Wedges With Sour Cream and Chilli Rule at 20 Chapel, Corey Costelloe’s Marrickville Newbie

Listen, potatoes are spectacular. They’re dependable and delicious, and there are people all over Sydney doing fantastic things with them (stuffed into a sanga at Splash with dip-ready curry sauce alongside, comes to mind). Rockpool’s former culinary director Corey Costelloe is the latest chef to do something special with spuds, reinventing a classic – wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli – for 20 Chapel, his new Marrickville restaurant.

“I’m a child of the ’90s, and when I started going out to pubs, you couldn’t go somewhere without getting a bowl of wedges with sweet chilli and sour cream,” Costelloe tells Broadsheet. From one look, it’s clear 20 Chapel’s two-toned pot of condiments is a step above what you’d see at a pub.

“We make two different chillies – one Thai-style chilli jam and another crispy chilli oil – and then we combine the two and serve them with Coppertree Farm’s crème fraîche.” A numbing kick of Sichuan and cumin powder is sprinkled on, too.

The wedges are no less serious. The fat chips are soaked overnight in salted water, then boiled with vinegar; they get blasted at minus 36 degrees Celsius in a blast chiller, then blanched. The last step before they reach your plate? Getting gold and crispy in Wagyu fat.

Costelloe co-owns 20 Chapel with his mate Dave Allison (chef and owner of Stix Farm) and Anthony Qalilawa, former maître d’ at Rockpool. Chef Owen Okada (Rockpool, Saint Peter, Charcoal Fish) is joining Costelloe in the kitchen, where a custom woodfired grill roasts cuts of David Blackmore Wagyu that are dry aged and butchered on-site.

“It’s a really nice relationship with [Blackmore], having the animals come in whole and us breaking them down,” Costelloe says. Blackmore keeps a clutch of smaller-than-usual female Wagyu cattle aside for the 20 Chapel team. “For some reason they didn’t bulk up like the other animals, so they’re small. They’re just going to get fattier – the first one we got was really good, and the one I portioned up today was phenomenal: the marbling on it and the meat.”

The team opened in June to a booked-out Friday through Sunday, where a handkerchief steak joined the taters in top spot. A thinly shaved cut of topside gets a flash through the flames, so there’s a mix of charred, cooked and raw meat. It’s painted with a mix of mirin and soy, then some egg yolk before a nob of smoked butter jumps aboard. “We sold out of that in the first three days and I thought I’d have enough for two weeks!”

Produce from Allison’s 100-acre organic farm Stix – on the Hawkesbury River – fuels the rest of the menu. While the Wagyu stars, there’s plenty for meat-averse diners: grilled ’shrooms top crisp panisse, and agnolotti is stuffed with Stix’s pumpkins. There are grilled baby octopus and a market fish dish, too. A collection of warming veggie dishes are strong supports, and those wedges can be cooked sans tallow if preferred.

The wine list is “gorgeous”, and the steak knives from Portugal were ordered on a whim. “[It was] totally random. I saw this artist – he handmakes every knife [from olive trees]. I had a bit of a chat to him and he was like, ‘Yeah, I can make these knives, but you have to pay me up front.’ I went to the bank and asked them to transfer to this guy’s bank account and they said, ‘No, that’s a scam.’ There’s no receipt, no invoice. I went back and the guy said, ‘Just trust me.’” Trust he did and the knives arrived.

In the industrial-style dining room, there’s room for 64 (plus a chef’s table in the kitchen with space for 12), a Negroni on tap (spruiking gin from Poor Tom’s nearby), and a dark marble bar. The only way to finish? With a slice of the many-layered Russian honey cake.

20 Chapel
20 Chapel Street, Marrickville

Hours:
Wed to Fri 5pm–late
Sat midday–3pm, 5pm–late
Sun midday–3pm

20chapel.com.au
@20chapel