From humble beginnings to Victoria’s most-loved regional hotel

It wasn’t easy to find Lake House back when the restaurant opened 40 years ago. To begin with, barely anyone had even heard of Daylesford, then a rural outpost north of Melbourne with a few potato farmers and a shrinking population.

Visitors could use a standard map to find their way into town; once they reached the middle of Daylesford, however, they would have to navigate to the Lake House via a diagram hand-drawn by co-owner Allan Wolf-Tasker, earlier sent out via letter by his wife and fellow owner, Alla.

“It’s probably a collector’s item now,” Alla smiles, reflecting on the early days of a pioneering operation that would go on to have an outsized influence on the tourism and hospitality scene across Australia.

Back then, Alla and Allan were a young couple with big ideas and little experience. Allan, who sadly passed away in December 2022, would go on to become a renowned artist and Alla one of the country’s pre-eminent hospitality professionals. Lake House itself would become a cherished Victorian establishment, an award-winning property that was part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, featuring a restaurant that has picked up a record 76 chef’s hats from Good Food.

Room to chill out.

But its beginnings were humble. And it was hard to find.

“We finally got a review in The Age,” Alla recalls. “They didn’t really write reviews of country restaurants then, so it was a tiny review, but the heading was ‘Enchanting Lake House’. So people would read this and they would contact us and say they wanted to come, but we would have to snail mail a map out. This was before fax, before email. Allan would draw a lovely map, and so they’d make their way here from that.”

Lake House today, in its 40th year of operation, is a polished and professional outfit. It’s something of an empire, too, given its myriad accommodation options, its spa facilities, and its more recent expansion to Dairy Flat, a farm, bakery and private accommodation on the other side of Daylesford. It’s also a model upon which many country restaurants and hotels across Australia have since been based.

Baking class at the newly launched Dairy Flat accommodation, on the other side of Daylesford.

But 45 years ago, when Alla and Allan purchased the property, Lake House was, Alla says, “just a denuded paddock with gorse and blackberry bushes”. She and Allan dedicated four years to clearing the land and building a restaurant. They spent the first five years of operation still working their old jobs in Melbourne to keep money coming in. They had to educate the public about their food, their location and their very existence.

“The few guests who came through our door in the early days all wanted steak and three veg.”

“I can laugh about it now,” Alla says, speaking to me from her home in Daylesford, “and when I tell it, it sounds like there must be a romantic notion to it, this young couple living their dream, working hard, achieving … But it wasn’t, it was hideous, it was torture. There were plate-throwing incidents many times. No one could understand what we were doing.”

Lake House now seems to make so much sense – it’s exactly what many modern-day travellers are looking for. It’s boutique and intimate, with a warmth you will never get at a big chain. It has a high-quality restaurant showcasing produce from the local area. It’s luxurious without being snooty. It’s accessible from Melbourne, though a world away from the big city.

Alla was inspired by the great country restaurants and boutique hotels of France.

In setting up the property, Alla was inspired by the great country restaurants and boutique hotels she had experienced in France, and she couldn’t understand why Australia had nothing similar. Soon though, she did understand.

“The French in the Michelin guide used to call places like this ‘worthy of a journey’,” Alla says, referring to those few restaurants that earn three Michelin stars. “So that was the image, that was the idea I had, but it was so far from the reality of managing to achieve it.

“I imagined having a cellar of note, waiters in long white aprons, a long list of local producers knocking on my door bringing beautiful local mushrooms and tiny vegetables … all the things I’d seen in France, as well as knowledgeable travellers who would discover us. I pictured trained, amazing local people who would bang down the door coming to work for us.

Alla Wolf-Tasker and Allan Wolf-Tasker in 1990.

“And, of course, none of that existed. The few guests who came through our door in the early days all wanted steak and three veg. Or scones with jam and cream. But that wasn’t the kind of restaurant I wanted to have. I opened with a fixed-price menu of $29, and I was immediately told by all my [Melbourne] colleagues that no one was going to drive into the country and spend $29 on lunch.”

This is a special year for Alla, her daughter Larissa Wolf-Tasker, and the entire team at Lake House. It’s their 40th birthday, a time to look back on their past, plan their future, and consider the effect this restaurant and hotel have had on what was once a small rural hamlet with little going for it.

Rural luxury… The Lake House is now what many modern travellers are looking for.

Daylesford may have seemed an odd choice back then, but Alla had a connection to it: her Russian-migrant parents had bought a small cottage there in the 1960s to act as their “dacha,” their country getaway, where they could grow fruit and vegetables and drink the mineral-rich spring water. Childhood holidays for Alla were spent at the cottage with fellow migrant families, eating homemade cheese and sausages and exploring the countryside.

That family connection for the business has always been important and will continue to be.

“Most of those places I loved [before setting up Lake House], and that I’ve loved since, were multi-generational,” Alla says. “I think it’s that cross-generational passion that’s the reason some beautiful things exist.

“It takes an awful lot of dedication, time, sacrifices and learning skills to maintain a business over a long period of time. So you need either people who are part of your tribe who are almost like family, and we certainly have a few of those. But that multi-generational passion – you need to have that carried through.”

Enter Larissa Wolf-Tasker, who is now brand director at Lake House, and will continue to steer the business into the future.

A waterfront suite.

“It’s a huge privilege,” Larissa says. “I’m acutely aware that there are very few hospitality businesses like ours around, and I’ve been very proud to be part of its success so far.”

Though, of course, working with your parents isn’t always easy.

“You can end up having incredibly frank, blunt conversations,” Larissa says. “But that’s the nature of family. And if the past 40 years have taught us anything, it’s that not a year goes by without us evolving or changing in some way. They don’t need to be dramatic changes, just a constant nudging and tweaking. And I imagine that’s the way it will continue.”

Despite those changes, probably the greatest success for Lake House over 40 years has been its consistency. It hasn’t had to morph dramatically to match the culture – the culture has morphed to match Lake House. The food is still high-end European in concept, though local in provenance. The atmosphere is still warm but professional. The rooms are still charming and well-considered.

‘Worthy of a journey’ ... Lake House, 40 years on.

“I built it the way I thought hospitality should be,” Alla says. “You’ve got to stick with what you believe in: unique, charming, genuine warmth, carefully curated, and something of our personality and the personality of the area. I think now, that’s what people are looking for.

“And that’s what I’ve always wanted – to be worthy of a journey. To be the destination itself.”

For bookings and more information about Lake House, see lakehouse.com.au

The writer has previously stayed at Lake House as a guest of the hotel.