I wish to thank the Sydney Opera House Trust from a Melbournian’s
perspective for their decision to downgrade and make Bennelong restaurant more 'accessible'.
That pesky Frenchman created a beautiful multi-hat
restaurant called Bennelong within our national icon. A first class affair befitting its status. Guillaume Brahimi, being that pesky Frenchman, sought to create
something special in the space as has Ducasse who leads the restaurant Jules
Verne within Paris’s Eiffel tower. Little
compromise in either ‘wonders of the world’.
However, Australians it seems, according to the opera house trust,
want an ‘accessible’ venue similar to the dozens of cafes and restaurants in
the immediate vicinity.
The Utzon hating Ryan Committee of yesteryear seems reborn –
‘don’t bother to create something really special because us Australian’s just
want pub tucker – no need for that smancy stuff – just give us another café/bar’.
Nothing special or world leading, just average so us average
people can go there and feel, well, average.
As Sydney does not seem to appreciate how to deal with ‘first class’ I wonder if we could shift the opera house to Melbourne where we would indeed laud the brilliance of Utzon and create a world class experience decidedly away from average.
This is not a slight on the successful van Haandels and we wish
them well but my question remains, ‘Do we want yet another café / bar and
importantly, do we want it in our one-off wonder of the world?’
My thanks, as a Melbournian, to the trust for downgrading
Sydney.
