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Caitlin Hogan

Dare to Dine with Messina


If you’re an avid foodie, boy, is this an experience for you! For the month of February, Messina’s Creative Department are in Brisbane offering a seven-course degustation accompanied with non-alcoholic drink pairings. (Sorry folks, unfortunately sold out now, but stay tuned. Melbourne, it’s your turn next. Tickets will be on sale soon so keep those eyes peeled).

Messina Creative Department launched in Darlinghurst, Sydney back in 2016 and is now making it’s way across the rest of the nation with pop-up degustation’s now available in Brisbane and Melbourne. Hosted within Gelato Messina’s private dining rooms, the experience stems from Gelato Messina’s knack for creating unique gelatos and sorbets. Flavours that have been featured at Messina include Mr Potato Head, peanut butter flavoured gelato with white chocolate covered potato crisps and Vovoroom, a take on the classic Australian biscuit. With this in mind, you can only imagine the time taken to develop this experimental seven-course menu.

To set the scene, we were seated with 10 complete strangers, though all brought together by one thing – a serious love for Gelato Messina. Within arms reach of the dining tables was the kitchen, where the magic takes place. In fact, Chef Remi Talbot invited all guests to ask any questions or wander around the bench to get a closer view. Having worked in Michelin-starred restaurants across the world, Chef Remi Talbot, scooped every quenelle, piped every mousse and placed every edible flower with precision and intent.

So you’re probably curious to know what we ate exactly after all the discussion about creativity. The line up went a little something like this:

1st: Course: Gin and tonic granita with extra virgin olive oil

2nd Course: Herbs sherbet with finger lime, sake and soy cone. Served with apple sparkling, cinnamon and burnt lime foam.

3rd Course: Black tea sherbet with lychee, rose and hibiscus. Served with ginger and lemongrass kombucha.

4th Course: Salted coconut gelato with apricot and elderflower, miso and egg yolk. Served with peach, tonka bean and lemon verbena infusion.

5th Course: Kombu and parsley gelato served with ricotta ravioli and native ingredients. Served with Oolong tea with shitake oil.

6th Course: Butter and sage gelato with potato foam, potato crispy and xo sauce. Served with Sealip Spice 94, burn watermelon rind shrub, wattleseed (this was a highlight for the evening).

7th Course: Spiced muscovado gelato with 52% chocolate mousse with puffed buckwheat. Served with orange and caramelised oak barrel infusion.

If this dining experience has you jumping up and down with excitement then stay tuned for the Melbourne degustation ticket release by visiting the Messina website.


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