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Laura – Pt Leo Estate – Mornington Peninsula – Sunday 28 July 2019 – Lunch

Hawkes Farm potato duchess, cauliflower, shiitake

Inventiveness is in the eye of the beholder. As we experience an incredible lunch, I cannot help but think aspects of Pt Leo Estate, and it’s flagship restaurant, Laura, have been done before, but feel completely new.

It might be the combination of the winery, restaurant, and sculpture garden, but it’s not. As I walk in, I have a Port Phillip Estate feeling; the sculpture garden and outlook has a McClelland Gallery and Jackalope vibe; and the winery with its long rectangular shape, featuring floor to ceiling windows, has been done before. The view is magnificent by the way. Whatever it is, this place feels special. It feels different.

 

Nori tart, creme fraiche, bottarga; Rice bun, The Fruit Forest medlar relish

It has the persona of a country restaurant that is run by experienced heads who have seen it all and decided they would rather the countryside ocean views, instead of the cityscape. We got a sense of the journey and ethos of Laura during our several courses of the tasting menu, but it was barely scratching the surface.

Cochranes celery, pear, oyster, Brazilian starfish tabasco

Laura is versatile. With so many sensory delights you have enough going on around you to be comfortable to not have any awkward pauses on a first date; or in our case, parents who’ve left their infant for the first time catching up, and getting caught up in the amazement of it all. You could make a long day of it too, with the cellar door doing extensive wine tasting, the sculpture garden providing plenty of distraction, and a nice long lunch rounding out the adventure.

We make a start on proceedings with some brioche buns that we double up on through the meal. It’s a nice touch and we did notice sourdough being offered to those who don’t subscribe to the beauty that is brioche. Like much of the produce, the olive oil here is local to the region from nearby Cape Schanck.

Starters consist of a spoonful of potato and Main Ridge Daily dumpling with radish, scattered with cheese; a nori tart filled with homemade crème fraiche and sprinkled with bottarga is absolutely gorgeous and salty; and a rice cake with unusual fruit called medlar produced into a relish, again shows off the local small producers.

Roast Great Ocean Road duck, Port Phillip scallop frill, Mossy Willow lenticchie

Western Port Bay Wagyu beef, almonds, polenta

For our first entrée we are presented with a nice combination of thinly sliced pear, oyster, mushrooms, celery stalk and leaves, in a creamy sauce with a touch of tabasco. It is an intriguing combination which I tried with, and without, the pear, and settled on the pear being a key component. Equally a fruit perhaps a touch less sweet would be good too.

Thoughtful sides of sliced pumpkin, and eggplant

Incredibly well thought through Hawkes Farm potato is presented duchess style with beurre blanc sauce surrounding. Salmon roe, and sturgeon caviar (as a supplement option) top the potato, which is filled with shiitake mushrooms and cauliflower.  This is a beautiful combination and appears to be a signature of this menu. It brings back memories of the famous Attica potato dish, but is presented more like Attica would today, as opposed to yesteryear.

As we struggled to decide between four main courses that all had their enticing qualities, we asked for help and got the response we didn’t expect, but hugely appreciated. “Why don’t you choose two and split them between you?” These mains both came out as separate courses, plated for each of us. It was a tremendous way to do it, both with half glasses of wine which they also accommodate.

Custard fondant, last season’s berries, liquorice

The Great Ocean Road duck is roasted and classically presented, with a less classical Mossy Willow “lenticchie” which is described (and tastes) like a minestrone broth. Next door, the Port Philip scallop frill is a Swiss chard leaf filled with lentils and chickpeas. It is beauty on a plate.

The secondary cut of Western Port Bay Wagyu blade is corned and thinly sliced, oozing with flavour and enveloping a perfect polenta. A delightful veal jus is used as the sauce, with slithered almonds scattered on top. Nothing is out of place and the flavours work seamlessly together. Even the sides are thoughtful with some extra depth of flavour and inventiveness.

Following a superb refresher, our beautiful dessert consisting of a custard fondant and foam of liquorice with last season’s berries and some tiny meringues has the sweetness we love, and the technique only great pastry chefs can achieve. That technique is further proven with a superb white opera cake, which is presented as a birthday bonus!

Wines we chose included the 2011 Chardonnay and 2016 Pinot by Pt Leo Estate, as well as a Bordeaux Cabernet blend which were all fantastic. Aperitifs consisted of Four Pillars G&T and the house mocktail which is also beautiful.

As we enjoyed quality dish after quality dish, we had begun to question whether the service was the perfect match to the food. There were some clear misses. While the sommerlier, Andrew, was personable and polite, he did go missing after we had ordered our aperitif. In fact, we didn’t actually get asked whether we wanted the matching wines, or if we needed help selecting glasses for our various courses.

What made up for some of the time trying to catch the floorstaff’s glance on more than a couple of occasions, was the overall professionalism and balanced demeanour shown, which showed a good amount of broad experience. Our best waitperson had a background at Attica, Cutler and Pei Modern, for example.

While there are some improvements that could be made, this is a class act at Laura. Strolling around the sculpture garden following lunch (complimentary for those dining at Laura) is a fabulous way to reflect on a top meal. These are views that you could never tire of and a restaurant that is equally as attractive.

Laura Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Ten Minutes By Tractor – Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula – May 2017 – Lunch

Catherine, and her Mum, Sandra, in the garden

Is it possible to feel like a regular when your second visit to a restaurant is eight years apart? Perhaps that is a KPI for Ten Minutes By Tractor. Without any facade, the staff have you feeling completely at ease in an instant.

Looking around the room, the recent renovation has been nicely undertaken, not making a big statement but certainly leaving a very comfortable dining room to spend three hours over lunch. The seats in particular are the perfect choice, both well designed, and like your favourite couch. As you can imagine, there is plenty of emphasis in having a good view of the vines in this beautiful part of the world.

Notwithstanding first class service, and a terrific newly renovated dining room, I want to talk about one dish. Offal has never been the flavour of the month. It has been lauded for reason over a long time, but has never escalated to the heights of true popularity. Perhaps it never will be. When you look at a “balanced” restaurant menu you would ordinarily expect certain main star ingredients, some choice of secondary stars, and then something surprising. I’m afraid while beef, chicken, and fish take that staring role, offal has always been kept to the “surprise” meaning it gets a gig only on occasion.

Veal sweetbreads, mushrooms, charred baby leeks, chestnuts

While livers take the cake, sweetbreads (which actually sound like a cake) must be the second most unsexy ingredient going around. I mean they actually gave them a name that tries to confuse the customer into having a go! Ten Minutes By Tractor are serving veal sweetbreads for entree, and like a kid in a candy shop, I’m excited. To serve offal, you need to honour the flavour, but present it looking delicious (in spite of itself) and with complimentary accompaniments (more than other dishes).

Slow cooked goat, beetroot pasta, pickled beetroots, Main Ridge caprinella goats’ cheese

That is why I’m focussing on this dish. It came out on a black plate, showing off fabulous presentation skills of the chefs, but not hiding the sweetbreads, and actually highlighting them. The visual sear on the sweetbreads translates to the taste. Soft but deep gaminess, cooked in balance, and enhanced with the sauce and complimentary earthy mushrooms. I was not completely sold on the chestnuts in the dish, but this was close to perfection.

Cauliflower and mushroom, mushroom and cauliflower royal, black pearl barley

There are some choices to be made on the menu with a tasting menu, and a prix fixe option of two or three courses. We chose to have three courses ($99). It is best to not have any plans following the meal, with an amuse to begin, and a pre-dessert, making for a long and enjoyable meal. As well as having the sweetbreads, there is good diversity in the menu. Catherine’s Mum Sandra tried the roasted cauliflower to start. With a variety of mushrooms, a flavoursome theme on the menu, black pearl barley, and a “mushroom and cauliflower royal”, this is a nicely executed vegetarian dish. For her entree, Catherine opted for the slow cooked goat with beetroot pasta, pickled beetroot and goat’s cheese. Again, presentation is superb, and backed up by the taste.

Smoked breast of Great Ocean Road duck, mushrooms, celeriac, walnut crunch

Not easily put off by rich gamey dishes, next I was trying the smoked breast of Great Ocean Road duck. The duck was nicely cooked, and as I got further into the dish, the sweet walnut crunch dulled, starting to combine and balance the richer flavours of the mushrooms and celeriac. Both Catherine, and Sandra, tried the roasted hapuka which is a fish I’ve always loved. Here it is cooked with skill, and combined with both a persillade (mainly parsley) and lovage puree. The cauliflower is thinly sliced on top and it all makes for a delicious dish.

Roasted hapuka, lovage puree, heritage cauliflower, persillade

There is some serious flair here. A meal is more than a simple three courses. When the blood orange sorbet refresher comes out we know we are being spoilt. The flavours are as intense as you would like for a refreshing, but indulgent, interlude between mains and dessert. Then there is dessert itself. The colours, textures, tastes, and look of these dishes shows why it is a good idea to limit options on a menu. Make every dish exceptional and choice is not so important. Probably the only critique is the length of time it took for dessert to come out, meaning my 3.30pm conference call was a bit of a rush.

Poached pear, cashmere ice cream, candied chestnuts, slow roasted grapes

Michel Cluizel chocolate pave, cassis mousse, beetroot and creme fraiche ice cream, chocolate cake

Poached estate quince, candied ginger, sable, verjuice gel

Sandra’s came with the classic acknowledgement of a special day, but the combination was hard to beat. Quince from out the back seems healthy enough, but when combined with the sponge, crisps, gels and sorbets it is something else! My chocolate everything with cassis was its equal on the richer side. I’ve never rated food based on size, but this was a classic dish for sharing. Then there was Catherine’s poached pears which is not as popular as a few decades ago, but is a classic for a reason. Modern desserts have similar balance, texture and composition, but they don’t get much better than these.

Blood orange sorbet

I knew Ten Minutes By Tractor was a great place to dine. Though it had been several years since I’d had the experience first hand. At this stage of the day, albeit running out for a work call, I couldn’t quite believe how good today’s lunch actually was. It is still sinking in.

Ten Minutes by Tractor Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato