“In some ways we’re less of a restaurant than an overgrown farmhouse kitchen and dining table, with all meat, milk, eggs, and vegetables coming from our own licensed dairy, market garden, and farm.”
A study in capsicum (raw Jimmy Nardello capsicums with roasted fresh paprikas, charred bull’s horn, pickled frigatellis, scorched Padróns, and olive oil on roasted tomatillo salsa); roasted shredded fat pig; and the welcome turnip (seasonal root vege).
Sometimes an ingredient is so delicious straight from the ground that Fat Pig Farm serves it unadulterated as a welcome snack – maybe a frost-sweetened carrot, or green peas to pod.
Chef turned food critic turned farmer Matthew Evans and wife Sadie Chrestman have created the farmhouse kitchen and dining table of their dreams, where paddock-to-plate is taken to its ultimate conclusion. The seventy-acre organic farm meets ninety per cent of their dairy, meat, and vege needs, opening for seasonal Friday lunches. Food is mostly plant-based, but their beloved Wessex saddleback pigs will be represented – slow-roasted and shredded with herbs and garlic.
Guests are expected to get their feet dirty and see where their lunch came from. It’s all about the soil, after all.
“A pea tendril can taste better than a truffle. Especially when you’re standing in earth that gives a little under your mud-covered city Nikes and the food miles equate to about 20 centimetres.”
–Sofia Levin, goodfood.com.au
A working farm with an open kitchen for Friday feasts