Celsius

LOCATION
Opposite Chinatown and Central Market.

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
On a rainy night in Adelaide’s parklands a figure is seen crouching down, torch and bucket in hand, pawing through greenery. Crazy man? - yes perhaps a little but one thrice awarded our state’s top chef. A self-confessed forager, he was seeking snails for “Vegetable Patch, his signature dish. Those unearthed were rehomed to a plate with ‘soil’, raw and pickled vegetables, herbs, and nasturtiums plucked from Waterfall Gully. After spending time in the restaurant voted world’s best, Copenhagen’s “Noma”, this young Turk considers its famed chef Rene Redzepi, a fellow forager.
Celsius’ menu shares Erkoc’s fascination and sophistication with food. He executes a contemporary mix of molecular and classic cookery, using produce experimented with on his Turkish parents’ property. Results have seen bubbled pork crackling with yoghurt and fennel pollen; and Barossa Valley chicken with blood sausage, yolk, walnut and – milk skin. Black Angus beef fillet has been found cocooned under a transparent veil of horseradish jelly with potato, onion and “ash”. When asked why the name “Celsius” Erkoc explains, “It is what we are all about…temperature...the sous vide style of cooking”. The forecasted temperature for Celsius is likely to remain hot.

Roz Taylor