Although this unique restaurant has now closed, this is still worth reading. It shows the amazing talent of the then owners, Kelie and Carl Kenzler.

Ritual Restaurant in Nelson Bay on the mid-north coast of NSW, is one of our favourite restaurants. Country or city. The boundless creativity and energy of chef Carl Kenzler and his wife and business partner, Kelie, has to be experienced to be believed.

That's why we'd urge you to take part in this, their latest foray into the world of food fantasy. Here is how they decribe what they are planning:

Become part of our Impressionist Creation

"Following numerous requests we have expanded the concept of our Making Impressions Dinner and will now host a new event in late April.

Our Ritual Team have created three individual gastronomic exhibitions for this event. This has opened up more seats as you can now choose to attend a single exhibition or decide to relax for the evening, attending all three for the complete culinary impression.

Exhibition 1:
 6:30 - 8pm, Wednesday, April 23rd 2014

The impressionists completed works were deemed to  “look like sketches, fast preliminary ‘impressions’ dashed off to ‘preserve an idea”.

We wanted to look at this concept in a culinary realm. How do you preserve an idea, an impression, in contemporary cuisine? The obvious response would be to look at preservation techniques which preserve a season, a flavour, but we also wanted to touch on the preservation of a culinary concept. 

Our first ‘exhibition’ of the evening will deliver our banquet style interpretation of this impressionistic ideal.

Exhibition 2
: 7:30 - 9pm 
Wednesday, April 23rd 2014

Previously, for the Impressionists, only ‘historic’ paintings were deemed great art. Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They considered landscapes and general scenes of everyday contemporary life worthy and important for artistic consideration.

This concept led us to question, what is currently great dining and cuisine?

And what is our current culinary subject matter? Obviously there is seasonal, local, historic (traditional) and the science of food but can we extend dining and culinary subject matter? We decided to research and ponder colour and mood, particularly pastels (due to their impressionist links).

For this exhibition we will present our impressionist interpretations of culinary colours as a subject matter as well as present our dinners with the opportunity to create (and consume) their on culinary impressionist masterpiece.

Exhibition 3
: 8:30 - 10pm
Wednesday, April 23rd 2014

The Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions—light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. They wanted to display a sense of moving rapidly, of quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster.

We felt this concept was surprisingly current and so for our final ‘exhibition’ we will consider movement in dining. The effect of transparency, light, dark, shadow and surprise."

Costs for Individual Exhibitions: $95pp; Complete Impression $250pp; wines, beers and teas included.

Tickets .....