FOOD
DECEMBER 2017 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 07
T
here are no oficial
figures on the
number of people
who visit Hobart
and declare they’re uprooting
their life and moving there,
but it must be high. It’s the
easy-on-the-eye landscapes,
manageable property prices
and the fact you can park
with ease, even in peak hour.
And then, for people such
as ex-chef Rodney Dunn, it’s
because of Englishman Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall.
“The reason I’m here is
I watched too many episodes
of Hugh’s River Cottage,”
says Dunn, referring to the
UK TV series that has led
to a number of spin-ofs
and an army of food-loving
city dwellers moving to the
country to grow vegetables
and raise pigs. “When you’re
a chef you’re always looking
for great ingredients and
I just started to questionThanks to a raft of new food
options, there are more reasons
than ever to visit Tasmania.The Fresh
Revolution
what I had access to. It was
like a light bulb moment —
how can I get berries that
look like his and what does
a carrot smell like when it
comes out of the ground?”
In 2007, Dunn and his wife,
Séverine Demanet, decided
to move from Sydney to
Lachlan, 45 kilometres north-
west of Hobart in Tasmania’s
Derwent Valley, and transform
a 19th-century schoolhouse
into the state’s first hands-on,
farm-based cooking school.
Classes at The Agrarian
Kitchen commenced the next
year and, 8500 people later,
it remains the pre-eminent
cooking school in the country.
This foundation is partly
the reason why the recently
opened The Agrarian Kitchen
Eatery & Store is not only one
of the most exciting Australian
restaurants to launch this year,
it’s now the top reason you
should visit Tasmania.The restaurant can be
found 10 minutes north of the
farm in New Norfolk, inside
a high-ceilinged, light-filled
building that was once part of
Willow Court, Australia’s first
purpose-built mental institute.
Established during the early
1830s — making it older than
Port Arthur — it’s a little eerie,
but enter the eatery and
there’s so much to love.
We’ve become immune
to words such as ‘seasonal’,
‘local’ and ‘community’, but
here at Agrarian, under the
guidance of head chef Ali
Currey-Voumard, you can
really taste the diference.
Dishes are simple but original,
featuring not-oten-seen
ingredients such as broad
bean leaf, which is tossed
with anchovy dressing and
served with house-smoked
ham and alpine cheese — also
made in the kitchen. The fried
sourdough potato cakesCLOCKWISE
FROM LEFT
Rodney Dunn in
the garden at The
Agrarian Kitchen’s
cooking school;
The Agrarian
Kitchen Eatery
& Store relies
on fresh,
local produce;
the eatery’s
slick fit-out.