Guess who's coming to dinner (at the SCG)?

If you were to ask any reputable food journalist for their list of Sydney’s favourite culinary creations, a few dishes would spring almost universally to mind. Tetsuya’s cured ocean trout, of course; Neil Perry’s Mirabelle tart (a riff on which was recently introduced at the chef’s new restaurant, Margaret); Peter Gilmore’s snow egg, currently off the menu at Quay but never forgotten. Then there are the next-gen hits: Bill Granger’s scrambled eggs, Black Star Pastry’s watermelon cake; Dan Hong’s cheeseburger spring rolls.

Accessing the big hit dishes of Sydney food has not always been easy. For all its legendary status, how many people, in all honesty, have dined at Tetsuya’s? The snow egg is but a memory. Even getting to taste Hong’s famous spring roll, which is a mind trick because it looks like a spring roll but tastes like a cheeseburger — don’t ask me how it’s done — requires a booking at his smallish Potts Point restaurant, Ms G’s, with its loud music and youth-focused vibe.

So news that Hong will be doing a speciality stand at the SCG, starting this summer, selling just cheeseburger spring rolls, could be a seminal moment in this city’s food trajectory.

Hong is confident the stand will be a hit. “I think it will go off,” is how he succinctly puts it.

You’d be a fool not to agree. Hong, as much as any chef in this city, absolutely understands the Sydney palate, with its ever-increasing lean into umami-rich Asian and American flavours. (He’s also doing dim sum at the stadiums, another brilliant and undeniably original idea).

Therein lies the genius of the partnership that has been signed between Venues NSW for its jewels, the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Sydney Football Stadium, and hospitality giant Merivale. For the first time in the ground’s history, the off-field offerings will match the on-field performances. Cult dishes such as the cheeseburger spring roll will suddenly be right there, available for consumption by the public in a mass context. Buy as many as you want, as often as you like. And eat them with Merivale’s take on their porn-star martini (if you’re in the right area, and that way inclined). It’s not the sandwich and canned Tooth’s of old, that’s for sure.

The risk here is all Merivale’s. It is a huge deal to put yourself up for mass public scrutiny, and not an easy task to deliver food to the standard of the city’s best restaurants in a stadium setting.

Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes has put a lot on the line for the deal and has leaned on his top chefs, big names in their own rights, to bring their A-games to this new table. Fred’s star Danielle Alvarez, The Centennial/The Paddington’s Ben Greeno — a man who used to run the tiniest, most bespoke restaurant in Sydney in The Star’s Momofuku Seiobo — and Mimi’s Jordan Toft, to name but three, are among those who spent lockdown hammering out the details of the tastiest, most stadium-friendly dishes they could imagine.

There are also new spaces to enjoy the experience, too, including beautifully themed bars and, in the Members’ Pavilion, 1886, a dining room that’s a Sydney take on a Parisian bistro.

“This is an incredible and truly unique opportunity for Merivale,” Hemmes said when the deal was announced. “We are humbled to be a part of Sydney’s sporting and entertainment history.”

Hemmes went on to say that apart from bringing his talent, his brands and world-class experiences to the grounds, he was also bringing Merivale’s “inherent love of Sydney” with him. This is important.

What he is bringing, in fact, is the taste and the feel of Sydney to the stadium. Generic food is no longer good enough, anywhere. People expect more, they expect something uniquely ours, and finally they’ll get it.

Venues NSW CEO Kerrie Mather describes the Merivale partnership as a “transformational moment for our precinct” and this is absolutely true.

This summer, when we’re at The Ashes or the Big Bash eating Greeno’s delicious crispy chicken wings or Alvarez’s cheesy chicken roll, or sitting in the 1886 dining room supping on Sydney rock oysters and steak frites, the changes will become real to us.

It will be great fun, Sydney style.

This piece first appeared in 1876, the magazine of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust