Rendezvous Chocolate

Swiss macaron with “Green Tea Moroccan Mint” jelly, white chocolate ganaché dipped in dark sweet chocolate and decorated with white chocolate.

Continental Fresh Fruit tart

Frangipane tart with Apricot and “Dilmah Italian Almond Tea” jam, “Dilmah Rose with French Vanilla Tea” jelly, creamy Madagascar vanilla custard and glazed local fruit is an enjoyable petit cake to eat anytime.

Quince Cheese Swan

Swans are delightful small pastries to eat either as savoury or sweet and they look incredibly appealing.

“Ceylon Young Hyson Green Tea” infused Avocado & smoked Atlantic Salmon Pinwheel

Salmon pinwheel sandwich are always great for any party, high tea or just a snack.

Baked Vegetable Frittata w/ “Pure Green Tea”

This frittata is a great dish to be used with any meat or by its own.

Passionfruit and “Green tea with natural Lemongrass and Lemon” Curd

This curd is a perfect spread with any sweet scone with its delicious sweet and sour flavour.

Ingredients

300 g unsalted butter

450 g caster sugar

400 g passionfruit pulp

500 g eggs

5 Dilmah “Green tea with natural Lemongrass and Lemon” tea bags

Method

Place butter, sugar, passionfruit pulp, eggs and tea leaves (taken out of the bags) in a bowl over a Bain Marie. Combine with a whisk and keep stirring in between until thickened, this process will take approx. 90 minutes. Pass the mixture through a sieve and place into closed containers. Allow cooling in the fridge before use.

Note: If you like the passionfruit seeds in your curd don’t pass it through the sieve.

“Pure Ceylon Green Tea”, Buttermilk & Orange Scone

Here is the first recipe from the competition. I prefer to use buttermilk in citrus flavoured scones and this is a great sweet scone.

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge 2012, Part 4

Bree McDonald and Alex Petersen present their Silver Medals in front of the restaurant.

It was an incredible outstanding experience competing in Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge in Brisbane and the hard work paid out. I would like to thank everyone involved in this project particularly Dilmah tea. I will be motivated in cooking with tea to be ready for the next years challenge and I will be posting plenty of the efforts. Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting all the recipes from the competition.

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge Australia 2012 part 1

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge Australia 2012 part 2

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge Australia 2012 part 3

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge 2012, Part 3

Brisbane

The competition is to create a good quality contemporary High Tea which contains some guidelines and rules that had to be followed. This is a picture of the variety of teas we had to select from.

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge 2012, Part 2

Alex Petersen and Bree McDonald in Real High Tea Challenge

Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge Australia 2012

Alex and Bree in 2012 Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge, Brisbane, Australia. Part 1

I returned from my overseas trip and was straight away nominated as a member of The Rendezvous Restaurant team of two (Bree and I) to compete in Dilmah’s professional real high tea challenge in Brisbane. Cooking with tea is not something I have practiced, so it is a totally new experience for me to make food with infused tea. We had three weeks to bring a menu together consisting of 6 food items and 4 tea drinks. We had to travel to Brisbane and present the food and drinks to three judges. For the following two weeks I was living and dreaming about tea, learning different new tea flavours, how they are brewed, taste and compliment food. After several attempt we settled on this menu.

The three tier High Tea stand 

The contemporary custom “High Tea”

Today’s trendy idea of "High Tea" tea is most likely derived from the old English traditional afternoon tea. A plain cup of tea has progressed for more than 300 years. This simple tradition seems to have gone through several developments in its short history in the west. It is identified with different names and values depending on where in the world or society. The humble cup of tea is associated with names such as afternoon tea, low tea, high tea, full tea, light tea, meat tea, royal tea, cream tea and more.

Tea in all its developing forms became an exciting and fashionable custom in Europe and America as  people  learned of its benefits. Cooks from tea rooms, heath spas, hotels and restaurant have been a big part of the progress of this tea culture. The tea drinking ritual was started by Europe’s high society in the 1650’s where tea drinking was only affordable by the wealthy people. The tea leaves were imported through merchants by ships to European countries this proved very expensive given the high transport cost from China. Therefore only the rich, royals and alike have been able to benefit from its distinct taste and rituals.

 

The modern phenomenon "High Tea" is in C.EX Coffs

Preparations for the launch of this fully booked and much anticipated event have been in the making for months to be held in the newly renovated restaurant “Rendezvous” at C.EX, Vernon Street, Coffs Harbour. A great deal of research has been done and the “High Tea” menu written. It is time for the staff to create magic by producing and organising everything for this occasion. The petite food pieces are to be placed on the three tier platters having being thoroughly tested. At 12 pm Saturday 23rd January 2010 the doors were open for the contemporary phenomenon of “High Tea”.

Located on the 1st floor in the C.EX club, the Rendezvous room has a wonderful ambience with it’s newly refurbish and contemporary design. The remarkable appearance of this 54 seated restaurant with bar and piano is the perfect setting for the experience of “High Tea”.

Petersen's High Tea at the Paris Ritz

Saturday 3rd July 2010 my wife Bernie (short for Bernadette) and I are getting dressed for our High Tea at 3pm. I am in my black pants, shoes, shirt, jacket, tie and the gold bits. Bernie has a nice grey brocade dress, shoes, cardigan and jewels good enough for a Queen. Accordingly we are now looking like we are living on the top shelves all the time!! We are ready to be putting it on the Ritz. We arrived 2.30 pm at Hotel Ritz, 15 Place Vendôme, 1st Arrondissement, in Paris to participate in what feels like the best High Tea ceremony in Europe. 

Place Vendôme is surrounded by a series of 17th-century buildings dotted with gargoyles and fitted together in a symmetrical octagon, serving as a backdrop to one of the most dazzling areas of Paris. Under the ever watchful eye of Napoleon who is perched high atop on a 144-foot bronze column, the world's most coveted gems are transformed into extravagant trinkets for the world's rich and famous personalities. Spellbinding names like Boucheron, Cartier, Chaumet, Van Cleef & Arpels all boast of a rich and opulent history that has withstood the test of time and continues to flourish, much like the centuries-old square itself.