In Review

Marque might be one of the creative engines pulling Australian restaurants into the future, a place where inventive food can dazzle, challenge and thrill, but it’s also offering a smoother and more luxurious ride for its customers than ever before.

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Intelligent cooking, perceptive service and a top wine list add up to a winning package, writes Terry Durack. When Mark and Valerie Best took over what was a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant in Crown Street in 1999, they found the previous chef’s prep list still hanging on the fridge. There were only four words on it, evocative [...]

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Whether you”re having the $45 Friday lunchtime special, straight EMD (that”s entree, main and dessert) or you go the whole nine yards with the ten-course degustation, Marque Restaurant is bells and whistles the entire way. Chef/owner Mark Best, along with chef Pasi Petanen, creates dishes that are a mix of unrestrained (he once had a [...]

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Marque Review Is Mark Best Sydney’s very own Willy Wonka and the ultra-chic, recently remodelled Marque his factory of culinary creativity? Even Best’s band of loyal workers dishes out advice with a wink. The cheeky sommelier, Peter Healy, convinces diners to order Austrian red wine from the European- focused, eclectic wine list. Now that’s pure magic. [...]

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Marque 18/20Set-price Friday lunch The summary  The $45 lunch must be the best-value meal anywhere in Sydney and perhaps the world. You may find cheaper but I doubt it”s in the same class. Brilliant. Chef Mark Best Owners Mark and Valerie Best Service Crisp Food French contemporary Wine A splendid, classy, French-leaning list; 18 by [...]

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MARK BEST is a mercurial thinker who pops out of the kitchen to check on his diners during service like a prairie dog on high alert. As the Good Food Guide says of its 2010 Chef of the Year, Best (pictured) is Sydney”s own Willy Wonka and a three-hat fine diner, Marque, is his factory [...]

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EXCUSE what may be a long bow, but what is it about electricity and food? Is it more than coincidence that among the ranks of Australia”s truly great chefs we have two reformed sparkies? The first electrician of gastronomy was, of course, the Greek god of the kitchen, Janni Kyritsis – who sadly no longer [...]

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Hiding in plain sight on Crown Street, the crack team at Marque are turning out some of the country’s finest food. With a minor facelift, the restaurant sparkles anew, says Pat Nourse. Meet Mark Best, the pragmatic fantasist. He’s the guy who still has the pliers he bought as an apprentice electrician working in the mines [...]

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Restaurant News Mark Best, chef-patron of Sydney three-star Marque, talks to Gourmet Traveller features editor Pat Nourse about carrot juice, sleeping with Rodin and needle-nose pliers. Why did you open Marque? I never had any great aspirations to open a restaurant as Marque is now, it’s just that the ambition has grown as my technique [...]

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