Restaurant review: Terroir Auburn in the Clare Valley
A small restaurant run by a husband-and-wife team in the Clare Valley has shown its worth to the community, writes Simon Wilkinson.
Food & Wine
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It’s a good time to believe in karma – that fortune will favour decent people and charitable deeds will be reciprocated in the end.
Take the story of Terroir’s Dan and Annika Moss who, at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year, contemplated a full fridge and an empty restaurant, and wondered what they should do next.
Selling takeaway was not their bag. Instead, they decided to cook a weekly meal for the community of their little township of Auburn and give it away for free.
People would call by and pick up a soup or stew or whatever Dan had created. Spirits were lifted immeasurably all around.
Fast-forward to a recent Wednesday evening and Terroir is back in business. Tables are filled over two sittings. It is Local Appreciation Night, a longstanding concept that surely must have greater resonance on both sides now.
If I was an Auburn local, I’d sure as hell be doing my best to help Dan and Annika navigate these tricky times when they are operating on a skeleton staff of two – him in the kitchen, her on the floor.
Options in the town are limited and, while the Rising Sun hotel next door has a good handle on honest country cooking and a stellar wine list, Terroir is at a different level – one that makes it worthy of a long drive and repeated visits.
I can speak from recent experience. A mate and I stayed at the pub for a week of trekking and dined at Terroir two nights in a row.
The first is that appreciation session, in which pricing and culinary ambition are scaled back a little to make the experience more accessible, while still upholding the same ethos that Dan has stuck by since he opened Terroir in 2012.
Produce is sourced from as close as possible. Everything is made from scratch. Beasts, birds and fish are brought in whole and nothing is wasted. You get the idea.
So the “fish fingers” for the locals are croquettes of monkfish offcuts and potato, rolled into a cylinder, crumbed and fried. To the side are a blob of yoghurt-based tartare and a salad of shredded fennel and herbs in a super sesame and lime dressing.
Steak trimmings are transformed Cinderella-style into a majestic beef and ale pie with a golden dome of sour cream pastry, a peppered pea puree and celeriac remoulade.
Roasted pork scotch, a cheaper cut from the neck, works wonders when smeared in harissa and teamed with a laksa-inspired spiced pumpkin sauce and a lentil and soft herb salad. Fresh, crunchy contrasts like this are one of the chef’s signatures.
A block of vanilla parfait reminds me of the best bit of a pavlova, the marshmallowy centre. It is lowered into a pool of chocolate anglaise and sprinkled with crumbled honey comb and a dukkah-style mix of spices, nuts and seeds.
Annika brings all this to the table with the kind of pride that comes from sharing her life with the bloke in the kitchen, while radiating at least as much warmth as the pot belly stove on the far wall that does its best to keep the winter chill away.
For round two we opt for the four-course tasting selection – though given the super-succinct main menu only has two entrees, two mains and two desserts, it wouldn’t make much difference to DIY.
Fried gnocchi with grilled and shredded brussels sprouts, hazelnut praline and kale crisps would be one plate I’d hate to miss out on.
Royal blue spuds are salt-baked for three hours to keep these little dumplings as light on their feet as a prima ballerina, while the supporting ensemble has just enough sharpness to keep all the parts in place.
Slices of rare lamb rump are tossed with red cabbage, herbs and shaved macadamia, then dropped at the centre of a Thai-style red curry sauce, to create a warm salad of substance.
Next comes a selection of seafood – roasted barramundi fillet, mussels, pipis – in a prawn bisque of such velvet-gloved intensity that it makes total sense as the savoury finale.
Swirls of orange-scented custard sandwiched between two fragile rye biscuits offer a more refined take on the typical vanilla slice.
There is more nostalgia in the accompanying salted caramel and finely diced rhubarb that Dan says was inspired by his nan, who would dip the raw stalks in sugar and munch away.
Happy memories. That’s what a night at Terroir offers. And with plenty of local support and some well-deserved good fortune it should continue to do so for some time yet.
TERROIR
21 Main North Rd, Auburn
8849 2509; terroirauburn.com.au
OWNER Dan and Annika Moss
CHEF Dan Moss
FOOD Contemporary
THREE COURSES $65 ($60 Wednesday night). FOUR COURSE TASTING MENU $75
DRINKS Local heroes dominate so expect plenty of riesling and cool-climate reds.
OPEN DINNER Wed-Sun