Chef from Down Under, HK kitchen 'demon' team up for trial by food

An exclusive dinner on Wednesday at Bo Innovation was titled A Flight of Gastronomy and Wine Discovery, but the feast - organised by Tourism New South Wales as a side event to the International Wine and Spirits Fair - was more like a marathon of gluttony and stamina.

Attended by delegates and winemakers, it featured Sydney's hottest chef, Sean Connolly (pictured left), and Bo's self-styled 'demon chef', Alvin Leung (right), working side by side. Each created nine dishes, not including the plentiful canap?s and palate cleansers, and guests also had 18 glasses of red and white to match the courses. The 8pm dinner not surprisingly went way past its intended midnight cut-off. Suffice to say, it wasn't just the kitchen staff who were exhausted at the finish line. Given the two mischievous chefs in the kitchen, maybe it was just their idea of a little sadistic fun with a lot of food.

'With his blue hair, blue glasses, ink [tattoos], I just found him really interesting,' said Connelly, who was introduced to Leung at a food show in Sydney a month ago. 'But he's a lovable guy despite the punk look. We just hit it off when I met him.'

The whole point of the evening was to show off the wine and produce from Australia's most populous state. Hence there was quite a bit of experimentation with vegemite, venison and even kangaroo meat.

'A lot of the dishes we were doing for the very first time,' Leung said. 'I'd say 70 per cent of it was virgin dishes. Maybe not everything worked but we had fun. Next time maybe we'll start earlier,' the demon added with a devilish smirk.