This week's seven feature restaurants hail from the land 'down under' and all offer delicious seasonal, sustainable ocean-to-field fare.

Transformer Fitzroy

• WHO: Laki Papadopoulos & Mark Price, owners
• WHAT: Super smart vegetarian & vegan restaurant in backstreet Fitzroy
• WHERE: 99 Rose Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, VIC

“At Transformer we are passionate about promoting the changing face of vegetarian cuisine. We love making vegetables, grains and pulses the stars of the show, utilizing fresh local ingredients. We are continually striving to present the most interesting yet approachable offerings complemented by attentive and knowledgeable staff.

“Working with the seasons is not just an ideal with plant based cuisine but a necessity. Once the local asparagus season is over, we aren’t looking to import Peruvian produce, instead we look to the next local season to find nutritious greens from which to base a dish. We utilize foraged ingredients such as pine and slippery jack mushrooms. Drying, pickling and fermenting these products draws out their use for months after the season has ended.

“Sustainability is important to us at Transformer. It’s not just about using produce that promotes sustainable farming practices but also the sustainability of our work force. It is essential to us that we encourage a healthy work-life balance as we find this is integral to building a team that has the opportunity to grow. Using organic and biodynamic produce not only aligns well with the ethos of the business, it also usually tastes the best and has the most easily discernible provenance. Knowing where the produce we serve at the restaurant has come from and the care with which it has been treated is key to the experience we want our guests to have at the restaurant.”

To read more about Transformer Fitzroy visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Noosa Boathouse

• WHO: Phil & Sarah Bradford, owners & Shane Bailey, chef
• WHAT: Lunch & dinner restaurant, sunset bar, takeaway fish & chips & coffee bar
• WHERE: 194 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville, Queensland, Australia

“We are passionate about providing quality produce, fantastic service and being able to offer something for everyone. Sourcing and buying produce directly from local farmers, fisherman and growers is important to us as it stays in line with our ‘paddock to plate’ philosophy and ensures we receive only the freshest product with minimal food miles.

“We buy line-caught fish straight off the boat, direct from the fisherman and use secondary cuts of beef, ensuring the whole animal is used and not wasted. Our menu changes to reflect the rhythm of the seasons and ensures the best quality produce is used.

“For the past six years, we have also implemented our own compost system – placing compostable vegetable and plant items from prep along with restaurant food waste into separate buckets in our kitchen. A local farmer then comes twice a week and collects a total of 300 litres to use in her state-of-the-art worm farm compost system, which she then uses for her farm. This diverts approximately fifteen tons of food waste per year from becoming landfill.”

To read more about Noosa Boathouse, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Noosa Boathouse (Noosaville, Queensland, Australia)

Bacash

• WHO: Fiona Perkins & Michael Bacash, owners/chefs
• WHAT: A sophisticated & sustainable seafood restaurant
• WHERE: 175 Domain Road, South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

“We only buy great fish. Fish can only be great when caught in small quantities and handled with care. Whilst sustainability isn't our catch cry, our purchasing and handling practices have all the aspects of sustainability covered. We source our oysters from organic farms – from growers we have developed relationships with over the years. We also focus on purchasing the best local, seasonal and organic produce.

“At Bacash we do a lot of simply grilled fish – our minimalist approach highlights the characteristics of the different species. I am passionate about fish and my job as a chef is to bring out the nuances of the fish and not overpower them with technique. If I was a fish, I’d like to end up in our kitchen.”

To read more about Bacash, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Bacash (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

Fleet

• WHO: Astrid McCormack, Josh Lewis & Robert Mudge, co-owners
• WHAT: A tiny fourteen-seat North Coast restaurant with a big heart
• WHERE: Shop 2, 16 The Terrace, Brunswick Heads, New South Wales

“We are blessed with an abundance of produce in this area, therefore we work almost exclusively with local producers and growers. The freshness of produce is unsurpassed when you are buying direct from the local community and it’s so wonderful to have that personal connection.

“We use lesser cuts such as lamb neck, parsons nose and pigs trotters and buy in whole, local, sustainable fish, working a lot with smaller species and by-catch. We utilize surplus produce from local suppliers and preserve it to ensure it’s not wasted and thereby ensuring they receive an income. We also work with wild produce, however we are very mindful of how our use impacts the environment.”

To read more about Fleet, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Astrid McCormack & Josh Lewis from Fleet (Brunswick Heads, New South Wales, Australia)

Detour

• WHO: Damon Amos, chef/owner
• WHAT: A contemporary restaurant that omnivores & herbivores can share
• WHERE: 6/11 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

“At Detour we are passionate about sharing and inclusion. The menu has been intentionally designed to provide dishes for diners with varying dietary requirements. Our share-plates offer an equal split of omnivore and herbivore options. All of our herbivore dishes are vegan and ninety-nine per cent of the menu is gluten free. We have on ongoing mission to continue to change and innovate the way the restaurant is operated – reducing our impact on the environment and being a positive influence in our community.

“We’re also proud to be doing our part to highlight the critical plight of our friend the bee. We don’t simply sprinkle bee pollen over our just-set burnt honey panna cotta with honey and mead marscarpone, (pictured) but nestled within the floral garnish is also a dehydrated, edible bee – supplied by Bee One Third. This dish enables us to highlight the plight of the bees, as well as supporting our local supplier.”

To read more about Detour visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Detour's Burnt Honey Panna Cotta (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

Sarah’s Sister’s Sustainable Café

• WHO: Marion Prosser & Stuart Gifford, owners/chefs
• WHAT: Fresh, local, seasonal & vegetarian-vegan since 1978
• WHERE: 117 Semaphore Road, Semaphore, Adelaide, South Australia

“Our first cafe, Sarah's Cafe, opened in 1978, with the mantra ‘fresh, local, seasonal’ with food (and philosophy) inspired by Elizabeth David, Alice Waters, and Cheong Liew.

“Sarah's Sister's Sustainable Café opened in 2005 with a focus on reduced food miles, freshness and minimizing wastage. Our produce is sourced from local urban farmers, foragers, local garden schools and customers. From the first Sarah's Cafe – inspired by old Parisian local workers' cafes where most customers said 'just feed me' – this is still a feature, which ensures nearly zero food wastage – no food is thrown out.

“Our Garden Dining Room faces directly north. The ‘wall’ consists of roll-up clear plastic blinds, ensuring natural heat is collected in winter, and allowing the blinds to be opened on warmer days. Semaphore's microclimate is perfect for this design, with its more moderate temperatures. The garden can moderate the temperatures by around three degrees. This passive design, along with our slashing of food miles and wastage, is the main contributor to reducing our footprint by up to fifty per cent.”

To read more about Sarah’s Sister’s Sustainable Café visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

Sarah's Sister's Sustainable Cafe (Adelaide, South Australia)

The Wolfe

• WHO: Josh Lopez, chef/owner
• WHAT: Small but significant produce-driven restaurant in East Brisbane
• WHERE: 989 Stanley Street, East Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

“The Wolfe grows all herbs in our own garden and always cook to the seasons. We work closely with an organic farmer, John Cutts, who grows our vegetables. This has been a twenty-plus-year-friendship built on sharing the same beliefs in farming. All chicken and pork is organic and pasture-raised, whilst all of our beef products come directly from the stock yard. Our apprentices and floor staff have the opportunity to visit the farms and vineyards that we support, helping them to understand the love and care that works its way into our food chain, therefore enabling them to share our vision with our customers."

To read more about The Wolfe, visit their Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery profile here.

The Wolfe (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

In the know...

Just in case you're planning a much-deserved break at Newfoundland's incredible Fogo Island Inn – travelling there just got easier!

From 12 July through to early September, guests of Fogo Island Inn can now arrive on Fogo Island in one day from major US hubs on a newly-launched private air charter.

Click here to find out all you need to know.

Fogo Island Inn (Newfoundland, Canada)