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Sunnybrae Restaurant & Cooking School

Cnr Cape Otway Rd & Lorne Rd, Birregurra 3242 Australia
Phone: 052 36 2276

Legendary Melbourne Chef George Biron has reopened Sunnybrae, his celebrated Birregurra Restaurant and Coooking school.

From George you can't help but feel inspired to appreciate local and regional food. He is an inspiration when it comes to preserving traditional practices and preparing rustic meals in buccolic surrounds. His influence has touched a number of regional dining venues including Campaspe House, T'Gallent Winery and Digger's Seeds to name a few.

Much of what George cooks come from his own property - some is foraged - and he is a big supporter of local suppliers. On his blog and in an article in the Melbourne paper, The Age, he discussed how a local truffle supplier had appeared on his doorstep with the legendary black gems. So what you get here is seasonal produce, prepared with love, passion, and artistry, free of pretentiousness.

The restaurant is open on Saturday and Sunday, and Cooking Classes are held on Mondays. About 2hours drive from Melbourne Birregurra can also be reached by train - George is happy to pick up his guests from the station and return them in time to get home. Accommodation can be found over the road from Sunnybrae for those choosing to stay on for a cooking class or a longer visit to the Great Ocean Road district.

Be sure to book well in advance for your special day out at Sunnybrae.

Please see George's blog for further details:
http://sunnybraerestaurantandcookingsch ... gspot.com/

Cooking School website:
http://sunnybraecookingschool.blogspot.com/

Blogger review - 'Sunday Lunch a real treat at Sunnybrae Restaurant'
http://greatoceanroad-torquay.com.au/bl ... eal-treat/

Blogger Review - 'Everything old is new again - Sunnybrae Restaurant '
http://eatingwithjack.blogspot.com/2008 ... ybrae.html

Gorgeous George!

He's SUCH an inspiration! His recipe for quince and jasmine fool is AWESOME!

I thought I'd share what we ate at Sunnybrae on a recent visit.



It took 90minutes from our house on highway all the way, over the Westgate and through Geelong towards Colac before we turned down into Birregurra and then up Sunnybrae's drive towards a cute country cottage and up past a big shed to the carpark where the restaurant entry is. On the verandah there was a display of artfully arranged pumpkins and through the window we could see people had already settled in.



The space inside is bright and airy, warm with wood and Di's art is everywhere adding colour and whimsy. The staff are all lovely and welcoming. We were in the private dining room that seats ten and overlooks the garden to one side and on the other, a courtyard outside the kitchen where the wood fired oven was cooking first the bread and then later some of the meals. The feeling is rustic, not cold or modern like some other country venues and you almost get the feeling that you're visiting family as you stare out at the greenery amongst the buzz of excited diners in enjoying a leisurely lunch.

The menu is fixed priced at $66 per head for multiple courses which come out at a good pace as shared plates. You have your choice of main course and dessert.

You can BYO though they have a nice range of regional wines by the bottle and glass, some fizz, a few local Otway beers, Sherry, Cider and Perry, and a selection of cordials, mixers, malt whiskey, grappa and digestifs. Coffee served with 'a slice of spice' is $4.



Amongst our friends a phrase often heard on the day was "I used to hate that until I came here and tried George's (Insert ingredient) - Mum used to do horrible things to it."

George's menu:

SHARED PLATTERS

Potato bread with our own extra virgin Abequina Olive Oil, Camillo table olives(Teesdale) Ligurian varieties
Warm straight from the wood oven it was served throughout the meal, the olive oil was fruity and the little olives delicate.

Veloute of parsnips and mussels
A subtle creamy soup garnished with small local mussels. Perfectly balanced with no trace of the acrid flavour some commmercial parsnips sometimes have, I mopped the plate with the bread.

Spanish-style ham with cabbage and caraway and dried apples
Seared Ocean Trout with perilla & jicama salad
How many ways can you say heaven?

The Jamon (ham) was made by Pedro in Preston and was chewy yet melt in the mouth at thesame time, the cabbage evoked childhood memmories of hungarian cabbage dishes, it was sweet and slippery and a perfect foil to the richness of the Jamon.
Most of my friends had not tried jicama - I'm used to it in Asian foods like Malaysian Rojak. It's crunchy like nashi's and makes a wonderful salad that George infused with Asian flavours. The Ocean trout blew my mind. Cured like Gravlax and then seared in the ash of the oven it had an amazing smoky flavour that made many commercial smoken salmon seem plastic in comparison.

Duck liver pate with drunken currants and blood orange and miners lettuce salad
Pickled ox toungue and horseradish dressing
Salad of our soft dried tomatoes with fennel, peppers and kale
This course was all about texture. Silken pate, with a delicious complex flavour off set with the tang of blood orange. The ox tongue was shaved and served in a subtle creamy horseradish sauce a logical but unexpected combination for most it slipped down far too easily alongside the vividly coloured salad of winter vegetables.



MAIN COURSE - a choice of:

Slowly braised veal shanks with orange soffrito and white beans
or - Rabbit fillet wrapped juniper flavoured minced rabbit wrapped in caul on jus
or - blue eye with saffron and sorrel sauce
or - Hungarian Paprika chicken
or - lamb roasted in the wood oven with lemons

served with roasted winter vegetables, radicchio and succulent leaves

DESSERT - a choice of:

Pavlova roll with tangeloes, passionfruit & star anise ice cream
Hungarian poppyseed pancakes with sourcream and apple sorbet
youghurt and our honey pannacotta with spiced morello cherries
Rhubarb and jasmione fool with white peach sorbet
chocolate and cardomom creme with jackfruit and a lemon sabayon
turkey livers slowly cooked in duck fat on toast provencale paste
meredith soft goat's cheese with dill and a semi hard Caprini served with quince paste pears and toast

Coffee with a slice of spice (a thin, date based slice with walnuts and star anise)

OH!

MY!

GIDDY!

AUNT!!

I think I just made a mess in my rompers reading that!