Iconic Sydney restaurant Aria will celebrate its 25-year anniversary next month and join the quarter-century club.
Matt Moran opened the waterside venue in September 1999, with the restaurant fast establishing itself as one of the leading and most-awarded fine diners.
“It’s hard to narrow down highlights of Aria over the past 25 years,” says Moran. “Aria has been an institution for many years; it’s my baby and flagship restaurant.”
For Moran, much has changed since the restaurant opened its doors.
“Back in the day, we were trying to do a little bit of everything on the menu,” he says. Things are quite different now as the restaurant has shifted its focus to seasonality, sustainability, “and shining a light on our incredible local producers”.
To celebrate the milestone, Aria is offering two limited-run menus from 2-29 September. The first is the 25th birthday tasting menu, which sees legacy dishes reinvented.
The seven-course menu includes dishes such as yellowfin tuna with daikon, bergamot, and dashi – a tribute to the earl grey salmon dish of 2010 and scallops with Moran Family Farm guanciale, apple, and elderflower – a nod to the various iterations of pork belly dishes from 1999 to 2016.
The second offering revolves around bar snacks from former Aria chefs including Elvis Abrahanowicz (Paisano & Daughters) and Matt Abé from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
“It’s been a great ride to work with so many talented chefs and see many go on to achieve incredible things themselves,” says Moran, who continues to support chefs as they come into the kitchen and ascend the ranks.
“Across all of our venues, we nurture young and up-and-coming chefs,” he says. “Having multiple restaurants means we can move staff around into different positions and venues to foster growth, encourage development, and provide mentorship on many levels.”
The beverage offering has also been modified, with a number of new additions available from a gin martini (Never Never gin, vermouth, brown butter) to the Lamington Milk Punch (Red Mill rum, NoDo Coconut, muscat, raspberry, cacao).
“Celebrating 25 years is an acknowledgement to all the staff, guests, suppliers, and producers we have worked with,” says Moran. “Everyone who has stepped through the doors has made Aria the restaurant it is today.”
Looking ahead, Moran says the most exciting thing for him is “continuing on Aria’s legacy”.
Here’s to another 25 years.
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