A Moment For: Dear Sainte Eloise’s Juicy Slice of Summer

This is a new Sydney bite that, quite literally, near bursts with flavour. Sweet watermelon, compressed to max out the flavour, topped with briny summer tomatoes: bright in colour and taste. It’s on the latest menu at Dear Sainte Eloise, the Love Tilly Group’s Potts Point wine bar.

“The goal is to deepen the tomato’s natural sweetness and umami while contrasting the freshness of the watermelon,” Gabriel del Conti, group head chef, tells Broadsheet. “The recipe developed through experimentation with compression techniques. I wanted to take something as familiar as watermelon and give it a whole new identity by manipulating its texture.”

The dressed-up fruit joins the snacks menu next to the signature anchovy-topped brioche finger, a bright crudo and an outstanding comté dip topped with a salad of figs, stone fruit and tomatoes. Here are all the details for a dish you’d best get before summer’s up.

What: watermelon and fermented tomato.
How: “The tomato gets chopped into a chunky puree then fermented for a couple of days, to concentrate the flavours”, before the watermelon is compressed with fermented tomato juice (just before service, to retain its texture). The slices are topped with the chunky fermented tomato and a sprinkling of chives.
Cost: $8 per slice
Where: Dear Sainte Eloise in Potts Point.

@dearsainteeloise