I HAD DINNER RECENTLY AT LOLLI REDINI WHEN I WAS IN ORANGE FOR FOOD WEEK AND WAS REMINDED
of a couple of things. One was just how fabulous Simonn Hawke’s food is and the second was how lucky we are to have great regional restaurants, places that are a destination and tempt city dwellers away for a country weekend. Our annual Food and Wine Issue is always filled with these
I’d love to be one of their regulars dropping into their Byron Bay shed for a morning coffee — to our Country Chef this month, Andrew Doughton at Polperro Bistro on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. And, as usual, Steve Cumper’s easy and delicious recipe — this month it’s pan-fried salmon with mussel velouté — has me determined to make it for dinner if I can get to the shops before closing time. So yes, each and every one of them is enticing. But regular contributor Tamsin Carvan’s page 98 guide for food lovers around her area, the picturesque South Gippsland hills, really captured my imagination this month. I want to have a picnic basket just like Tamsin’s, “brimming with Berry’s Creek blue cheese, charcuterie and tangy sourdough bread, delicious pastries, pork and fennel sausages from Bronwyn Cowan at the Gypsy Pig farm, heritage apples from Mark and Margaret Brammar’s Strzelecki orchard, Olive Valley olive oil and a bottle of my friend Marcus Satchell’s beautiful Dirty Three pinot, grown and made just down the road in Leongatha. And we’ve spotted a tree full of wild plums — some of those will do nicely!” There are lots of exciting things happening for us recently. I know many of you have told us that you are enjoying our book, Country Style Homes, and now we have released a range of homewares — some of which you can see throughout the issue, from the jug on our cover to lots of lovely things in our decorating story on page 64. I hope you enjoy these extra touches that bring the pages of Country Style to life.