Culinary talent creates Bellarine feast

AWARD-WINNING chef James Bond-Kennedy will present a dining experience among the orchards at Tuckerberry Hill Farm next week, as part of the annual Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

Bond-Kennedy, who has previously served as sous chef at the now-closed two-hat Geelong restaurant Igni and as head chef at Barwon Heads’ restaurant Tommy Gunns, is well-known for his preference for local ingredients, believing they bring superior quality and freshness to the meals he creates.

This same philosophy forms the basis for the Enchanted Orchard Evening event – to be held on Friday, March 21 between 5.30pm and 9pm – with a specially-crafted menu driven by Bellarine produce on offer.

This menu will showcase charcoal-grilled Bellarine lamb, Sea Bounty mussels from Portarlington, butter from Lard Ass in Ocean Grove, local wines, beer and cider brewed on site at Tuckerberry Hill, as well as cocktails and mocktails crafted with blueberry and strawberry juice using the farm’s produce.

Bond-Kennedy’s philosophy of sourcing produce hyper-locally is one that is shared by Tuckerberry Hill Farm owner and event organiser Christine Lean, who is eager to see both locals and visitors learn more about the producers operating across the Bellarine Peninsula.

“This is all about Bellarine food,” Ms Lean said, whose passion for elevating and promoting producers on the peninsula continues to gift the region with wide-ranging opportunities to experience and interact with local growers.

“It would be lovely to have the Bellarine established a food area, not just a wine and olive area; they’re hand-in-hand.

“[People] might look at what’s in Melbourne as ‘the standard’, but we’re well and truly up to that standard, if not surpassing it in a lot of ways.”

Guests will be treated to a complimentary drink on arrival and grazing plates among the farm’s olive trees, before enjoying a shared meal that features a variety of unique foods and condiments created by Bond-Kennedy for the event, including a Chilean blueberry hot sauce and blueberry preserved lemons.

“Please come along and experience the labours of the local growers on the peninsula,” Ms Lean said.

“The chef is really designing a fantastic meal for you: great flavours, fantastic drinks, beautiful local music.

“It’s an event you won’t forget.”

For more information on Enchanted Orchard Evening, or to purchase tickets, head to tuckerberry.com.au/events