International superstar Post Malone might be lured back to Canberra more often - it seems he's fallen in love with the toasted sesame ice cream at Raku and can't get enough of it.
Within 24 hours of headlining the Spilt Milk festival on Saturday, the singer and rapper personally emailed Raku owner and executive chef Hao Chen asking for the ice cream recipe because he wanted to cook it for his family.
Post Malone and his entourage spent Friday night at Raku, which had just been named Australia's best Asian restaurant in the 2023 Restaurant and Catering Industry Awards, apparently not leaving until the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The ice cream, with caramelised almonds, sticky miso caramel and a matcha wafer, has been on the Raku menu since the restaurant opened in 2017. Now it has another fan.
In his 2022 restaurant review, The Canberra Times' critic Chris Hansen said the ice cream was "not an afterthought, this dessert has the same love and attention as the rest of the menu".
But the reach could be even further. Mr Chen said many of Post Malone's world-wide fans have been messaging the restaurant to find out what their idol liked to eat and drink.
"We talked a lot about American, Australian and Chinese culture, about food, music, lifestyles," Mr Chen said.
"We had a lot of laughs until very late in the night.
"His producer said it was the best night they'd had on the world tour and that makes me very proud.
"His producer messaged me on Monday morning to say 'Thanks for taking such good care of our kid the night before'."
The pair swapped celebrity stories. Post Malone told Mr Chen that actor Tom Cruise was one of the nicest people he had ever met.
In a coincidence probably a little too close for comfort, Mr Chen then told Post Malone, he once had Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban dine at Raku in 2020.
The domestic goddess Nigella Lawson was also a guest at Raku, in 2019, dining with former Canberran and food writer Emiko Davies.
Nigella posted several photographs of her lunch on Instagram. "I'm still stunned by all that beautiful food," she wrote. And yes, she had the sesame toast ice cream, appearing in picture nine.
Mr Chen attended Spilt Milk as a VIP guest of Post Malone's. One would expect he has a little sleep to catch up on this week.
