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.

• 21/3cups (500g) plain flour
• 1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 11/2 cups caster sugar
• 20 apples, such as pink lady or delicious
• 250g butter, extra, cubed
• 1/3cup currants
• 50ml calvados or other apple-based liqueur
• pinch of salt
• thick cream, to serve

Method

Grease a 5.5 x 23cm (base measurement) fluted loose-bottomed flan pan with butter. Combine flour and icing sugar in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, and work into a dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is firm.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Turn dough onto a floured surface and roll out until 4mm thick. Line prepared pan with pastry and trim edges. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with dried beans, rice or pastry weights.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove dried beans or rice and paper. Bake for 10—15 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch. Stand pan on a wire rack to cool. Reduce
oven to 180°C. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved and mixture comes to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Peel, core and dice 17 apples. Add extra butter to a large, deep saucepan over a medium heat. When melted, add diced apples and remaining sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 25-30 minutes or until apples are rich, golden and caramelised. Add currants, calvados and salt. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Spoon cooled apple mixture into tart shell. Peel, core and thinly slice remaining apples. Place apple slices over surface of tart, overlapping slightly. Brush liberally with reserved sugar syrup. Bake for 30-40 minutes, brushing every 10 minutes with sugar syrup, until tart is hot and apple topping is soft and light golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Remove tart from pan and place on a large cake stand. Serve with thick cream.