Bathers’ Pavilion’s next three-Michelin-starred residency may be the ‘meal of the year’

Few terms ping my questionable value radar like “restaurant residency”. Maybe you’ve been to one of them, too – where a hyped international chef takes over an Australian venue for a couple of weeks, sends out some localised versions of their signature dishes, and you’re left wondering if $600 per person would have been better spent at one of Sydney’s existing big-occasion restaurants (or put towards a trip to New York or Tokyo or the French Riviera to experience the real thing).

Last year’s partnership between Bathers’ Pavilion and UK restaurant L’Enclume, however, was not that kind of residency. Over four hours, maybe more, it was a righteous exposition of precision and harmony, and my best meal of 2025. I will remember eating chef Simon Rogan’s marron with wax flower jelly, pike roe, mussel stock and buttermilk – with a view to Balmoral Bay – for a long time.

That residency was a success thanks to a hyper-detailed collaboration process between Bathers’ and L’Enclume, and the Mosman fine diner seems even more committed to offering a “world class” experience when California’s three-Michelin-starred SingleThread takes over in late July.

More than 20,000 bulbs are in the ground at Bathers’ Pavilion’s Southern Highlands farm and vineyard, Rotherwood, for the occasion. Local ceramicists are working on custom flatware. Artist Alesandro Ljubicic is creating an installation for the entrance. The wine team is hard at work sourcing bottles connecting California, Australia and France, and SingleThread’s head pastry chef Emma Horowitz will land in Sydney a fortnight ahead of the residency to hone the desserts.

SingleThread is run by husband-and-wife Kyle and Katina Connaughton in Sonoma County, a two-hour drive north of San Francisco, and “Californian seasonality through a Japanese lens” is its top-line pitch. The farm-driven restaurant opened in 2016, was awarded a third Michelin star in 2018, and currently shares first place on La Liste – a Paris-based global dining guide – with New York’s Le Bernardin and nine other restaurants.

It also holds a shared first place on my personal list of “American restaurants I want to eat at very much”.

Bathers’ Pavilion executive chef Aaron Ward recently returned from an eight-night visit to Sonoma where he met the Connaughtons, visited their regenerative farm and immersed himself in the SingleThread kitchen. Accompanied by Bathers’ restaurant manager Jessica Mead (who was there to study SingleThread’s guest-centric hospitality inspired by Japan’s multicourse kaiseki format), Ward also dined at SingleThread on his first day.

“Dungeness crab served with a little egg custard and last season’s preserved tomato was particularly incredible, but the most impressive thing was the flow between courses,” he says.

“It was a seamless experience from start to finish, which is one of the most important things to get right in a tasting menu.”

Kyle Connaughton is still developing the SingleThread dishes for Bathers’, but can confirm malted potato with sea urchin, leeks and yuzu-kosho is locked in, plus wagyu enhanced by a short-rib jus with carrot and caramelised mugi (barley).

“We want to reflect Sydney through the SingleThread lens,” says Connaughton. “What can we find as common ground? What feels like home? And what is uniquely Australian?

“We’re really interested in exploring the seafood in Australia – using unique products that we never have access to. We recently did a collaboration dinner with Neil Perry in Copenhagen, and he brought pearl meat, which we had never seen or experienced before.”

True to traditional kaiseki style, each meal will begin with a bountiful “hassun” course of 10 different components. Herbs and florals grown at Rotherwood will be used for the hassun, along with things Katina Connoughton will forage locally.

“At SingleThread, we say we ‘tell the story of today through the eyes of the farmer’ – really through Katina’s eyes,” says Kyle Connaughton. “The way florals are integrated into dishes and presentations is our way of bringing the outdoors in – showing what today feels like.”

The Connaughton’s are bringing a full brigade to Sydney for the collaboration, and the 10-course tasting menu is $690 per guest, before drinks, matching the restaurant’s price in California. There will be four tiers of wine pairings (plus a non-alcoholic match) starting at $290 per person for the “Exceptional Flight” and going all the way up to $1200 for the “Unforgettable” option headlined by a 1996 Penfolds Grange and 2010 Chateau d’Yquem.

“In Japanese, there’s an expression called ‘ichi-go ichi-e’, which means one chance, one encounter – the realisation that these moments you create can’t be recreated,” says Connaughton.

“The opportunity to do something together collaboratively and create that moment is really special. Guests who come during those few short weeks will have an experience they can’t have at another time.”

The SingleThread residency will run Tuesday to Sunday across lunch and dinner, from July 28 to August 23. Bookings can be made through the Bathers’ Pavilion website or by phone on 02 9969 5050.