Fishtales

10/02/2026

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Bronte Road Fish is what happens when Bronte Road Bistro has a Kylie moment — and Stewie commits to a mid-life crisis with admirable technique. New outfit, louder soundtrack, zero regrets.

I turned up as the old cynic, ready to mourn the perfect steak frites and that smug little Burgundy list… and instead I remembered I’m allowed to have fun in public.

Get the tuna smash burger (Southern Bluefin, pickles, American cheese, spicy tomato sauce, potato bun softer than my principles) and the potato scallop — crisp, plush, chicken-salt perfection. Finish with soft serve drowned in salted caramel and Biscoff crumb. Shame is optional.

Drinks: the Margarita slushy is an evil trick — one becomes two before your brain loads. The Karaoke lager is the “responsible” chaser that somehow makes you bolder.

No Chiko rolls. This is Bronte: the nostalgia has been priced out. 🍸🐟🍔 Well done all 👏👏

29/01/2026

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A huge congratulations to our friend John Susman on being awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the hospitality industry and the seafood sector.

A lifelong champion of Australian seafood, and particularly the Rock Oyster, ’s enthusiasm and generosity for the Festival extend well beyond his roles as host of our Ultimate Oyster Experience and calling the Australian Oyster Shucking Championships.

John’s deep knowledge of merroir, cultivation and oyster species makes every Ultimate Oyster Experience truly transformative. His long-standing friendships with growers and their shucking techniques, and his sharp wit, make his calling of the Australian Oyster Shucking Championships one of the most exciting and compelling races you could witness.

Congratulations, John!

He is currently preparing for another important role, Chair of Judges for the Sydney Royal Fine Food Aquaculture Competition.

Judging takes place on Wednesday, Feb 4 (the same day that festival tickets go on sale!) and across Rock Oyster Country, farmers are readying their finest oysters for harvest, carefully managing the influence of tides, moon phases and freshwater flows to ensure peak condition.

We’re honoured that General Manager Renee Pearce has been invited to serve as an associate judge this year. While tasting Australia’s best oysters makes us giddy with excitement, John, Renee and the judging panel follow a rigorous 100-point blind tasting system, assessing shell shape, meat-to-shell ratio, colour, texture, aroma and more.

We can’t wait to see the results!

NaroomaOysterFestival eurobodalla FeelNSw australia

31/12/2025

2025 was spent doing what I do best: loitering around the edges of the ocean with intent, and calling it “work.”

It was a year of edible surprises — oysters that tasted like a clean argument with the tide, prawns with the kind of sweetness that makes you briefly believe in virtue, and tuna so immaculate it felt less like food and more like a quiet reprimand. I watched dawn break over markets where the lighting is criminal and the standards are not, and I ate in places where a single scallop is presented with the solemnity of a royal infant.

Seafood, of course, remains the only global language spoken fluently by chefs, fishermen, and the happily obsessed. It delivers adventure in small bites: a new species, a new coast, a new trick of texture that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about “fresh.”

Now 2026 is sitting there like an unopened bottle of something expensive — full of promise, slightly intimidating, and best approached with friends who know where the good ice is.

Same appetite. New oceans.

21/11/2025

We’ve just staggered back from a North American seafood safari – 15 distributors, 20 retailers and more than 80 chefs politely interrogated over plates of their finest.

The headline? Apparently no self-respecting chef will so much as look at a fish that hasn’t been “aged” like a minor Bordeaux, everyone is cooking from the same depressingly narrow cast of species, and yet – somehow – the oyster lists are curated with the obsessive devotion of a watch collector in Geneva.

In short: the fish are few, the oysters are fabulous, and the cult of “fish ageing” is alive, well, and sharpening its yanagiba.

10/11/2025