Star City chef, Sean Connolly

Hospitality - December 2004

Astral, the fine dining restaurant in Sydney’s Star City casino complex, is one of the city’s best-kept secrets. “There’s a perception you can’t get good food in a casino,” says head chef Sean Connolly, adding that most diners are astounded when they discover the modern international menu and the “awesome” 270-degree view. At the helm in the Astral kitchen for the past nine years, Connolly’s position as head chef was recently expanded to include the role of restaurant manager. The added responsibility, coupled with a huge injection of funds to update the décor, is part of a concerted effort to ensure the restaurant no longer remains a secret.

“By the end of (2005), everyone will know about Astral,” says a confident Connolly, who has been hooked on cooking since he was a 12-year-old lad in Yorkshire, England. Bringing home the first apple pie he made in his home economics class, he was bowled over by the praise he received from his family. “That was it then for me. I just wanted to keep cooking,” says the now 37-year-old Connolly. For three years from the age of 13, he spent his Friday and Saturday nights working for free at the Hilton Hotel, where he subsequently did his apprenticeship. He went on to work on the QE2 cruise ship for a few years, and says he learnt more there than he did during his apprenticeship. “It was really interesting with all the different chefs from different backgrounds from all these amazing countries.”

In 1988, Connolly came to Sydney for a six-month holiday and never went back, captivated by Australia’s “laidback (lifestyle), nice people, beautiful weather”. He found a job at 25th Floor, a fine dining restaurant in the Sydney Boulevard Hotel, where he worked for four years, honing his management skills in the kitchen. After taking a year off to travel around India and Thailand with his now wife, Jo, he spent two and a half years as sous chef at Gekko in Sydney’s Sheraton on the Park. Moving to Astral in 1995, he could have drawn on his experiences in India and Thailand but chose to focus on his English heritage and classical training.

“For chefs like Tetsuya and Cheong Liew, (fusion food) is in their blood, so leave them to it, I say. I prefer to draw on my memories and the dishes I was brought up on. I like to think of it as comfort food with a modern twist.” One of his most popular dishes is a blackberry and apple crumble soufflé, while another is a chocolate fondant with cherries and cream, a “deconstruction” of the ubiquitous Black Forest cake. Aiming to do “fun food that people recognise”, he has also created a duck and foie gras pie floater. Connolly is inspired by Gordon Ramsay and Anton Mosimann, and counts himself lucky to have met both. He feels especially privileged to have worked for a short time with Swiss-born Mosimann, who achieved two Michelin stars for London’s Dorchester Hotel, the first time such an accolade had been awarded to a hotel.

Connolly appreciates their food because “it’s got some complexity but is still really simple and clean.” That might seem a contradiction in terms, but not so, he says. “It’s the lengths you go to, to produce a dish. For example, I could make a daube of beef that takes two days to prepare – 24 hours marinating and five hours braising in the oven. It has a depth of complexity and flavour but is simple on the plate.” Connolly believes his food is becoming more and more refined every time he creates a new menu. “We’re just trying to push the boundaries as far as the look of the food and the combination of flavours go,” he says, citing the example of his scallop and pig ear salad.

Despite heading a brigade of 10 (12 counting those who do breakfast) and 20 front of house staff, Connolly still manages to visit the fruit and vegetable market and the fish market once a week. He also sources some product directly from suppliers, coming to an arrangement with a friend on Kangaroo Island who is harvesting samphire. Connolly will use it in Astral and distribute it to other Sydney chefs. He remembers samphire from his holidays in Wales. “We used to pick it and cook it with some fish. It has the taste of the sea. I can’t think of anything better than that.” While he adores seafood, Astral offers a broad selection of dishes, including a handful that never leave the menu. The blackberry and apple crumble soufflé, and the duck and foie gras pie floater, are among the stalwarts, as is his lobster ravioli with ginger and treacle beurre blanc.

His recent appointment as restaurant manager will require him to spend more time out of the kitchen, but Connolly says he is lucky to have a team of good chefs to support him, as well as “heaps of support” from the casino management for his ideas on sprucing up the restaurant. Due to be relaunched in February/March, Astral is currently undergoing a facelift. The décor will be more contemporary, there will be extensive renovations to the bar and an impressive new cellar, literally a wall of wine with a ladder sliding across. While Connolly concedes that there is not a big market for fine dining, neither is he convinced that it is past its use-by date. Like the demand for Cartier and Gucci products, he says, there’ll “always be a place for fine dining”.

While Astral is the flagship of Star City, the complex has a total of 14 restaurants and bars catering for every taste and budget. At least 1000 of its 4000 staff work in food and beverage, around 150 of them chefs. Dining choices range from the Italian-themed Al Porto and Pyrmont’s steak and seafood, to the Lotus Pond, offering authentic Chinese cuisine in a palatial setting. The Garden Buffet restaurant offers particularly good value buffet dining from morning to night, serving around 3500 people a day. Connolly says that as the bench is raised at Astral, changes will flow through to the other venues. “You have to be the best of the best, otherwise you fall by the wayside. For me, I want Astral to be one of the leading hotel restaurants in the world.”

© Christine Salins

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