A Tiny Place

“We are so lucky in Tasmania because our best produce travels minimal miles and is at its prime when we get it. Cooking oils are recycled, the hydroelectricity has a zero-carbon footprint, and the kitchen uses no plastic storage containers.”

Roasted leeks with pickled slippery jacks, cauliflower purée, turnip, and soy jelly; steamed Ray’s bream with rhubarb and raspberry beurre noisette, and basil; and Tasmanian scallop pudding with daikon, pickled cucumber and carrot, and chicken consommé.

The aptly named A Tiny Place (yes, it is tiny) wears the hallmarks of the proud chef-owned bistro well.

Philippe Leban has gone for a minimalist model in this character-drenched Battery Point worker’s cottage with maximum results. His French-inspired, Tasmanian-sourced cooking is designed not only to please but to showcase overlooked vegetables and even utilize “pests” such as the introduced Japanese sea urchin. Locally grown organic leeks, for instance, are served roasted, with foraged pickled slippery jacks, cauliflower purée, turnip and soy jelly, to deliciously spotlight a deeply neglected vegetable.

Leban takes great joy in his island-state surroundings and hero suppliers, such as fisher Mark Eather. It’s Tassie’s global moment, and A Tiny Place has a big part to play.

“Outrageously good smells of traditional cooking wafting from the back kitchen ... hugely appealing.”

–John Lethlean, The Australian