I used to just stand there and look out . . . I mean, back then, we might’ve had five chefs in the kitchen and five wait staff on the floor, with only eight people booked in on a Friday night,” recalls Troy Rhoades-Brown, chef/owner of Muse Restaurant in Pokolbin.
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“They’d be sitting in this big dining room; grand, amazing, beautiful; everything looking wonderful, but it was filled with only eight people . . .
“I would stand in the kitchen trying to keep happy and motivated for the sake of the staff, but I just knew that we were losing a lot of money . . .”
This year, Muse Restaurant is celebrating 10 years of fine dining in the Hunter Valley.
“I used to just stand there and slice onions, you know, slice eschallots, like it was some sort of coping mechanism just to get through service,” Rhoades-Brown says.
“There’d be so much going through my mind, like, you’re still trying to believe in yourself, but you’ve got all these mixed up emotions . . . Megan [his wife] would stand up the front and watch the cars drive by, and I would stand in the kitchen slicing bloody onions.”
In the 10 years that Muse Restaurant has been open, the restaurant experience has changed; the concept of fine dining has become more casual, calorie indicators have begun to appear on menus, vintage indicators have begun to disappear off wine lists, and almost all regional chefs practice "paddock to plate".
Troy Rhoades-Brown, however, has grown into that “grand, amazing, beautiful” dining room on the corner of Broke Road and Wine Country Drive, to the point where – 10 years and two constant chef's hats later – Muse Restaurant is the epitome of contemporary fine dining in the Hunter Valley.
“I was just so young, but also very driven and very competitive, maybe a little naïve at the time too," he says. "I knew the space had so much potential . . .
"It was, honestly, do or die.”
What has made Rhoades-Brown the indisputable heir to the Hunter Valley fine dining kingdom is the sheer quality of his food. Deliberately curated, expertly crafted, technically proficient, and executed with an authentic enthusiasm, warmth and honesty, so as to move even the most obstinate of guests.
The air-light decadence of the Muse Coconut is a well-known item for almost anyone who’s ever dined beneath the louvered glass ceiling of the restaurant; made of dark chocolate and brushed with milk chocolate to replicate the husk of a coconut, it's filled with a coconut foam flesh and vanilla coconut water, and sits on a "coconut cloud" consisting of shaved coconut and a sprinkle of colourful, crystallised flowers.
Highlighting certain ingredients, like the humble coconut, is significant of Rhoades-Brown's approach to cooking.
“There’s certain little elements or ingredients that you fall completely in love with along the way,” he says. “A few years ago, we created a smoked chilli togarashi, which is a Japanese seasoning. We get all these local red chillies and, at the end of service in winter, when the fire’s going out, we’ll hang the chillies over the smouldering iron bark and let them smoke overnight. We add that to our fermented black garlic, then we’ll fry up some onion and seaweed and salt, and mix it all together to make the togarashi . . .
“It’s always on the menu, somewhere. It might be on a side dish with some charred kale, or it might be with wood-fired quail, or something else. It’s just a little ingredient that’s there whenever we create a new dish, which helps to uniquely represent us.”
Over the past decade, Muse Restaurant has evolved, naturally and organically, into something that isn’t just significant of Troy, as a determined chef, or Megan as his dedicated partner, or, even the staff, who, over time, have each contributed to the cultivation of the restaurant’s ultimate reputation as being the paragon of fine dining in the region, but, rather, something that is truly symbolic of the Hunter Valley itself.
“Whether it’s the local wineries or certain individuals who’ve been so supportive of us since day one, or the local farmers and growers that we’ve developed such a strong relationship with over the years, or our loyal staff in the kitchen and at the front of house, Muse has always just tried to showcase our beautiful place on a plate,” Rhoades-Brown asserts with all the conviction of a seasoned local.
Muse Restaurant, Hungerford Hill winery,2450 Broke Road, Pokolbin. musedining.com.au. 4998 6777
