MM: You’ re going as fresh as you possibly can. What’ s the next frontier for the cuisine?
SK: The molecular food movement is a big scene right now. What I’ d like to believe is that we’ re going not forward, but backwards: we are worried about flavour, and worried about where ingredients come from. It is simpler, less fluffy food. Some people do the molecular food, others do the simpler food. Those trends are going to be pushing each end of the spectrum, and the divide is going to get bigger.
MM: Interesting, how it goes backwards but moves forward. Shifting to wine, Jeremy, what I enjoy about your wine list is that the wines are very regionally sound. You’ re not looking for Chardonnay from Barossa, you’ re not looking for big Shiraz from Tasmania. Are you seeing that more winemakers are culling back what isn’ t working in certain regions, and concentrating on what works for them?
Jeremy Burke: I think we have the opportunity to pick and choose. In keeping with the way Steve chooses fresh produce from different regions around Australia, we tend to do the same with the wine— for example, picking a diverse cross-section from Margaret River, and centring it around the Australian produce. We try to pick from big-scale wine operations and also small boutique operations, from Margaret River, from Adelaide Hills, from Tasmania, from the Yarra Valley, from Mornington Peninsula, and quite locally here in New South Wales with Orange, Hunter Valley, Southern Highlands, and the Canberra District. We try to pick the gems from each little region. But at the same time, there is reasonable international content represented as well. International winemakers from Europe and the United States come out here in their off-season, and we want to reflect what Australia is doing, and what that represents.
MM: Do you find that the big wineries are concentrating on regional classics? On your wine list, there are Clare and Eden Valley Rieslings, Chardonnay and Bordeaux blends from Margaret River, Pinot Noirs from Mornington, Beachworth, and Tasmania. Are definitions more rigid now, or are wineries still casting a very large net to see what works?
JB: I think definitions are clearer because the community has more confidence in the winemakers’ abilities to be able to make an extremely good quality product. The next step forward is a representation of terroir, and making regions definitive.
MM: When I lived there in 2001, Centennial Vineyards in the Southern Highlands region and wineries around the Orange region were just getting started. Are Australians starting to look to those regions as the next new thing?
JB: Centennial Vineyards had great Burgundy blends, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. The two wines from Orange that we have on our Epi- Curious menu, a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon, and how they pair with food, are being enthusiastically received by our clientele.
SK: Orange has become not only a huge wine region, but also an important food region. They have a food festival every year, where they bring in head chefs from around Australia to put on dinners. They are working really hard as a region to become a wine and food destination. photos by jeremy hiebert photography