Food review: Kingsford the Barossa, a lesson in fine wine and history

It’s a common question diners face these days – to go a set menu or a la carte? As our food reviewer finds out, the choice can make or break an experience.

Kingsford the Barossa, home to Orleana restaurant, has a storied history. Picture: Supplied by Kingsford the Barossa

In the southwestern corner of the Barossa, where the last vineyards give way to gum-studded pastures, a grand manor house looks as if it has been lifted straight from the English countryside.

The story of how this house was built (and the honey-toned stone it was built from) is remarkable, as is the roll call of influential South Australians who have owned it over the past 170 years. Former media baron Kerry Packer even plays a small part.

More recent chapters revolve around local-boy-made-good Stefan Ahrens and his wife Leanne who have transformed the property into a luxury retreat with a fastidiously crafted extension above and below ground.

So creating a special menu based on Kingsford the Barossa’s history seemed to have merit – particularly when its Orleana restaurant opened to the public not just to fortunate guests.

Potato and thyme gnocchi, celeriac cream at Orleana restaurant, Kingsford the Barossa.

Prawn, compressed apple and green ants.

However, late last year Kingsford was sold to Salter Brothers, a fund manager with a string of high-end accommodation on its books.

Founding chef Joel Cugley has also recently finished and a new chef, De Buys Nortier (ex Lake House, Cobbs Hill Estate), has taken over in the past few weeks and will make his own mark on the kitchen.

The History of Kingsford menu, then, will soon be just that – history.

But, on to this visit, on the wildest of winter nights for a drive that ends at the automated gates of the estate and instructions to head through to the guest car park.

Crossing a courtyard, we catch a glimpse of the old house before heading indoors to a lounge where a sofa near the fireplace looks particularly tempting.

Instead, we are shown to a converted veranda with tall, black-framed windows that, in daylight, would look across a rural panorama.

Dining room at Orleana restaurant, Kingsford the Barossa

Uncompromising attention to detail is evident everywhere, from the perfect fall of curtains made from imported Italian fabric, to the flawless upholstery of our booth, to the rounded corners of the heavy, marble tabletop set with Riedel glassware.

The stemmed vessels are deemed worthy of an extraordinary cellar of wines, including rarely found complete-vintage sets of heavy-hitters such as Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace, all held below ground in temperature-controlled vaults.

They are all included on a lengthy list weighted towards bigger-bodied styles with serious price tags.

That said, the collection’s custodian, sommelier David D’Cruze, still has something to offer more delicate palates.

D’Cruze, a hospitality veteran whose experiences in high-end dining rooms of London, then Adelaide, are worthy of their own volume, is the host and narrator for the evening.

He introduces a menu developed by recently departed Cugley.

While billed as seven courses, this includes bread and bite-sized snacks. Each dish, no matter the size, has an explanation that links it with Kingsford’s history.

A cracker loaded with poached prawn, compressed apple, macadamia and green ants is a nod to the First Nations people who inhabited this land.

All components, including the tang and astringency of the ants, play together in this mouthful.

The recipe for the bread comes from Stephen King, the wealthy industrialist who built Kingsford and established a flour mill at Gawler.

The ship Orleana (hence the name) that brought King to Adelaide in the 1850s is represented by a single oyster drizzled in a white soy dressing.

Apple, Anzac crumb and brown butter caramel.

The pebbles underneath symbolise the sandstone blocks carried as ballast that were eventually used in building the house.

King’s daughter Matilda, a vegetarian and painter who helped establish the Botanic Garden, is remembered with an artful arrangement of potato gnocchi, roasted mushrooms and brussels sprout leaves on a bed of celeriac cream.

The Angas family’s introduction of livestock is marked by a double-act of lamb, with a pie of shank meat under a piped potato lid alongside sliced loin and minted gastrique.

Beef cheek in red wine, recalls when Packer’s Channel 9 turned Kingsford into Drover’s Run, the cattle station setting for series McLeod’s Daughters.

Finally, cubes of poached apple, Anzac biscuit crumbs and house-made ice cream are spread across a puddle of brown-butter caramel.

This history menu is executed competently but lacks the wow factor and added extras that would be expected when paying a surprising $185.

Sticking with the a la carte menu, and going during the day to properly appreciate the grandeur of the place, would be my tip.