Book Kitchen, Devonshire St, Surry Hills

Book Kitchen, Devonshire St, Surry Hills
Saturday 10 March, 2007

This is a foodie find. Go for breakfast, lunch and dinner and allow plenty of time to browse the books - cookbooks, food travel, old & new - it's a wonderful distraction.

A visit to Surry Hills for me has to include a side trip to Vivid - a wonderful shop full of gifts, clothes and jewellery. After spending 30 mins here I wondered down to the Book Kitchen to meet my Italy buddy for a leisurely breakfast.

The Book Kitchen was full but not over-crowded and we easily secured a table near the open kitchen. It's a converted warehouse with concrete floors and exposed beams - the dining area is a small & compact space and there's a library of books in the front on the right. After ordering coffees our waiter asked us if we would consider moving to another table. He had table of 8 waiting and couldn't fit them in anywhere else. 'Not a problem' was our reply to which he almost hugged us and then said the coffees were on him. Thanks.

We checked out the menu and I love the fact they offer breakfast until 3pm. I couldn't go past the Spanish baked eggs with tomato confit, capsicum and oregano (chorizo optional). It just sounded so good and the chorizo was an absolute must. My Italian buddy ordered the same.

The baked eggs arrived at the table on a large white plate and looked sensational - a plate full of eggs, tomato, capsicum and chorizo (which was a little light on) served with great coffee (a special blend by Single Origin Roasters). What more could you want for breakfast?

The Book Kitchen offers more than just great food - as their description states,

The Book Kitchen is the result of passionate chefs travelling the world experiencing culinary delights when and wherever possible. David Campbell worked for Tetsuya in London and transferred to the US to continue the concept for Millennium Hotels. After experiencing in New York how restaurant menus can be so produce driven, David knew it was time to start sharing his passion with fellow foodies. Time in London and Europe showed just how much Australians miss out on food literature. Not just cookbooks but novels, reference guides, photographic journals, foreign language books and professional texts.

Our new "kitchen'' combines serving the freshest, sustainable, seasonal produce available with a broad selection of food related books. Our floor staff are a combination of chefs and other industry people who love epicurean books. Our aim is to create an atmosphere to stimulate the minds of all lovers of food.

The Book Kitchen sources organic and free range produce where possible. This means that we search for the best seasonal produce with our suppliers. As organic and bio-dynamic foods use traditional farming methods and don't use pesticides, ingredients aren't always available. So where we can we will substitute for another ingredient. Our menus are market driven, as we go to the markets ourselves twice a week we can change the menu accordingly.
We have sourced bio-dynamic eggs from Havago farm in Oberon, use Country Valley organic milk in our coffee, use line caught fish and other ecologically sustainable produce.

I love this place and will go back for dinner one day soon.

Book Kitchen - 255 Devonshire St, Surry Hills - (02) 9310 1003

http://www.thebookkitchen.com.au/