Nigella Lawson can't get enough of these Sydney hotspots - and names her pick of the best 'roast chook' in town
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has been on the ground in Sydney for less than a week and has already frequented more restaurants than many of us would in a year.
The British culinary queen wasted no time heading straight to her favourite local institutions - the latest being Sean's, the beloved beachside restaurant perched above North Bondi with uninterrupted ocean views.
In her usual gushing style, the foodie posted her meal on Instagram, raving to her 3.1million followers and describing her experience as 'the perfect Sydney Sunday' spot.
Nigella followed with a mouth-watering rundown of her long lunch, which began with a delicate fennel chowder studded with sweet blue claw yabbies and a show-stopping plate of vibrant crudités.
It was the main event however - a classic Aussie roast chook - that stole her heart.
'Roast chook at @seansbondi epitomises the perfect Sydney Sunday for me,' she wrote, adding that the entire experience left her not only speechless but physically full.
'I'm actually too full up even to write now, which explains why this is a short caption by my standards.'
For those who follow Nigella, known for her poetic Instagram musings, that admission alone speaks volumes.
Her second favourite was the cruditées and fennel chowder with blue claw yabbies (pictured)
Still, she managed to squeeze in praise for the 'dreamy' dessert of crostoli with pistachio cream, kumquat, quince and persimmon.
Also winning Nigella's heart? The ambiance and soul of the restaurant itself, lovingly referring to owner-chef Sean Moran and his team as 'radiating gorgeousness, as ever'.
She also couldn't help but fawn over the venue's signature feature: its hand-written blackboard menu. 'Oh, that blackboard of joy,' she wrote.
Nigella was joined by her longtime friend and photographer Petrina Tinslay, who has shot many of Nigella's most iconic cookbook covers over the years.
The pair have been frequent collaborators, but this lunch was clearly more about indulgence than industry.
Sean's, which has quietly retained its cult status since opening in 1993, has long been favoured by in-the-know Sydneysiders who flock to the whitewashed beach house for its paddock-to-plate philosophy, relaxed charm and that unbeatable Bondi backdrop.
Since being in Sydney, Nigella also frequented another old Sydney favourite of hers, Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point.
'My first stop in Sydney has to be Fratelli Paradiso. It's one of my rules for a good life,' she wrote on Instagram.
'Walking through the doors after a year away just felt like coming home. I love everything about this place: great people, great mood, great food.'
While Nigella admitted the restaurant's dim lighting wasn't ideal for taking photos, she found a moment to capture the final course once her neighbouring table had cleared.
The dessert - the show-stopping Bombalaska - left her speechless.
'Behold the beauteous Bombalaska! I don't expect to eat a better pudding while I'm here, and I don't need to: I'll just keep coming back for this,' she wrote.
The dish features a base of hazelnut praline, pistachio semifreddo and lemon curd all tucked beneath a bronzed dome of flame-kissed Italian meringue.
'Yes, I know! I swooned with each spoonful,' she added.
Before reaching that final, sugar-laced high, Nigella indulged in a meal that read like a greatest hits list.
She opened with her usual on-arrival order, Olive Ascolane - plump green olives stuffed with sharp cheese, breadcrumbed and deep fried.
That was followed by a tangle of bitter puntarelle dressed with anchovies, a serve of the restaurant's famed scampi spaghettini, and a thick pork chop paired with agretti (also known as monk's beard) and creamy white polenta.
'I did have help eating all this, by the way,' she joked, adding, 'purring with pleasure, and planning when I can come back for more.'
Fratelli Paradiso has long been a firm favourite of locals and celebrities alike.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
TOM PARKER BOWLES reviews Town: ‘Five stars – it is an instant London classic'
Well, I sure wasn't expecting this. The vast, buzzy, glamour-drenched room with the tiled walls, gleaming red pillars and 1960s-style modernist ceiling that wouldn't look out of place in the lair of a Connery-era Bond baddie. There's blond wood, velvet banquettes and leather-topped tables. Hell, this is a place where even the pot plants look sexy. Welcome to Town, the new Drury Lane restaurant from chef Stevie Parle. Talk about coming back with a bang. I've long admired Parle's cooking, at Sardine, Dock Kitchen and Joy. He's one of those rare chefs who can mix dishes from disparate cuisines without ever compromising or dumbing down. At Town the menu feels essentially European with a few global flourishes – some homemade XO sauce here, a miso-flavoured dip there. The cooking is both simple and sophisticated; a chef and kitchen at the very top of their game. We start with sage leaves, deep-fried and drizzled with chilli-infused honey, a dish that seems dull on paper but turns out to be crisp, chewy and rather addictive. His take on gildas, that classic Basque pintxo, replaces anchovy and olive with soused mackerel and shiso leaf. It works, managing to retain that essentially salty, umami allure. Potato sourdough bread, light and freshly baked, arrives with a pot of pan-drippings gravy, complete with scraps of meat, that coats the lips with a lustre of sweet fat. You can never have enough gravy. Sea bass crudo is lithe, clean and impeccably fresh, bathed in an artfully acidic tomato water: a dish of exquisite poise and balance. T-bone steak, lustily seasoned and magnificently meaty, comes from Wildfarmed, a farm with an admirably regenerative philosophy and one that translates into a very superior piece of beef. God, I love this place. The food, the service, the room, the cocktails, the seductively dim lighting… In the interests of transparency, one of the backers, Jonathan Downey, is a friend. Which means I have to judge it all the more exactingly. Town certainly isn't cheap, but food of this quality rarely is. 'It's a bit off-grid,' says a well-informed industry insider at the next table. 'But this could make the wrong end of Drury Lane very cool indeed.' Town has only been open a couple of weeks, but feels like it's been here for ever. It is, in short, an instant London classic.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Hugh Jackman gives small Melbourne theatre huge celebrity endorsement
Hugh Jackman has given a huge shout out to a little local theatre in regional Victoria. The Aussie A-lister, 56, took to his Instagram Stories on Saturday to drum up support for his old drama school mate, Mark Constable, who is putting on an Australian comedy in Macdeon. 'I recommend you go and check out this gem of a play. It's an Aussie play. 'For people who are in Australia, or wherever you are in the world, if you want to go down to Mount Macedon just outside Melbourne - there is an incredible little theatre called the Mountview theatre,' Hugh said. 'And they are doing a production of the Appleton Ladies Potato Race. It's a gem of a play. It will move you. It will make you laugh. You will laugh your heads off. 'It's directed by a great mate of mine that I went to drama school with, Mark Constable, who is awesome. He told me to say he's a genius. He's great.' The Aussie A-lister, 56, took to his Instagram Stories on Saturday to drum up support for his old drama school mate, Mark Constable, who is putting on an Australian comedy 'The Appleton Ladies Potato Race' at the Mountview Theatre in Macedon from June 13 'It's at a regional theatre and it's going to be phenomenal,' the Wolverine star continued in his glowing endorsement. The Mountview theatre has a capacity of 100 and the play will run for three weekends from June 13 to June 29. 'Although I have a funny feeling it may get extended,' Hugh said. 'When Penny Anderson, the town's new GP, returns to her childhood home of Appleton, she's shocked to find the local potato race prize still sits at $1000 for men and just $200 for women,' a synopsis for the play reads. 'Determined to change this outdated tradition, she sets out on a mission to even the playing field. But not everyone is on board, especially the no-nonsense Bev, who sees Penny as another city slicker disrupting country ways.' Margot Knight, Shayne Francis, Sharnie Page, Sophie Cleary and Sheila Kumar star in the 'big-hearted Australian comedy.' Hugh, who is currently starring in his one-man live show at Radio City and his new off-Broadway play 'Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes', recently appeared on Good Morning America to talk about why he returned to the stage. 'I felt I wasn't doing the thing I loved to do enough,' he revealed. 'I wasn't acting enough. I love the theatre. I think it should be available for everyone.' 'Sometimes I feel more relaxed on stage than I do in life,' Hugh admitted during his sit down interview. 'I don't know what it is. I'm living the dream.' In Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Hugh engages in multiple steamy make-out sessions with his 25-year-old co-star, Ella Beatty. The pair were seen larking around in rehearsals this week. Hugh had his arm wrapped around the budding actress, who is the daughter of Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, and he beamed from ear to ear as he gave the camera a thumbs up. It follows reports that Hugh is turning up the heat on stage - as he continues to date his new girlfriend, Broadway actress Sutton Foster. Foster, 50, even made a backstage appearance this week, trying to quiet whispers that their new relationship has been on shaky ground since going public in January. But the show's raunchy moments can't be easy to watch for Foster, who reportedly struck up an offstage relationship with the Greatest Showman star while playing his love interest onstage. Adding more fuel to the gossip mill, fresh photos of the pair holding hands during the curtain call have sent tongues wagging. Offstage, Hugh's own split from Deborra-Lee Furness seems to mirror the emotional storm The two beamed with pride, looking completely at ease with the intimate gesture. It's not just the steamy make-out scenes turning up the heat — Hugh also unleashes a barrage of expletives, including blunt, graphic lines about a college cheerleader 'sucking his c***' Offstage, Hugh's own split from Deborra-Lee Furness seems to mirror the emotional storm. The actor, who has only been married once, announced his split from Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, in September 2023 after 27 years of marriage. In a joint statement at the time, they said they were 'shifting' and had decided to 'separate to pursue our individual growth.' The couple share two adopted children, Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19. Hugh and Sutton's relationship reportedly overlapped with the end of his marriage.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
What It Feels Like for a Girl to Turnstile : the week in rave reviews
BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence The wild, witty tale of a 00s Nottinghamshire adolescence that leaps from sex work to drug-fuelled nights of hedonism, adapted from trans writer Paris Lees' autobiography. What our reviewer said 'A resolutely unsentimental tale of a chaotic, morally ambiguous period of transition. It's certainly a wild ride.' Rachel Aroesti Read the full review Further reading 'All of us felt like we had touched gold': What It Feels Like for a Girl, the BBC's electric coming-of-age tale Netflix; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A tense, twisty adaptation of an Australian crime novel, set against the tale of the only survivor of a disaster moving back to his rage- and sorrow-filled small town home after 15 years of self-imposed exile. What our reviewer said 'A study in how raw grief and festering resentment warp everything – and how surviving a tragedy rarely means getting away unscathed.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Apple TV+; episodes weekly Summed up in a sentence Owen Wilson charms as a washed-up golfer turned coach in a redemptive sporting tale that hopes to be the Ted Lasso of hitting balls with metal sticks. What our reviewer said 'It's a pleasant, feelgood half-hour every time. It never outstays its welcome, everyone puts in a solid performance and Wilson brings every ounce of energy he has to every scene he's in.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Further reading Owen Wilson's charmingly funny golf drama is as feelgood as Ted Lasso BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence A profile of the terrorist who was once the most wanted man in the world, featuring an exclusive phone interview with him from prison – in which he inadvertently shatters his mystique. What our reviewer said 'This guy has been romanticised as international terrorism's answer to James Bond – a man of mystery as suave as he is elusive. Close up, he gives off loner vibes, and the photos we see of his various guises don't burnish his cool-villain credentials, either: he almost always looks like a beady uncle whom female guests have to avoid at a wedding disco.' Jack Seale Read the full review BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence A thoughtful, sober documentary about a staggering football stadium fire, to mark 40 years since the tragedy unfolded. What our reviewer said 'Perhaps the film's most memorable sequence arrives when we watch television coverage of the game, which soon becomes a report on the fire. The shortness of the time that elapses between minor incident and major disaster is wholly terrifying.' Jack Seale Read the full review Further reading: 'The whole city was touched': Bradford marks 40 years since the Valley Parade fire In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence In a spinoff from the John Wick franchise, Ana de Armas is a feisty assassin trained in ballet and martial arts, combining delicacy and violence in her quest for vengeance. What our reviewer said 'De Armas carries off the essential silliness of Ballerina and, after her performance as Paloma in No Time to Die opposite Daniel Craig's 007, she proves again she can do action, in both couture and daytime wear.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Joachim Lang's bleak film shows a preening Goebbels and a careworn Hitler as they battle to convince the German public, and themselves, they will win the war. What our reviewer said 'In its subversive, austerely satirical way, the film feels almost like a B-side to Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall from 2004, and Lang has perhaps even inhaled, just a little, the numberless internet parody memes that Downfall inspired, with English subtitles reinterpreting Hitler's impotent rage.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary on Columbia pro-Palestine student protests of April 2024, is fascinating but much has been superseded by the arrest of student organiser Mahmoud Khalil after the re-election of Trump. What our reviewer said 'Khalil is smilingly interviewed at the end, stating his belief that this cause is approaching success. But that interview was presumably filmed before the new brutality of the Trump administration and the outrageous arrest of Khalil, who is now held in a Louisiana jail, and was only recently allowed to see his infant son.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Isabelle Huppert gives the performance of her career in Michael Haneke's 2001 tale of a sado-masochistic music professor, rereleased as part of a Haneke retrospective. What our reviewer said 'There can be no doubt of Haneke's extraordinary ability to generate scenes of nerve-jangling disquiet and intimately unpleasant trauma. He can simply put you in a place you don't want to be, and keep you there.' Peter Bradshaw Further reading No pain no gain: director Michael Haneke talks sadomasochism with Stuart Jeffries Read the full review Prime Video; available now Summed up in a sentence Cillian Murphy plays a man who witnesses Ireland's church's abusive workhouses for unwed mothers in a piercingly painful Magdalene Laundries drama. What our reviewer said 'Murphy shows us once again his sightless stare of fear and pain, as the witness to something terrible not just in the real world but within himself.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Review by Olivia Laing Summed up in a sentence The enigmatic novelist reconsidered. What our reviewer said 'Brilliant, beautiful and disinclined to conceal her talent or ambition, Spark was much desired and much despised in London.' Read the full review Review by Gaby Hinsliff Summed up in a sentence The former New Zealand PM takes us behind the scenes of her years in office. What our reviewer said 'Ardern is a disarmingly likable, warm and funny narrator, as gloriously informal on the page as she seems in person.' Read the full review Further reading 'Empathy is a kind of strength': Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump's America Review by Josie Glausiusz Summed up in a sentence How wildlife survives in the most extreme environments What our reviewer said 'In 2022 scientists were able to film a snailfish at 8,336 metres below sea level off the coast of Japan – a depth roughly equivalent to the height of Everest' Read the full review Review by Sarah Moss Summed up in a sentence A book about art, faith and relationship breakdown that is half fiction, half something else What our reviewer said 'Lacey is fascinated by literary form and by the metaphors for literary form, finding fiction at once a constraint and a space for play.' Read the full review Review by Nina Allen Summed up in a sentence Portrait of a film-maker's moral struggles under the Nazis, from the author of Measuring the World. What our reviewer said 'The Director has all the darkness, shapeshifting ambiguity and glittering unease of a modern Grimms' fairytale: it is Kehlmann's best work yet.' Read the full review Review by Sara Collins Summed up in a sentence An astute and moving exploration of female experience. What our reviewer said 'Such is the nature of Adichie's masterly sentences, clear as polished windowpanes, that one has no choice but to look more closely, and to see that what these women pine for is always out of reach.' Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Already pushing the boundaries of hardcore punk into pop and beyond, the Baltimore band press on even further with their latest LP. What our reviewer said 'There's so much else happening, a profusion of ideas so deftly handled, but it never feels sprawling or indulgent.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Out 13 June Summed up in a sentence They helped to pioneer Zambia's 'Zamrock' sound in the early 1970s – and their first new album in 30 years shows that the vocal power of 74-year-old frontman Emmanuel 'Jagari' Chanda is undiminished. What our reviewer said 'Highlight Nadi could be peak Led Zeppelin if not for Chanda's playfully AutoTuned Bemba lyrics skipping over the band's chugging psych riffs. These joyously strange combinations show the Zamrock originators to be just as imaginative now as they ever were.' Ammar Kalia Read the full review Further reading Witch: the glory and tragedy of Zambia's psych-rock trailblazers Out now Summed up in a sentence The youthful Chicago DIY darlings deliver their debut album of tightly wound post-punk – and it's a total blast. What our reviewer said 'Urgent, off-kilter and even slightly disorienting … it's refreshing to hear a young band make such a bold racket.' Dave Simpson Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Revisiting the work György Ligeti made amid a sharp stylistic shift in the 1980s, this set features Isabelle Faust on violin and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger on piano. What our reviewer said 'Both are remarkable works, which seem utterly fresh and original, yet identifiably remain part of the concerto tradition.' Andrew Clements Read the full review Ovo Hydro, Glasgow; touring to 15 June Summed up in a sentence The 75-year-old pop legend heads back out to arenas, and delivers a masterclass in charm. What our reviewer said 'He has joyful chemistry with his band, and together they put plenty of polish on Richie's trophy cabinet of hits … this is Richie on cruise control, but radiant nonetheless.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review
