The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook
by Broadsheet Media
Have you ever eaten out at a bar, café, or restaurant and wished you could recreate the dish exactly at home? If you’ve spent time in Sydney, you’ll know just how vibrant and exciting the city’s food scene is. That’s why I was so intrigued by The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook, a collection of recipes from some of Sydney’s most beloved cafés, bars, and restaurants.
First published in 2015, the book is now celebrating its ten-year mark – a perfect moment to ask: has it stood the test of time? Is it truly a gem that lets you bring restaurant-worthy dishes into your own kitchen, or is it another beautiful volume that's better suited to the coffee table than the kitchen? Here’s what I found.
The Look, the Feel, the Flow
On the outside, The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook keeps things understated: a grey cover with crisp white lettering and a simple descriptor underneath. Flip it over and you’ll find a clean list of all the featured venues, plus a sliver of photography that hints at the city’s dining scene.
Inside, the layout is straightforward and intuitive. Recipes are divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, with a table of contents that not only lists the dishes but also the restaurants, cafés, and bars they come from. Each chapter opens with its own mini contents page, making it easy to zero in on what you’re after.
The book begins with a foreword from restaurateur Maurice Terzini, who frames the collection as a snapshot of Sydney’s dining scene circa 2015; part cookbook, part time capsule. An introduction follows, setting the stage by exploring the vibrancy of Sydney dining at the time and what readers can expect from the recipes inside.
The recipes themselves are clear and consistent in format: title, eatery, a thoughtful introduction, ingredient list, and method. Those introductions are a highlight, chefs share the story behind each dish along with practical tips and insights that enrich the cooking experience and often stick with you long after.
Photography is another strength. Expect full-page images of finished dishes alongside shots of chefs at work, bustling restaurants, and glimpses of Sydney itself. It captures the spirit of the city as much as the food.
For locals, the Food Supplier Directory at the back is a bonus, pointing you toward trusted butchers, fishmongers, cheesemongers, and more. A handy tool if you want to elevate your ingredients to match the calibre of the recipes.
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A copy of The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook surrounded by fresh ingredients for one of the recipes.
What You'll be Cooking
The beauty of The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook is its range. With recipes spanning cafés, bars, and restaurants, you’ll find everything from vegan-friendly plates to multi-day projects and quick weeknight wins. Some dishes are light, others rich and indulgent, but all deliver on flavour.
The breakfast chapter leans firmly into brunch territory, with generous portions that feel more weekend feast than weekday fuel. Think French toast, hotcakes, shakshuka, and even smørrebrød, right after a primer on how to make proper filtered coffee.
Lunch mixes it up with salads, sandwiches, pies, tarts, and burgers, including a standout step-by-step guide to baking focaccia that begs to be tried. Many of these dishes could just as easily land on the dinner table.
Dinner itself starts with cocktails (a very Sydney touch) before moving into mains, most of them meat-driven but with solid vegetarian options. A dedicated section on wine pairings mid-chapter is a nice bonus for those who want to take their hosting game up a notch.
Dessert closes the book with style: biscuits, cakes, and tarts alongside layered showstoppers like strawberry trifle. It’s a sweet finish that reflects the same variety and ambition seen throughout the collection.
The four recipes tested from The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook.
Tried & Tasted
I cooked four recipes from The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook, and each one brought the flavours of Sydney’s best cafés and restaurants straight into my kitchen.
The Zucchini and Corn Fritters with Streaky Bacon, Poached Eggs and Salsa Verde (Bootsdarling, pg. 55) were an absolute hit. Crisp fritters, salty bacon, runny yolks, and vibrant salsa verde combined for a café-brunch experience at home. One fritter was enough for me, but it’s deeply satisfying and ideal for impressing guests.
Lamb Burger (Chur Burger, pg. 121) was nostalgia on a plate. Juicy lamb patties, crumbled feta, and mint liquor took me straight back to childhood flavours, elevated for modern dining. Quick, easy, and restaurant-quality, it’s a winner for any night you want a standout meal.
The Beef Korma (Faheem Fast Food, pg. 185) was simple yet flavour-packed. A hands-off simmer produced tender, spiced beef balanced with fresh coriander, chilli, and garlic. Perfect with naan or rice, it rivalled my favourite takeaway.
Afghan Cookies (Organic Bread Bar, pg. 229) offered a New Zealand twist with sourdough breadcrumbs. Chocolate ganache and a walnut topping made them irresistibly rich, while the texture had my fiancé declaring them the best Afghans he’d ever had.
Overall, this was a week of impressive, restaurant-quality cooking at home. These recipes deliver bold, sophisticated flavours while still being approachable for confident home cooks.
Preparing the Zucchini and Corn Fritters with Streaky Bacon, Poached Eggs and Salsa Verde.
Price Check
The recipes in this book definitely lean toward the expensive side, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise given the calibre of food and the dishes on offer. What’s important to keep in mind is what this book actually represents.
The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook is a collection of recipes from some of the city’s best restaurants, cafés, and bars. Eating at any of these venues with your partner, friends, or family would set you back far more than the cost of cooking the same dish at home. Looked at that way, the recipes feel like exceptionally good value.
You'll Love This If...
The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook is best suited to confident, adventurous cooks who enjoy rolling up their sleeves to create exciting, restaurant-quality meals at home. These are the unfiltered recipes straight from Sydney’s cafés, bars, and restaurants, nothing is watered down, and the results live up to the standard you’d expect when dining out. That means you’ll need access to a range of kitchen tools and enough experience to follow generalised instructions and make intuitive leaps when necessary.
This book is perfect if you want to recreate dining-out-level dishes in your own kitchen, whether for the pure joy of incredible food, impressing guests, or even saving money compared with eating out. It’s also a fantastic resource for anyone eager to learn from professional chefs, understand the process behind standout dishes, and elevate their own skills to the next level.
Where it Shines
One of the main reasons I love cooking is the payoff: you put in the effort, create something great, and then get to enjoy the fruits of your labour. That’s exactly the magic of The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook. Not all of us can afford a restaurant dinner or café brunch every week, but this book offers an incredible backstage pass to the recipes that make those meals so crave-worthy. Every dish I’ve tried so far has turned out as it would eating out, delivering the same bold, delicious flavours for a fraction of the price, in exchange for a bit of effort.
The introductions to each recipe are another highlight. They give you a glimpse into the chefs’ thinking, their approach to the dish, and add a personal touch that makes cooking feel more connected to the people behind it.
Wine lovers will appreciate the pairing section of the book. It not only recommends specific wines for certain dishes but also guides you on choosing the right type depending on the flavours of your meal, such as how to match wines with spicy food.
Finally, the Food Supplier Directory at the back is a thoughtful bonus. While it’s most useful for Sydney locals, it points to excellent butchers, fishmongers, cheesemongers, and more, making it easier to source quality ingredients and giving the book an extra layer of practical value.
A Few Caveats
As a compilation, this book naturally brings together a variety of voices. Each recipe comes from a different chef or venue, and while it’s well edited, you’ll notice shifts in tone, flow, and the level of detail from one page to the next. Some recipes guide you step by step, while others assume you’ll fill in the blanks.
It’s also worth remembering where these recipes come from: busy kitchens where professionals make these dishes day in and day out. That means the cooking can lean toward the intuitive. You may need to rely on your own judgement and be confident enough to make small leaps when instructions are less explicit.
One more thing to keep in mind: before you dive into a new recipe, read it from start to finish. Many of these dishes call for specific tools or equipment, and you don’t want to get halfway through only to discover you need a food dehydrator, blowtorch, or some other specialty gadget you might not have on hand.
Afghan cookie dough mixed and ready to be rolled into balls.
The Verdict
The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook is a rare find: part time capsule, part practical guide to recreating the city’s dining scene at home. Even ten years on, the recipes feel fresh and exciting, with flavours that rival what you’d expect from eating out. The combination of chef insights, polished photography, and thoughtful extras like the wine pairings and supplier directory make it more than just another restaurant cookbook.
That said, it isn’t for beginners. The recipes demand confidence, intuition, and sometimes specialist tools that not every home kitchen will have. As with any compilation, the level of detail varies, and you’ll need to read recipes carefully before diving in to avoid surprises mid-cook.
If you’re an adventurous home cook looking to bring Sydney’s best cafés, bars, and restaurants into your kitchen, this book delivers in spades. It’s inspiring, ambitious, and deeply rewarding - a book I’ll be reaching for again and again.
4.8/5 Stars
Want to Try It Yourself?
If The Broadsheet Sydney Cookbook sounds like your kind of book, fresh, flavour-packed, and designed to make everyday cooking shine, you can pick up a copy below.
I may earn a small commission if you buy via this link, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting City Slicker.
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