Delights of the gourmet coast

FISH and chips might be what you think of when you hear 'central coast' and 'culinary' but a new wave of restaurateurs is adding flavour to the NSW region.

Glistening ... Pearl Beach on NSW's Central Coast

FISH and chips – or maybe prawns – might be what you think of when the three words central coast and culinary are put together.

The area from north of the Hawkesbury river to 30km or so south of Newcastle in New South Wales, is seen as the poor cousin of bigger, stylish Sydney, especially when it comes to gourmet food and five-star accommodation.

But that's all changing and according to local restaurateurs it hasn't been the correct story for quite some time.

Bec Fraser and her husband Ray started Onda (which means wave in Italian), a modern Italian restaurant overlooking Terrigal, three years ago. She admits the Sydney crowd has dragged the area kicking and screaming into the 21st century of food.

But local chefs and restaurateurs feel the central coast has been unfairly slammed by some Sydney critics.

Bec Fraser says trying to get the market niche right is the hard part. More and more people read food guides, watch TV cooking shows and expect a high level. But many don't want to pay for it.

"Our big problem is that we have the Sydney day trippers, who expect and demand a certain standard, and the locals who still want a home-cooked meal. It's a tough market."

Her husband Ray and his parents started a seafood restaurant at Pearl Beach in 1971.

The Cowrie, known as the premier fine dining restaurant on the central coast, was relocated to its current site on the Scenic Highway in Terrigal in 1975. Mr Fraser bought out his parents in 1986, and now the couple also run Cowrie Exclusive and Corporate Catering.

We're having the discussion over dessert ranging from pannacotta to semifreddo totate (sencha quince and raspberry custard tart with lime syrup).

It's been a whirlwind two-day culinary tour of the central coast, which began with a 20-minute Sydney Seaplane trip to The Entrance and will end with another flight from Gosford to Sydney's Rose Bay.

It has included meals – and dessert – at four gorgeous restaurants with food as good as anywhere in a capital city, with great views and atmosphere to match.

Mrs Fraser says she and her husband dine out constantly in Sydney to compare notes and make sure they're doing the right thing, and they've come to believe that although their prices are high-end they deliver in product.

Others must agree. In the recent Restaurant and Catering Awards for NSW and ACT, Onda won two awards: best Italian Restaurant and best Restaurant Caterer.

Andre Chouvin's restaurant Feast, at Avoca, was inspired by Babette's Feast, the French movie that celebrates food cooked from the heart.

French-born Chouvin has himself been given the high award of membership of the Association of Maitres Cuisiniers de France, and his was the first restaurant on the central coast to be given a Hat. As is usual in the fickle world of food, he lost it, but he says "now the restaurant is even better."

He met his Australian wife in Boston, and they returned to Australia together to start Feast, which specialises in Cuisine de Soleil (food from southern France) suitable for a hot country and using bush spices.

"We have many customers from Sydney. A lot of people moving up, the population grows like crazy – and they're people who know about food."

Mr Chouvin runs cooking class once a month, which cost $85 for three hours, including lunch. The aim is to learn to cook food which you can do at home.

Dinner at Feast was a five-course degustation menu including seared snapper with scales of potatoes and white wine sauce, which Mr Chouvin showed us how to make.

Lunch the first day was at Pearls on the Beach, down a winding road to the almost Pearl Beach. Former head chef Scott Fox bought the restaurant with wife Melissa in 2002.

Its menu is described as a "beautifully balanced journey from Thailand to Turjet, with an Italian stopover".

The building itself is an elegant white beach house looking out onto national parks and the waters of Broken Bay.

I had grilled ocean trout fillet on preserved lemon and shredded basil risotto with sweet green pea puree.

Mr Fox explains customers can come by ferry from Palm Beach to Patonga and the restaurant will pick them up from there. Or if you feel up to it, you can walk back to the ferry.

Behind the central coast, the Yarramalong Valley is a pretty alternative to the more built-up seaside. With 1000 trees set on 30ha, Yarramalong Macadamia Nut Farm is the largest macadamia plantation south of the trees' normal range in northern NSW and Queensland.

Host Jenny Piper tells us the macadamia is the only native nut exported as a food and actually reduces cholesterol. "It's better than a pill."

Here, all sorts of macadamia products are for sale, as well as lunches and morning and afternoon tea (try the macadamia scones). Extremely cheap tours are available to hear about the processes involved getting the nuts from tree to table.

Lunch on the second day was at The Reef in Terrigal – and we couldn't get much closer to the water unless we were actually swimming in it.

The Reef won best Contemporary Australian Restaurant Formal and was also nominated for Restaurant of the Year at the recent awards.

Chef Brad Dawson (a one-hat rated chef who has worked at Restaurant 41 and Tetsuya) and general manager Darrell Watt explain that part of the magic is running a happy kitchen with a low turnover of staff.

The relaxed and friendly atmosphere permeates the restaurant, but that doesn't mean the food isn't high quality. It is.

At Firescreek Fruit Wines on the way to the seaplane we sampled wine at around $16 a bottle made from a wide variety of fruit, including fig, berries, plum, orange, mango, elderberry, rose, mint and chilli.

After so much good eating, we were all a bit worried that the seaplane wouldn't be able to take off for the journey home. Luckily we'd had to reveal our weights before we left Sydney and not at the end of the trip.

The writer was a guest of Tourism NSW

The Sunday Telegraph