Previous SlideNext Slide

There are few properties in Australia that inspire the kind of awe that occurs when turning onto the long driveway leading up to All Saints Estate in Wahgunyah in northern Victoria.

At this time of year, the leaves on the stately English elm trees are multi-coloured and falling, adding an extra dose of romance to the visage of the castle that appears in the distance.

Constructed in 1864 by two young Scotsmen, the building was made from bricks handmade and fired on site, and designed to resemble the Castle of Mey on the north coast of Scotland. It looks like the castles I used to build with my brother out of Lego: all square and turreted and imposing.

The surroundings are staggeringly beautiful. You are on the banks of the Murray River, and the castle is surrounded by gardens and ponds and 33 hectares of vineyards stretching into the distance.

Walking into the cellar door at the front of the building is like entering a hall of Australian winemaking history. There are framed commemorations of wine prizes given to All Saints stretching back to 1873 (the first Australian wine to win an international prize).

In recent years, siblings Eliza, Nick and Angela Brown have undertaken a massive renovation of the castle and surrounding buildings. Part of that multimillion-dollar effort was the building of Kin, a restaurant that opened at the beginning of this year under the leadership of chef Jack Cassidy.

Located just off the tasting room in a wide and sunny dining room, Kin is outfitted in pleasing wood and taupe and white accents, with windows looking out over the property.

Cassidy worked most recently at Mr McCracken Bar and Restaurant attached to the Hyatt Hotel in Essendon Fields, and before that as the events chef at Jackalope on the Mornington Peninsula.

His menu at Kin, which is served for lunch four days a week and dinner on Saturdays only, is a tasting menu format with the choice of two courses for $75 or three for $95. Each course offers a choice between four dishes.

The chef has a true talent for distilling ingredients into elegant clear broths that pack in so much flavour they are practically dishes unto themselves.

Mussels come in a warm tomato water that sings with umami and roasted tomato essence. Thin ribbons of daikon radish add just enough textural contrast to the fat mussels, but it’s the broth itself that makes the dish extraordinary.

The same could be said for a “native curry”, a translucent green-hued liquid found under a piece of crispy-skinned kingfish. Made from fish stock, river mint, native ginger, lemon ginger, lemon verbena and anise myrtle, the sauce gets a swirl of cream made from macadamia rather than coconut.

It’s quite an astounding feat, to bring the soul of a green curry, using native Australian ingredients, to what is essentially a consomme, and it led to the second time during one meal that I greedily scooped up the liquid in the bowl with a spoon, seeing the other elements as playing second fiddle to a broth.

As much attention is paid to the vegetable dishes here as the meaty ones, including a stunning confit leek sitting under a cloud of cauliflower fluff, punctuated with almonds.

Two vegetable sides are presented alongside your main courses – during a recent lunch service these included beet greens, charred just to the point of wilting, served with a smattering of pecans, along with roasted carrots that were so sweet I thought they might have been primed with honey (they hadn’t been).

The only slight disappointment I encountered at Kin was a chicken breast with Brussels sprouts – there was nothing particularly wrong with it; it just lacked the juicy interior, crispy skin and rendered fat that many of us can easily achieve at home.

I often think that serving a chicken breast is one of the riskiest gambits in a fancy restaurant – there are too many ways to fall short, and not enough ways to exceed expectations.

The chef has a true talent for distilling ingredients into elegant clear broths that pack in so much flavour, they are practically dishes unto themselves.

Working in events and hotel kitchens has many advantages for the right chef, including a deep knowledge of pastry that is otherwise often a specialty. I’m not sure if that’s why Cassidy’s desserts are so good, but I’d wager it is.

Especially impressive was a perfectly ruddy choux bun, which broke open to reveal a creamy filling of lemon verbena with lightly jammy fig. A Basque cheesecake was more expected, but no less delicious.

All Saints is worth a visit for all kinds of reasons: the wines, the history, the almost comical grandeur of a full-scale castle in the middle of rural Australia.

But Kin provides its own very convincing reason to drive through those hedges and down that sweeping grove of elms. And Cassidy deserves our attention as one of the state’s most talented up-and-coming chefs.