delicious.100: Trentham’s Du Fermier is one of Victoria’s best restaurants.

Chef Annie Smithers will decide your menu for you at Du Fermier, her French farmhouse-style kitchen in the goldfields town of Trentham.

Du Fermier’s pork loin with crackling and cassoulet. Pictures: Eugene Hyland

WHAT, no a la carte menu?

No. Annie Smithers has decided that before you arrive at Du Fermier, her French farmhouse-style kitchen in the goldfields town of Trentham.

Annie Smithers.

Your task is to be on time, order a bottle of plonk, and see what happens. On a winter’s day, Smithers sent out twice-baked cheese souffles followed by pork loin with crackling and the best cassoulet this side of the Dordogne.

Eating here in spring was entirely different because Du Fermier (“from the farm’’) is dependent on what its enterprising owner-chef can source from local suppliers and her own farm in nearby Malmsbury.

“If you like what we serve, great,’’ she says. “If you don’t … well, there are other places.’’

Du Fermier is housed in an old store. Timber underfoot, garden hoes on the wall. Very rustic. The service is affable. And if you’re dining on a Sunday, Smithers herself will probably serve you dessert. In our case, a cream-puffed yet airily light Paris-Brest.

Paris Brest.

Must eat dish: pork loin with crackling and cassoulet

DU FERMIER

42 High St, Trentham.

Ph: 5424 1634

dufermier.com.au

Cuisine: French

Chef: Annie Smithers

Price: between $41 and $80 a person for two courses, food only

Bookings: yes

Open: Fri-Mon noon-3pm

This restaurant was ranked the 50th best restaurant in Victoria in the 2016 edition of the delicious.100.