Andre Ursini opens Villetta Porcini, a new dining experience at Mylor in the Adelaide Hills
Andre Ursini has opened his new dining experience, a “culinary cave” set deep in an Adelaide Hills valley. Better join the list if you want to try it.
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“I don’t want to give the impression this is a restaurant,” award-winning chef Andre Ursini says.
“You’re coming into my house. It’s small; you’re going to have to wait to get in, but you’re going to love it.”
Ursini, owner/chef of Orso and Andre’s Cucina, on Sunday welcomed his first group of 18 visitors to his stone “home” in the valley of an eight-hectare Mylor property.
He has dubbed it Villetta Porcini, after the mushrooms that grow in nooks nearby.
“It’s close to the CBD, just 25 minutes away,” Mr Ursini says. But while the drive is short, the waitlist is lengthy. Applications open in December for dining experiences in January and beyond.
Three years in the making, Villetta Porcini is what the former MasterChef Australia star calls experience-based dining. Following arrival, guests are guided down a tree-lined trail to reach their destination.
“There’s a switchback trail that goes from the top of this property down,” Mr Ursini said. “Our guests will walk down through gum trees, pine trees and forestry to arrive at a bird’s-eye view looking down on Villetta Porcini and the grassed area where their dining setting is set up.
“It feels like you’ve been transported somewhere else.”
The Italo-centric menu is driven by the vegetables grown on the property. Bread, pasta, butter and ricotta are made on-site. Honey is taken from hives there. A cooking school and accommodation are planned, as are visits by other chefs, including Poh Ling Yeow.
“It’s an amalgamation of dining at my home and also getting professional application. There’s nothing really comparable to it,” Mr Ursini said.
“The people sitting at the bar side of Villetta are kind of hanging out while I’m cooking for them.”
Mr Ursini calls his kitchen his culinary cave.
“It’s a very eccentric little space, there are pots and pans, and family memorabilia – a little bit of a time capsule to my family.”
“I’m hosting and cooking there and it’s something that I’ve missed in the past few years of business with multiple restaurants.
“The purity of this dining experience taps into my passion which is what I started professionally 10 years ago with Andre’s Cucina. It taps back into that and reminds me why I’m doing it.”