One of the most exciting trips I've taken in a while, A because I've actually left Sydney
B because I'm on my old stomping ground the Central West where there are wineries, incredible local produce, brilliant
chefs, fantastic pubs, some new bars, really really pumped to check it all out and to bring it back to you.
So we are outside Ellwood's which is our first stop on our grand Orange tour and I've heard amazing things about this burger.
Apparently it's full brisket which is kind of pretty unusual, it's all smoked, very very excited to try it, so let's uhh
Started about four years ago now. With our cheeseburger we're sort of proud of that because it's our own cheeseburger
we've put a lot of work into it. We smoke our cheeseburgers for 40 minutes low and slow over imported oak pellets.
It's been a work in progress for quite a few years but we like to think that we've nailed it.
I'm sure there are a lot of other places around Australia that do do smoked burgers and stuff but with our blend
the way we do the mince and all those sorts of things, we do like to think that they're pretty original.
Wow. I'm a murder scene right now. What a burger, that was outrageous!
And I would go again but we have a lot of other eating to do today.
Now we're going into Charred.
So tell me all about Charred.
Everything has to have some form or char or smoke. Why was using that type of oven so important to you?
Smoke. Just beautiful. It transforms everything. We've got basically charred lamb rump, it's cooked over coals.
Sousvide first, beautiful tenderness going through it and it's just simply marinated.
Just with peas and mint, it's kind of meat and three veg sort of thing but like, a little bit of a twist too.
Lucy style. Lucy style, char it up.
Incredible local produce, we've got like a festival of mint, some beautiful local lamb, some tiny pickled onion petals.
I'm just going to go in, it's really quite an incredible dish.
We're in Milthorpe this morning which is one of the many tiny little towns surrounding Orange and surprisingly
it packs a real punch. There are incredible cafes and restaurants here and this morning we're going to
The Old Mill to try the lemon curd Belgian cake which I've heard very good things about.
This is the signature Belgian, the Nanna Miller signature Belgian.
This is a fresh batch of lemon curd made this morning and now we're going to pop some fresh passion fruits in too.
I've heard there's a lot of time that goes into getting that right.
It's so good.
So we're in Carcoar, the town that time forgot. It's peaceful, it smells good, if I could live here I definitely would.
It's the town that now holds one of the most interesting regional Italian restaurants I've come across in the state
let alone the country. It's a little place called Antica.
Make something a little bit interesting, a little bit different. Today we make Agnello alla Romana.
It means Roman lamb. With anchovies, rosemary, vinegar. It's an infusion from a shepherd and a fisherman
because in the market they meet together, they mix the deal from the fisherman and also the shepherd.
That's brilliant.
The way that the salty, richness just meets the tenderness of that Cowra lamb, so good.
Every single thing in this restaurant has a different story from these plates which tell the original story of Rome to
these beautiful ceramic wine mugs because they refuse to use wine glasses because this is the way that the wine
was always served in the region that these guys came from. I really can't wait to come back here.
We've been here for about seven years now. We like to support a lot of local businesses, we have a lot of
local produce, we've got a store that has jams, chutneys, relishes, beers, wines, all that sort of stuff and then you
can walk into the cafe and enjoy some of our freshly made meals. We've got a Buddha bowl on the menu
a few local vegetables and things and then we utilise a little bit of the local lamb that we can source.
I'd forgotten how much I like brown rice, especially brown rice with a little bit of lamb and some beef and then like the
big acidic hit of pickles. Fresh.
Is this happening? Is a camel coming towards me? He's going to spit on me!
The bakery business was set up seven years ago I think now. And what style of bakery is it? What can we see here?
Well it's based on our travels living in London and traveling through France and so on, so it's a patisserie
that does bread not a bakery I guess.
I hear you've got a hell of a pie on offer. The beef and Burgundy? The beef cheek pie. Tell us about that.
We always used beef cheek in the restaurant so we decided to dice the beef cheek to get the gelatinous texture from the beef cheek and it's been a hit.
Everything is made so we source the best ingredients possible. I'm a chef not a baker so I bring a chef's philosophy not a bakers philosophy.
But yeah. It speaks in the pie.
Oh that's so rich. Really silky like the beef cheek makes a really huge difference to the general texture. Extra mouth feel, this extra element of super silky deliciousness.
Gaye tell me all about Borrodell. We have a glorious view, sitting here on the side of Mount Canobolis overlooking the Towak Valley. It's spectacular. We love it.
The lamb comes from Cowra from Breakout River Meats, like a conglomerate of different farmers who sort of go under one label to sell their lamb
it's all from Cowra. It's really good to have that sort of one your doorstep. So we sousvide it, 53 degrees for two hours and then we finish it on the barbecue.
We've got garlic, oregano from the garden, everything as close as possible. Baby artichokes, red onion.
We've got a garlic farm down the road, an organics farm is somebody else we use, we've got our own cattle. Out here being on the volcano, we've got the
wines, we've got cherries, pretty much everything you need is around you, at your fingertips, literally.
But to be able to share a good view with lovely food, lovely wine and beautiful company. How good is that?
They have such an incredibly close relationship with a lot of their producers and suppliers which is a super exciting and cool thing.
The Schoolhouse Restaurant, we're just trying to really showcase the best produce of the region in a more formal format that allows us to experiment.
I just want us to be around for as long as we can and sort of have people recognise us as a good, quintessential country restaurant.
So beef tataki, talk me through it. Beef tataki. So we have sirloin here from Cowra, just going to give this a really quick sear on a really hot grill.
So we're just going to slice it up nice and thin.
So from here we'll just plate her up. Pickled onions, so just pickled cocktail onions that we pickle them ourselves.
So what have you got here? So here we've just got some parmesan crisp, this is our mushroom broth here. Vintage 2019, second warmer month.
Bene. Beef tataki is particularly cool.
You get a little bit of the char and you get heightened sort of grilliness but then you just get this full, you just get the full beef. You get the full beef.
To be honest actually I was a little cynical when we started out on this trip. I thought that there would be more of a negative attitude around Covid and
being stuck in the regions. The fact that it's been drought then bushfire and then a pandemic but one of the most joyful things about the time we've had
in Orange over the past few days has been this huge feeling of positivity here. About using smaller producers, about this complete collaboration
between growers and restaurateurs and restaurants and chefs. The fact that everyone is working together and creating this new and exciting and vibrant
Orange that I've always wished for, that's finally arrived.
And that's what's good in the hood.