A humble Australian restaurant with its own garden and greenhouse has just been crowned the best in the country.
The Agrarian Kitchen, tucked away in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley, a 30-minute drive from Hobart, has been awarded Gourmet Traveller’s Restaurant of the Year.
Rodney Dunn, of Tetsuya’s fame, moved to Tasmania and set up shop in a 19th-century schoolhouse on the grounds of a former mental institution with a dream of offering simple, produce-based meals.
Sixteen years later, the estate now boasts a restaurant, a kiosk and a lush one-acre vegetable garden with a greenhouse through which guests stroll before sitting down to a meal few of them will ever forget.
Head chef Stephen Peak draws on the bounty of The Agrarian’s garden, rich in vibrant loamy soil, to create austere, elemental meals that fans are calling “insanely cool.”
The menu features produce from the state’s rich meat and cheese offerings to combine “mind-blowing” flavors without any of the haute cuisine fuss.
Inspired dishes include burrata with fermented lemon, toast with crayfish and avocado, polenta with mushrooms and alpine cheese, and petit fours with boysenberry jam.
Fans of the New Norfolk culinary institution also praise the ever-changing menu of cocktails and mocktails made with fragrant house-made syrups and fermented liquids.
Rodney Dunn has achieved his dream of offering produce-led cuisine at The Agrarian Kitchen in Tasmania, where 90 per cent of the food used in the kitchen comes from the garden and greenhouse, and they have just won Australia’s Best Restaurant by Gourmet Traveller.
Bresaola, made from three-year-old Dexter X Scottish steers from Plenty Provisions, is one of the simple, “surprising” dishes that has restaurant visitors calling it the “most memorable meal” of their lives.
La Cocina Agraria’s polenta with buttermilk, goat’s milk alpine cheese and black truffle is ‘impressive’ according to diners
The raspberry and tonic Collins, the strawberry and rhubarb Collins and the blueberry and sake Negroni are three of the most popular and strongest drinks in the kitchen.
For a more casual meal, there’s the on-site Kiosco Agrario, which offers stuffed focaccia-style sandwiches, savoury pies with lamb, goat curd and root vegetables and thick slices of sourdough with spicy cheese and salami.
The kitchen is a hive of pickling, preserving, cheese making and baking and offers cooking classes for those who want to immerse themselves further in the agrarian experience. Gardening classes are also available.
The manicured gardens host weddings throughout the year and now offer catering services serving the finest cuisine in the country.
News of the win comes as no surprise to fans of the beloved Tasmanian restaurant, who are already familiar with the culinary magic being created by Rodney Dunn and Stephen Peak, with some calling it their “most memorable” meal yet.
The cozy and enveloping interiors are the perfect setting for the best restaurants in the country.
The French breakfast with radish and burnt leek, Tokyo turnip and hemp seeds and puntarelle and celeriac with miso is one of the dishes that has distinguished the TAS culinary institution.
The ever-changing menu draws on the best produce the garden and estate have to offer.
“It was a transcendental experience, in a culinary monastery. Exquisite local products, well thought out, balanced, combined without egoism. I am still enlightened,” said one diner.
“I loved everything about this place. The history, the atmosphere, the energy, the food… It really is an experience to be lived,” another agreed.
“One of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had. I couldn’t recommend it enough. I’d give it more stars if I could. 11/10,” added a third.
The restaurant is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday and offers a set menu with optional drink pairings.
Other winners of the 2024 Gourmet Traveller food awards included The Lake House in Daylesford for the Readers Choice Icon Award, and Sydney chef Pasi Petanen of Cafe Paci for Australian Chef of the Year.