Baroness of Barragunda
Chef Simone Watts has waited four years for her new restaurant to open. Living locked down on a relatively remote farm overlooking Bushrangers Bay gave the celebrated chef time to get to know the country she was living on while waiting for the dining room and kitchen to be built, the garden beds to be made, and for COVID to pass and final planning to be approved.
When Barragunda Estate opens at Cape Schanck in the first quarter of 2025, it will join the ranks of Brae in Birregurra and Royal Mail at Dunkeld as a restaurant with its own dedicated kitchen garden and seasonally driven menu. Barragunda adds to this its own herd of Angus beef cattle, which is being replaced with the less common Speckled Park beef herd. Simone’s partner, Sam Humphries, operates a native nursery on the large property and is growing Australian native bush foods that will also appear on the menu.
Barragunda Estate sits in the dunes high above the pounding waves of Cape Schanck and Bushrangers Bay. The property was settled in 1860. The name Barragunda is a Bunurong Indigenous word describing the thunderous sound the swell makes as it hits the volcanic cliffs below. The estate is owned by the Morris family, and the new restaurant is part of the Barragunda Collective, which is an arm of the family’s not-for-profit charitable foundation.
Simone walks us through the orchard, where the quince trees planted 12 years ago are in full bloom. “This is a regenerative farm,” she says. “The sandy soils here are quite poor and need a lot of organic input.” For her, the kitchen, the garden and the farm are one. The garden feeds the kitchen, and all green waste will be composted. Farming and gardening without artificial chemical fertilisers and pest control means other methods need to be found. Pruning from the orchard will feed the wood-fired oven, and the ash, along with burned bones, will be turned back into the earth or used for pest control. Simone explains that animal manure is collected to make teas that stimulate soil biodiversity. At that moment, a noise beyond the quince trees signals a small mob of towering eastern grey kangaroos bounding out of the orchard into the surrounding bush.
The business model for Barragunda Estate is unusual. The vegetables are grown by another tenant on the farm, Karl Breese from Morning Penni Farm. Simone plans her menu with a planting list she passes on to Karl, who grows different vegetables for her throughout the year. Simone buys the vegetables from Karl, and he sells the surplus via the on-farm box system or supplies other outlets like Torello Farm. There is also a flower farm on site, Ethereal Floristry by Amy Mosley, whose flowers will feature in the new dining room.
The room itself is a beautifully simple space for 40 diners, set in a swale behind the dunes, surrounded by a landscaped native garden and bush. Lined with spotted gum, the all-electric kitchen is set at one end, framed like a theatre’s proscenium arch, and open to view the food grown in the surrounding gardens, paddocks and orchards being transformed into beautiful meals that reflect a sense of place. When asked to describe her food, Simone takes time to reflect. She trained under globally respected Middle Eastern chef Greg Malouf and with Adam D’Sylva at Pearl and Coda, and has a broad range of skills. She smiles and says: “The menu will reflect a sense of time and place. It will work with what comes in from the garden, the farm, and what native bush foods are ready to harvest.”
While not wanting to be tied to any set repertoire of dishes, she provides an outline of a possible menu. The five-course lunch – Simone is initially cooking lunch only – starts with crudités made from vegetables picked just before service and served in the garden. Then, once seated in the dining room, with a fire blazing in cooler weather, guests will be served bread made from grains grown and milled on site, followed by three seasonal snacks such as air-dried merguez sausage with a spicy red pepper and tomato salsa. The entrée will be a vegetable course or seafood, such as Harry’s Mussels from Western Port or wild-caught snapper from Port Phillip. The main course will be beef or hogget from the farm with seasonal vegetables, followed by a rich sweet dish to finish, such as a plate of fried wattle seed ice cream, fermented cream, and spent wheat crumb.
Simone walks us through the kitchen garden, a square of vegetables eked out of the bush. “The insects from the bush help with pest control,” she adds. “What we’re doing here is always a story about where food comes from, how it is grown, and how it is made. It is not always about sheer aesthetics; it’s about that truth.” She looks up, smiles, and points to the sky. On cue, a pair of wedge-tailed eagles reel above us, chasing a thermal, rising up, up, up.
Opening hours: to be confirmed
BARRAGUNDA ESTATE
A: 113 Cape Schanck Rd, Cape Schanck
W: www.barragunda.com.au
RICHARD CORNISH
