“BELLA VEDERE — everything is beautiful!” explains Gary Cooper, freely translating the name of his Yarra Valley restaurant. And who would disagree? Hardly his patrons, who have grown used to a most delicious and harmonious collision of the senses — from the smell of fresh bread wafting from the in-house bakery and the visual feast of the day’s cakes and tarts lined up on the kitchen servery, to the rows of house-made preserves lining the shelves of the entrance hall. The cosy intimacy of the rich olive green dining room feels almost homely — until you look through the windows framing views of the vine-patterned hills, or the romantic profusion of Bella Vedere’s large vegetable garden just outside, where guests wander among the produce they’ll be served a short time later.
Gary, chef and co-owner with Tim Sawyer, saw the potential seven years ago. “I had driven past this place for 12 years and always admired the house’s French-Italian farmhouse look,” he says. Sitting in the midst of the Badgers Brook vineyard, it’s an unpretentious, soul-soothing setting for the food of this 20-year veteran of regional cooking. Food with an honest simplicity that’s directly connected to the locality and seasons, and which in Gary’s case was inspired by his culinary guru, Alice Waters, the famous Californian advocate of sustainable, humanely produced food.
“Food should be real, fresh and simple, and presented with as least fuss as possible,” he declares. “The more organically we eat, the better — you’ll never see liquid nitrogen in my kitchen!” Regional Italian food, with daily menu changes, fits nicely with this philosophy, while the lack of pretension encourages guests to feel they’re at a private dinner party. “When they arrive they wander around the garden with a drink until 8pm,” Gary says. “Then I introduce the staff, who each talk about the dish they have been working on. It reminds you of the humanity behind the food we serve.”
The 48-year-old has been cooking most of his life. His apprenticeship started in Darwin and finished at London’s Dorchester Hotel. After several years in France and South Africa, he returned to Australia where his CV highlights include running the much-lauded Eleanor’s restaurant at Victoria’s Chateau Yering. Bella Vedere, once again awarded one chef’s hat in The Age Good Food Guide 2010-11, has rightly earned its own acclaim.
But for Gary, return visits mean much more than accolades, as does watching the enjoyment of patrons making those simple, satisfying connections.
“It’s being able to dig asparagus from the earth and be eating it within four minutes. And having customers pick the corn that they’ll dip in butter and eat at lunch. And on weekends watching children catching butterfly moths in the garden…” Everything is indeed beautiful at Bella Vedere.
Bella Vedere is at 874 Maroondah Highway, Coldstream, Victoria.
(03) 5962 6161; www.bellavedere.com.au
This article was published on July 2011 in Country Style Magazine.
