goes to the particular chef who prepares the food and then waiters collect it and deliver it to the tables.
I was only after a light lunch -- I had only just had a big breakfast at the Sofitel, and then morning tea at the new food court at the redeveloped Westfield shopping centre in Pitt Street -- so I ordered a plate of Peking duck pancakes and some dumplings from Misschu.
This is the same Misschu I wrote about when I was in Melbourne last week and it seems she started her food empire by establishing the tuckshop-style eateries in Sydney but wanted to do something in her hometown of Melbourne so opened the place in Exhibition Street.
