BISTRO AUSTRALIEN
As anyone dining at Ursula’s will see, Phil Wood has put plenty of thought into the notion of what constitutes “Australian” food.
Opened to critical acclaim eight months ago with his wife, Lis Davies, the 80-seat backstreet Paddington haunt packs the warmth of a local – and the devoted regulars to show for it – but there’s far more at play here than a predictable list of bistro standards.
“As these recipes show, there’s a unique Australianness,” says Wood. “We have dishes with an amazing amount of chilli here and there, sweet and sour with pork dishes, a straightforward beef dish garnished with wasabi and lime. I wish we had a better way of describing it than Mod Oz. Maybe just ‘Australian’ will do.”
Wood credits his four years as culinary director at Pt Leo Estate on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula for his transformation from a chef steeped in fine dining to one of Sydney’s leading exponents of Australian-flavoured bistronomy. “Quite a bit of the inspiration for Ursula’s came from taking that leap from Rockpool and Eleven Bridge out to Pt Leo. My background had been so fine dining and I finally got the chance to write the menu for a bustling bistro. I just realised how joyous a busy little restaurant can be,” he says.
Some of these recipes have starred at Ursula’s since the doors first swung open – such as the golden syrup dumplings, a hat-tip to the no-nonsense doyennes of the CWA. “They’re representative of that era of Australian cookery that I hope isn’t forgotten. Their cookbooks have wonderful, foolproof recipes that always work,” says Wood. “Of course, we want
