ENTERTAINING
CHEFS AND FARMERS PUTTING THE RURAL FOOD SCENE ON THE MAP.
8 NICK HADDOW
Cheesemaker, Bruny Island Cheese Co. & Glen Huon Farm When he started Bruny Island Cheese Co on Bruny Island, Tasmania, in 2003, Nick Haddow’s main goal was to make the best traditional hand-made cheeses possible. His long-term dream to close the loop from pasture to milk production and cheese-making came later in 2016, when he and his business partners purchased farmland at Glen Huon, and Nick sourced old fashioned dairy breeds to make a single herd of milkers. For Nick, great cheese is made from milk that reflects what the cow has eaten in the past 24 hours, and his mantra “One cow, one paddock, one day” makes for a unique product that changes on a daily basis. brunyislandcheese.com.au
9 JOCK ZONFRILLO
Chef and founder of The Orana Foundation Renowned Scottish-born Adelaide chef and owner of Restaurant Orana, Jock Zonfrillo is an advocate for indigenous food culture and promotes bush ingredients by using them in his cuisine. Inspired by the Indigenous community’s relationship with the land and age-old knowledge of their unique food culture, in 2016 he established not-for-profit organisation The Orana Foundation to help remote communities who produce bush foods commercially, as a way of preserving culture and customs and bringing revenue back to the people. Jock’s positive influence and commitment to making change towards the preservation and promotion of indigenous culture and cuisine and the betterment of Indigenous communities was recognised when he won gastronomy’s Basque Culinary World Prize in 2018. This year has been busy, with a new bar opening in Adelaide called Mallozzi, which focuses on the Italian side of his heritage, appearances at renowned food events SXSW in the USA and Ceres in Italy plus work on a community project on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. theoranafoundation.org
10 KRISTA AND ROB WATKINS
Banana farmers and founders of Natural Evolution Foods Krista and Rob Watkins from Walkamin in Far North Queensland founded Natural Evolution Foods in 2010 to tackle the issue of food waste at the farm gate. After years of watching cattle and wildlife break fences to get at the green bananas that were being discarded because of imperfect shape or size, they discovered it was a floury residue — a resistant starch with probiotic properties — in the bananas that the animals were after. The Watkins then produced a small batch of flour from the substance and trialed it through their family café with great success. Today, they’re saving tonnes of misshapen but otherwise healthy bananas from being dumped each year, while producing nutritious, gluten-free green banana flour for a range of baking, beauty, health supplement and animal health products. For her innovation, Krista received the 2018 Agrifutures Rural Woman of the Year award. naturalevolutionfoods.com.au
11 KATE GOODMAN
Owner of Goodman Wines and winemaker at Penley Estate As winner of the Australian Women in Wine Winemaker of the Year 2018 award, Kate Goodman is considered one of Australia’s best winemakers. Words like “passion” and “spontaneity” have been used to describe her, while the wines she makes are lauded for their drinkability. Hailing from a winemaking family, she honed her skills in South Australia and western Victoria for a decade before establishing her own winery, Goodman Wines, in the Yarra Valley in 2012. Kate is also winemaker at Penley Estate in the Coonawarra, South Australia. goodmanwines.com; penley.com.au
12 DAN HUNTER
Chef and owner of Brae restaurant In the cool hinterland of Victoria’s Otway ranges, Brae restaurant, which opened in 2013, is the zenith of Dan Hunter’s quest to create a contemporary and inimitable cuisine that is respectfully bound to the seasons and organic soils of Brae’s locality. The kitchen gardens produce most of the seasonal vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive products and berries used in the menus. Brae was awarded three chef’s hats in The Good Food Guide 2019, while Dan has been named Top Chef twice in the Australian Financial Review’s Top Restaurants awards. braerestaurant.com
13 ROB MCGAVIN
Co-founder and CEO of Boundary Bend Limited and Cobram Estate From humble beginnings, planting their first olive tree in 1998 on the banks of the Murray River in Victoria, Rob Mcgavin and his business partner Paul Riordan of Boundary Bend olives now produce award-winning extra virgin olive oils from multiple groves across Victoria with a total of 2.3 million trees. The Boundary Bend grove is one of Australia’s largest olive groves, with 1.3 million trees from five major oil varieties growing on 3500 hectares. These days, Boundary Bend employs more than 100 full-time staff in a modern fully integrated olive business, growing the seedling trees, tending the groves and harvesting the olives before turning them into oil and bottling for sale, with Cobram Estate and Red Island the subsidiary brands. The olive groves and oils are consistent winners at prestigious international olive oil competitions, as well as within Australia. boundarybend.com; cobramestate.com PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY