‘Flavours of the bush, the coast and the shearing shed’: How Jock Zonfrillo’s Orana altered Adelaide senses

For Adelaide and the state as a whole, Jock Zonfrillo’s Orana was a critical turning point in re-establishing SA’s reputation as a global culinary force, writes Simon Wilkinson.

It is now close to a decade since my first meal at Orana but I can still recall the sensation. The dizzying array of flavours. The struggle to find the right culinary vocabulary, if one indeed existed. The persistent thought that this experience was one of significance not normally associated with what you are eating.

That was in the very early days, before Orana and its supremely talented, driven creator Jock Zonfrillo were known much around Adelaide, let alone Australia or the world. Before the glowing reviews, the awards, the global attention, or the chef becoming a celebrity.

Back then there was just the little room upstairs, with seats for less than 30. And a few remarkable stories that had filtered through about the crazy Scotsman who had been driving across the country to stay with Aboriginal communities and immerse himself in their culture and practices.

Jock Zonfrillo pictured at his restaurant Orana in 2014, before he became a household name. Picture: Matt Turner

The “little room upstairs, with seats for less than 30,” where Jock helped put SA back on the world’s culinary radar. Picture: Dean Martin

That was scant preparation for what was to come. For the irresistible saltbush and vinegar nibble. The iceplant to wipe through a smoked snapper cream. The damper with lamb butter. The heavenly marron. The kangaroo with the “pasture” it had grazed on. The buttermilk, strawberry juice and eucalyptus oil dessert. Oh goodness, I can taste that dessert now.

All these flavours of the bush, the coast and the shearing shed expressed this land more vividly than anything I’d tasted before. The roll-call of ingredients – from sea succulents to saltbush, to finger limes and green ants, plus a catalogue of weeds and leaves and roots and berries – all re-imagined in ways they hadn’t been used before. And the masterful harnessing of the natural sharpness and astringency in much of this bush tucker to take it beyond palatable to absolutely bloody delicious.

The Orana team: Wine Director Joshua Picken, head chef Shannon Fleming, Jock Zonfrillo, and restaurant manager Aaron Fenwick at Noarlunga Beach, October 2014.

The irony, of course, is that it took an outsider; a stubborn, ridiculously charismatic Scotsman, to see what had been right under our noses all along. Not that it was easy. Many of these products needed endless experiments with fermentation, pickling and otherwise tweaking before they could be used in a way that had broad appeal.

Orana and Zonfrillo, then, have played no small part in the fact that many of these ingredients are now becoming used widely, initially by other chefs informed and emboldened by what was happening there, and flowing from that to the gourmet shops, then the supermarkets and the wider community.

Jock Zonfrillo working his magic in the kitchen at Orana, plating a beef main and a cherry desert. Picture: Mike Burton

Saltbush and kutjera at Orana, Adelaide – just one example of how Jock beautifully highlighted native Australian ingredients.

For Adelaide and the state as a whole, Orana was a critical turning point in re-establishing our reputation as a culinary force and kicking off a second golden age. The restaurant showed that it was possible to make a go of it here, encouraging young chefs and entrepreneurs to stay put, or come home if they had gone already. And along with other leading lights such as Africola, Peel St and Oggi, as well as the small bar revolution, it saw the perception of the city go from boring old Adelaide to a place that food-lovers and the most influential media voices had to visit.

Chefs Simon Bryant and Jock Zonfrillo workng wonders at Orana Restaurant in Adelaide for Tasting Australia, March 2018.

Zonfrillo quickly became an ambassador for the state, at first in an unofficial capacity as he took the message to the most important food festivals and conventions around the world where he was welcomed as a guest and key speaker. His infectious enthusiasm for SA and skills as a networker were quickly recognised and he was signed up to play a role in curating the Tasting Australia festival and attracting its visiting talent.

Beyond that, however, particularly in the context of current discussions around recognition, Zonfrillo helped in his own way to increase our understanding of indigenous communities and to develop a new respect for their food culture and their deep affinity and care for their land.

Using the money he won for an international award, Zonfrillo established the Orana Foundation and charged it with creating a catalogue of native ingredients and their uses, to preserve this knowledge forever. Funding also went towards supporting communities and helping them sustain businesses that could distribute the ingredients they grew or collected to a greater audience.

Over more than 30 years of writing about restaurants in SA, there are three that have clearly stood above the rest, in the originality and audacity of their thinking, in the impact they have made on me as a diner, and in the way their story has resonated around the country.

The first was Cheong Liew’s tenure at The Grange in the Hilton Adelaide. The recently re-imagined Restaurant Botanic, with Justin James at the helm, is another in this category (though, to hold its place, needs to continue at this level for a few years yet).

Between them is Restaurant Orana. And if forced to make a decision about which up-ended my thinking about food and flavours most, which was the most important for its time, and which continues to wield the most influence, I reckon it ends up number one.

For those who worked there, who dined there, or whose paths crossed with the charismatic Scotsman in another capacity, this then is the saddest of days.

Originally published as ‘Flavours of the bush, the coast and the shearing shed’: How Jock Zonfrillo’s Orana altered Adelaide senses