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 SAFFIRE executive chef Hugh Whitehouse opens a pack of newly arrived Tasmanian black truffles.
The aroma is pungent, intense and impossible to ignore.
The truffles were mailed to Coles Bay, where post office staff have started keeping packages for Whitehouse in a fridge.
The celebrated chef is delighted to show off the results of a Tasmanian food odyssey that shaped the menu at Saffire's restaurant Palate.
The man who took Darley's at Lilianfels in the Blue Mountains to "two hat: status spent months talking to chefs and travelling Tasmania to meet the people who would provide Palate's produce.
Whitehouse grew up on a farm in Hawkesbury, NSW, and remembers milking the cows with his dad and tasting the warm milk.
He says his mother was a good baker who passed on her love of cooking to her son. "I always wanted to be a chef," he said.
Whitehouse made it happen. He had a "great, old-school apprenticeship" in NSW before learning more under Europe's best chefs at the Dolder Grand in Zurich and the Chewton Glen in England.
Back in Sydney he managed Milsons and Jaspers, before donning his chef's coat once more to win Jaspers a one-hat rating.
Seeking a new challenge after his success at Darley's, Whitehouse liked the intimate nature of Saffire, Federal Group's $32 million, 20-suite luxury resort overlooking Coles Bay.
His experience at front-of-house means he is comfortable handling one of the resort's many activities, a one-hour cooking class.
Whitehouse's menu is a celebration of local produce _ beef from Cape Grim, venison from Doo Town on the Tasman Peninsula, rare-breed pork from Penguin, wasabe from the North, seafood from all around the state.
Oysters from just down the road at Freycinet Marine Farm are testimony to his fresh-food approach.
"I believe that food is about showcasing the best of the season and should offer a balanced and textured dining experience."
Whitehouse is keen to incorporate fresh produce whenever it becomes available.
The day I visit, tamarillos and the $1500-a-kilo truffles are the exciting arrivals.
That night a six-course degustation pushes out to seven courses because Whitehouse wants to add Moroccan-inspired quail bisteeya (savoury pastry) with almond, spices, scallops, barberries, eggplant and preserved lemon.
The sublime quail is matched with a 2008 42 Degrees South Pinot Noir from Coal River.
Another degustation dish is the Belstone goats cheese tortellini with prawns, tea-soaked raisins, pine nuts and brown butter. This is matched with a 2008 Bollini Pinot Grigio from Italy.
The dessert marries multiple flavours in a sweet triumph: it's vanilla panna cotta, pear fool, caramelised pear, leatherwood honey granita and poire williams (pear liqueur).
The matching wine is a 2006 Craigow Dessert Gewurtztraminer, again from the Coal River.
Saffire's wine list is the work of sommelier Andrew Michalanney, who has just returned from helping launch deluxe resorts in the Maldives and Dubai.
Michalanney has introduced vinto to the wine service at Saffire.
"Based on the Latin verb vincere, meaning "to win'', vinto is a Saffire initiative designed to enhance the wining pleasure of the diner,'' Michalanney says.
A little of the wine is used to rinse the glass and remove residue.
"This 'priming' of the glasses is a little extra touch that we feel greatly enhances the wine-drinking experience.''
Sipping a wine, looking over the tranquil winter waters of Coles Bay and the fiery pink granite of The Hazards, it's hard to disagree.
The writer was a guest of Saffire.
NEXT WEEK: Experiences around Saffire. |
