Executive Chef Bernard Fiemeyer, an acclaimed chef, is a Frenchman on a peculiar mission. He has set out to prove that American food can be good.
His Bull & Bear restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando in Florida serves superbly theatrical takes on American staples: fried chicken that tastes like heaven (eat your heart out, Colonel Sanders), corn that is sweet but packs a powerful punch, and a baked potato crowned with sour cream, caviar and gold leaf ( yes, you read that correctly!).
Then there is the enormous tomahawk steak from Mayura Station, whose prized Wagyu cattle are famously fed chocolate as part of their diet. Only in the world of luxury dining could dessert arrive before the cow has left the paddock.
“It’s all about the produce,” Fiemeyer tells The Sydney Travel Guide as he prepares his handmade Caesar salad tableside (see our video for the recipe). “If the produce is good, the food will be good.”
It is a straightforward philosophy from a chef whose food is anything but ordinary. Fiemeyer is joining Glass Brasserie Chef de Cuisine Natalie Murphy in the kitchen of the Hilton Sydney restaurant for a nine-day residency, serving lunch and dinner from July 23 to August 1. It is his first visit to Australia, and he is already impressed by the quality of our ingredients. Especially the seafood.
And we are impressed by what he does with them.
Fiemeyer is a Maître Cuisinier de France — one of the culinary world’s more prestigious distinctions — and Bull & Bear has been named among America’s Top 100 restaurants by OpenTable. The restaurant has its roots in New York’s famous Waldorf Astoria and now resides within the gates of Walt Disney World at Waldorf Astoria Orlando.
But don’t be alarmed by all those credentials. This isn’t stiff, whispering, white-tablecloth dining. Fiemeyer has brought a sense of theatre, humour and unapologetic American excess to Glass.
The Pasta Explosion certainly lives up to its name: a delicate parcel that bursts in the mouth, releasing a rush of flavour. It is less a piece of pasta than a very small, very delicious culinary hand grenade. It’s a blast, alright.
Oysters Rockefeller arrive with spinach, cheese and Pernod. It is a delightful throwback to a bygone age of expense-account lunches and Wall Street wolves. You know you are dealing with a dish from another era when a younger guest at the table asks: “What’s Pernod?”
For the record, it is a French aniseed liqueur flavoured with star anise, fennel and aromatic herbs. It was once a familiar sight in cocktail cabinets. Today, it apparently requires an explanatory footnote.
The New Zealand deep-water scampi and diver scallop with guajillo scampi butter is an utter delight: sweet, delicate seafood given extra richness and a restrained burst of chilli. It also illustrates Fiemeyer’s central point. Start with outstanding produce, treat it intelligently and resist the temptation to bury it.
And those are only the starters.
The Bull & Bear fried chicken looks, at first glance, like an unusually glamorous Kentucky Fried Chicken tribute act. But this is no fast food. It is a multi-day production during which the chicken is carefully cooked, rested, coated — with cornflakes among the ingredients — and finally deep-fried.
The result is wonderfully succulent inside and audibly crunchy outside, served with mashed potato and gravy. It is familiar, comforting and technically accomplished. Colonel Sanders may wish to avert his eyes.
Then comes the Mayura Wagyu Platinum tomahawk: 1.5 kilograms of marbled, magnificently tender beef intended for sharing. Because the cattle’s feed includes chocolate and confectionery, it is tempting to imagine a hint of cocoa in its richness. Whether that is gastronomy or the power of suggestion hardly matters. The steak is superb.
It arrives with a beef-tallow candle, which melts into a dipping sauce at the table. This is certainly theatrical, although the steak is already so soft, rich and dripping with flavour that the candle feels like gilding the cow. Fun, yes. Necessary, perhaps not.
The baked potato with Antonius Caviar, sour cream and gold leaf is similarly and gloriously over the top. It takes one of the world’s humblest vegetables and dresses it as though it has secured an invitation to the Met Gala.
Yet it is the creamed corn that quietly ambushes the table. Sweet, silken and surprisingly forceful, it may be the most memorable vegetable dish of the meal.
“Australia has great corn,” Fiemeyer tells us. Who knew it could be turned into such a honey trap?
Bull & Bear’s signature lemon dessert provides the grand finale. An entire lemon is hollowed out, glazed and filled with sorbet and lemon curd. It is beautiful, sharp, sweet and refreshing. A piece of clever culinary engineering disguised as a piece of fruit.
There is also salted peanut caramel and an Espresso Martini, ensuring nobody leaves the table suffering from an unexpected shortage of decadence.
Fiemeyer’s cooking owes much to his fascinating international career. He trained at Collège Louis Armand in France before working at Hilton International Bangkok, Hilton Arc de Triomphe Paris and The Drake Hotel Chicago. He joined Waldorf Astoria Orlando when it opened in 2009 and has helped shape its culinary reputation ever since.
He remains unmistakably French, complete with a wonderfully thick accent, although he now insists he is American. His culinary tastes are decidedly catholic: French technique, Japanese delicacy, Asian flavours and American exuberance collide across the menu. His wife is Japanese, and his career has taken him through France, Thailand and the United States.
Those influences have produced dishes that are difficult to categorise but very easy to enjoy.
The residency also marks an interesting new chapter for Glass. Murphy took over the kitchen from her mentor, celebrated restaurateur Luke Mangan, who created Glass. Having worked with Mangan for well over a decade, she has absorbed much of his technique and his insistence on quality produce.
Now she is placing her own stamp on this beautiful CBD dining room. Murphy hopes Fiemeyer’s residency will be the first of more visiting-chef collaborations, expanding the restaurant’s repertoire while retaining the standards that have made Glass a Sydney institution.
At $129 for the set menu, this is a special-occasion experience, but one that delivers considerable flavour and fun. The residency lasts only nine days, so move quickly.
A Frenchman has come to Sydney to prove American cooking can be excellent. Mission accomplished.
The details
What: Bull & Bear at Glass Brasserie
When: Thursday, July 23 to Saturday, August 1, 2026; lunch and dinner
Where: Glass Brasserie, Level 2, Hilton Sydney, 488 George Street, Sydney
Price: $129 per person for the set menu; selected dishes can also be added to an à la carte meal
Bookings: Essential via the Glass Brasserie website.
