WESTERN AUSTRALIA
LOCAL FAVOURITES
Tall Timbers Manjimup wine bar and bottle shop Tall Timbers has a huge by-the-glass range of Southern Forests wine. Try anything from the storied Pannell family, small batch maker Lilian, or newcomers Chateau June- Jerome. Sister venue Tall Timbers Brewing Co is opposite, with beer brewed on site.
talltimbersmanjimup.com.au
Genuinely Extraordinary Food Tours Organised through the Southern Forests Food Council, these bespoke tours get to the heart of what’s growing in the region, from truffles and avocados to apples and stone fruit. Highlights also include locally prepared meals and wine tastings. southernforestsfood. com/foodandfarmtours
Jaspers This Pemberton landmark is a place to discover Australian — particularly West Australian — whiskies, such as Limeburners, from the Great Southern region. It also offers food and accommodation.
jasperspemberton.com
Southern Roasting Co A local hub on Manjimup’s main street, this roastery offers bags of beans, coffees and food including the odd truffle-based snack in season. There’s also a wood fire for chilly days.
southernroasting.com
chain of dams irrigating the district; growing is at the heart of everything. Amid the festival’s marketplace, which
brims with local growers, winemakers and artisans, Gavin Booth and his team tend a row of pizza ovens. Hungry punters queue for their fix of freshly baked pizza, topped with liberally grated truffle. Nearby, a stall set up by local restaurant
Sööma sates appetites with three-cheese arancini heaped with truffle. Wine from the region’s makers is in abundant supply; while Margaret River, 90 minutes west, is world renowned for its chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, Southern Forests has a growing reputation for its pinot noir and chardonnay. As I’m exploring the festival, I catch up with
chef Analiese Gregory, who’s on her way to truffle hunt with the Booths. Although based in Tasmania’s Huon Valley, she’s a big fan of this region and the ingredients grown here. “It’s about the truffles, but also the produce of the season,” she tells me, namechecking celeriac, chestnuts, pumpkins, potatoes and marron — a freshwater crustacean that’s sweet, delicious and endemic to the local waterways. Analiese is typically a ‘hunt it, kill it, cook it’ kind of chef, but there will be less bloodshed this evening when she creates a dinner for 240 guests, and also hosts an intimate masterclass and tasting, where the focus will be local produce — including, of course, truffles. While the market offers bites to pick up
and take away, long-table dining events are the hot tickets, held in the festival’s pop-up restaurant, as well as at farms and other venues across the district. Chef Paul Iskov, of culinary pop-up Fervor, uses seasonal ingredients first brought to Western Australia generations ago, along with indigenous produce that’s been consumed by Aboriginal communities for tens of thousands of years. Just 15 miles from Fonty’s Pool — a mere hop and a skip in Australian terms — his team have set up long tables at the farm of Dave and Ildy Ikin, owners of Black Solitaire Truffles, in an open-sided farm shed overlooking the orchard. Paul presents a perfectly cooked 63C egg,
coral mushrooms, field mushrooms foraged from the property, sea-blite (a succulent shrub
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grown in salt marshes) and an oil of bloodroot, a bulb vegetable that grows “between Perth and Esperance [a southern coastal town]; getting stronger and spicier as you travel south”, says Paul. It’s a dish that shows how ingredients can
complement each other: the silky egg yolk is offset by the earthiness of the mushrooms, the bloodroot subtly cutting through the richness. It’s all enhanced with shavings of Black Solitaire truffle, a fact grower Dave finds thrilling. Getting into this line of work wasn’t planned: “We didn’t buy the property for the truffles. We were retired,” he says. “It’s rather like grabbing a tiger by the tail.”
BROAD ROOTS Nearby Manjimup has a quintessential Australian country town feel and is peppered with art deco frontages that hint at its boom years, in the early 20th century, when it was established by timber cutters, who were later joined by farmers. These days, it remains a small town, with a population of less than 5,000, but it’s increasingly attracting visitors with standout cafes, pubs and a newly opened brewery. At the end of one of the covered arcades, Sööma has played its part in bolstering the local food scene. “The name of the restaurant means ‘to eat’ in Estonian,” explains chef-owner Deb Sillaots. “I love what it represents. My father is Estonian; he gave me a passion for homemade food, watching him make sauerkraut, sausages and brawn.” Sööma’s menu isn’t Estonian, however — it’s
an eclectic culinary collection crafted, says Deb, “on my own whims”. Southeast Asian flavours are a current favourite, and many of her ingredients come from roadside honesty stalls — where passersby pick up produce that’s been left out and leave payment in return — along with things people bring her: feijoas, limes, pomegranates and yuzu. “My Estonian aunt lived traditionally and
preserved everything,” Deb says, placing a dish of duck-and-mushroom ‘cigars’ in front of me. White and black oyster mushrooms, king mushrooms and truffle are all encased in pastry, with a side of smoked creme fraiche and preserved sour cherries. It’s a meeting of
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