Mac and cheese doughnut that’ll get you back to Werribee Mansion restaurant

Werribee Mansion’s restaurant has been given a shake-up after 22 years, and this mac and cheese doughnut is in a league of its own.

Kara Monssen

3 min read

March 15, 2022 - 10:00AM

Food

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Croquettes and arancini are great, until you try a mac and cheese doughnut.

Anything crumbed and whacked in the fryer — be it rice, potato or pasta — usually rolls into one big, delicious deep-fried void in my mind.

But at Joseph’s, this snack is in a league of its own.

Maybe it’s the all-encompassing white roux and how it squeezes out of each butter-soft macaroni with every bite.

Or the way its crunchy golden coat is dusted with the right amount of paprika and manchego, with aligning pickle zing.

Eyeroll if you must.

Mac and cheese doughnut. Picture: Mark Stewart

Yes I know, most deep-fried things are delicious, but this small bite might be what brings you back to Lancemore Werribee’s hotel restaurant.

Joseph’s has been around for 22 years, but last year the hotel group’s Red Hill and Werribee restaurants were given a shake-up.

Tom Brockbank was brought on to helm Joseph’s and inject some lifeblood into the space. Only now he’s been able to hit his stride after months of lockdowns, dialling things up for a new five-course dinner offering and feeding guests casually around the grounds, which includes a Sunday high tea and weekend lunch which beckons our visit.

The UK-born chef has cooked his way around the globe – earning his stripes in some of the world’s best kitchens – including Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social, which earned a Michelin star within six months of opening, O’Connell’s Hotel in South Melbourne, and most recently the Hotel Windsor.

Pate en croute. Picture: Mark Stewart

For lunch, Brockbank looks to his British roots to inspire a simple, modern Australian menu built around produce grown on the hotel grounds or nearby farms.

I would have expected that mac and cheese doughnut to be made in-house, but it’s brought-in – to cope with volume and the kitchen’s slim chef line-up – from The Mac Project, owned by former Levantine Hill chef Aaron Duffy.

While it’s not ideal, Brockbank makes up for it in his clever take on pate en croute.

Dense pastry wraps around a meaty mosaic of Borrowdale pork, chicken mince, fois gras, textural pistachio, shiitake mushroom and an unthinkably good bone marrow jelly which, teamed with a Vegemite curry sauce, takes it to lofty heights.

Two-bite charmer, the Moreton Bay bug roll folds sweet meat into a creamy paprika aioli, adorned with Yarra Valley roe and draped in a cooling iceberg lettuce picked across the road at Mason Bro’s veggie farm. The milk bun would be better warmed, but in all, is still lipsmackingly good.

Moreton Bay bug roll. Picture: Mark Stewart

Jospeh's at Lancemore Werribee. Picture: Rhiannon Taylor

Larger plates include a DIY beef cheek mezze designed to make a sanger from warmed pita triangles, meat and trimmings such as daikon, sauerkraut and roasted white bean puree.

You only need to look at that meat for it to fall in a heap, the gravy in accompanying jug runs wild with beef juices, rosemary and thyme. But there’s zero purpose for that bean paste which falls flat.

In the tradition of high tea, there’s Devonshire to finish.

Served on a tower are warmed Earl Grey fruit scones, with a pretty floral rhubarb, strawberry and black pepper jam and lemon skin-spiked clotted cream.

There’s also excellent ginger spiced carrot cake and coffee liqueur chocolate ganache that do as they should.

Our tea isn’t served in China, instead we got old coffee mugs and pots, which seem like a missed opportunity given crystal water and wine glasses are in rotation.

Devonshire tea. Picture: Mark Stewart

While we’re on wine, Lancemore Hotels grows its own grapes –— with 3.4ha under vine at Lindenderry Red Hill and 0.6ha each at its Macedon and King Valley sites.

At Joseph’s you can try one of the five wines by glass or bottle, including a 2016 Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay.

After two decades of service, Joseph’s tired dining room could do with some TLC but change is afoot, and with Brockman steering the ship there’s promise.