Seasonal shift

Chris Matuhina usually only changes his menu with the seasons, but last month he swapped his berth in Adelaide for London's Lanesborough. Fiona Sims reports.

It's spring, and Chris Matuhina is fed up with the rain. Ever since the Australian chef arrived in London it's been grey and drizzly in the capital. "And it's my first visit to England," he grumbles. "Is it always like this?"

Matuhina was invited by London's Lanesborough hotel to take over the kitchen of its Conservatory restaurant for a week at the end of March as part of a guest-chef programme that the hotel has been operating for the past 10 years. He follows in illustrious footsteps - culinary luminaries such as Chicago's Charlie Trotter and France's Roger Vergé have both guested, much to the delight of the Lanesborough's executive chef, Paul Gayler, who says: "It's been a valuable incentive, not only for our guests and visitors, but for my brigade and their stimulation."

Matuhina is from Adelaide, from the Penfolds' Magill Estate Restaurant, where he has headed the kitchen since 1999. It's a little-known fact to non-foodies, but sleepy Adelaide has some of the best restaurants in Australia and has more restaurants per capita than any other Australian city. As for Matuhina's culinary standing, well, Trotter and Tetsuya Wakuda booked in together when the American was last in the city.

They're sure to have been seduced by Matuhina's signature dish of lasagne of local crab and nori with flying fish roe and lime butter sauce, with its very Japanese-style presentation and purity of flavour. It was one of the first dishes he created at the restaurant, but such is its reputation that he doesn't put it on the menu any more because "otherwise that's all we would be cooking". It did, however, travel to London.

Matuhina, whose father is from Croatia, attended catering college in Adelaide, after which he took himself off to Sydney to work with renowned Aussie chef Tony Bilson at the Treasury, where he stayed for a couple of years. He then worked briefly with Luke Mangan (now owner of Sydney's Salt restaurant) before heading back to his home town.

Of his food, he says: "I don't call my food modern Australian or anything like that. It's French Mediterranean, though I've ditched the heavier side and kept the classical techniques." Access to some great local produce, including "the best seafood in the world", drives his cooking, prompting dishes such as snapper and oyster soup with oyster cream, chives and toasted brioche; and a crayfish mousse wrapped in Savoy cabbage.

His menu changes with the seasons, with food-and-wine matching a big feature. Sommelier Matthew Lane accompanied Matuhina to London, and each dish in the Conservatory was matched with a different Penfolds wine. "Food-and-wine matching is a big focus at the restaurant," says Lane. "The principal reason for opening in the first place was to promote Penfolds wines."

Back in Adelaide, all dishes carry a wine recommendation, worked on by both Matuhina and Lane. So does Matuhina get to drink much Grange? "The last thing I want to do at the end of service is drink red wine," he says. "I want a nice, cold beer."

A selection from the menu at the Penfolds' Magill Estate restaurant

Pressed terrine of roasted tomatoes with goats' curd, pesto and tomato vinaigrette, Aus$19 (£7.09)
Smoked salmon mousse and Riesling jelly with poached quail's egg, salmon roe, asparagus and Champagne vinaigrette, Aus$22 (£8.21)
Roasted Kangaroo Island crayfish tail on wakame seaweed couscous with lobster reduction, Aus$43 (£16.04)
Grilled fillet of Wagyu beef with foie gras mousse on English spinach with Swiss brown mushrooms, asparagus and truffle-scented beef glaze, Aus$49 (£18.28)
Steamed rhubarb pudding with almond anglaise and rhubarb compote, Aus$18 (£6.71)
A Glass of Red: trifle of red berries with mulberry sorbet, Aus$18 (£6.71)