The midday sun is delightfully warm, never scorching; the air is softly humid. Sweet scents drift in the sea breeze and bright colours are everywhere. From the layered…
Essentials takes a bite of The Big Apple and surrounds. When the sun shines in the northern hemisphere, both NYC and regional NY chefs keep the plates fresh, clean…
We’re sitting in Provenance restaurant admiring the simplified new interior and listening to the playlist. Chef Michael Ryan puts as much effort into his music as he does…
It’s early evening and the warm glow of the bistro spills out from the broad verandah into the street. Inside, the Edison lamps bathe the beautifully simple dining…
Artisan dairy producer Andre Kogut, for the past 12 years, has been making premium organic cheeses at his Blue Bay dairy in Mornington, south of Melbourne. Products include…
It’s garlic, but not as you know it. Rich, dark and delicious, Garlicious Grown black garlic is an ingredient for the everyday cook to make dishes more interesting,…
Josh Niland’s collection of prized line-caught delights are a limited catch, delivered with an intensified flavour born of unique dry-ageing and curing techniques. You won’t find farmed or…
Its no secret that the extensive 2017 redevelopment of Rutherglen Estates’ cellar door, featuring the newly established Aboriginal Exhibitions Gallery within the same historic 1880s Seppelts Cellars building,…
It is one of the best oysters I have had in a long time. Fat and flinty, it sits on the half shell brimming with salty brine. ‘I…
French-born Australian chef Philippe Leban knows a thing or two about the importance of premium food ingredients. While his personal style in cooking is centred around a keen…
Its been an extremely successful two years for Wodonga chef David Kapay, since we first reported on the opening of Miss Amelie – a restaurant that continues to…
Artisan dairy producer Andre Kogut, for the past 12 years, has been making premium organic cheeses at his Blue Bay dairy in Mornington, south of Melbourne. Products include…
What does consecutive years of work in Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant test kitchen do to a chef, and what kind of person must you be to stick it out?…
In 2011 artisan baker Louise Ritchie began a heath-focused fascination with natural slow-ferment breads that can make gluten more digestible. Fast forward to 2018: while her artisan loaves…
Harry’s Singapore Chilli Crab is a Sydney restaurant icon. Having opened in 1982, its fed half the city and almost all of its local celebrities at one time…
Va Tutto restaurant in Ivanhoe, a leafy North East suburb of Melbourne is an icon. Operated by husband and wife team, Paul and Myrto Recinella, Va Tutto is…
A hidden gem plating up farm-fresh produce and bakery perfection. You have to go out of your way to get to Pigeon Hole. The little café, a good…
Kefir is a traditionally fermented, non-homogenised yoghurt product that is an amazing source of probiotics. Blue Bay Kefir, from Mornington, Victoria, is an Australian gold award-winning brand made…
Chef Luke Mangan has transformed his Sydney restaurant headquarters, offering a unique inner-urban neighbourhood bistro that plates up spice-trade influences and modern Australian fare. Essentials’ Jamie Durrant spoke…
It is early autumn and the Ovens River slides quietly over the rocks below the gardens of Ginger Baker. It is one of the long warm days that…
It’s time to wine and dine on the Apple Isle Why eat in a bland room when you can dine in an orchard, on a tiny island or…
A truly excellent new Japanese restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD is quite literally a hidden gem. Melbourne’s newest and most exclusive Japanese restaurant is genuinely hard to find. It’s…
The unique freeze-dried range of ingredients from Fresh As has finally launched in Australia. Keen to plate up desserts and savoury dishes like an uber-cool three-hat chef? Then…
These three brands of delicious fishes are a world away from the sharp little hairy strips found on top of suburban pizzas. These are packaged umami, meaty and…
The Dal Zotto family, known for pioneering Australia’s very first prosecco in Victoria’s King Valley, love nothing more than to share their love of food, wine, and friendship.…
North East Victoria has a new fine dining restaurant that cements Beechworth as one of the nation’s best food and wine destinations. The Empire Hotel, Beechworth, is a…
As tourism booms in Malta, international guests and their sophisticated palates have demanded finer dining. Drawing on the island’s rich past, Hammett’s Maċina Restaurant opened late in February…
The late afternoon sun floods Albury’s central park with golden light. Bounded by the city’s art musueum, court house, entertainment centre and the 19th-century St Matthew’s Church, the…
The Hyatt’s latest addition to the Australian hospitality landscape comes complete with a brilliant new destination restaurant. Since Mr McCracken opened at the base of Hyatt Place, Essendon…
A Tiny Place reminds me of a Lilliputian version of Stephanie’s, the eponymous Melbourne restaurant of Stephanie Alexander who championed local seasonal produce and French technique. A Tiny Place…