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Moonacres Kitchen, a spacious cafe-restaurant on Robertson’s main road, feels unassuming but its fare is extraordinary.

Phil Lavers, the owner of Moonacres Farm, a world-renowned organic fruit and vegetable producer 10 minutes away in Wildes Meadow, set the foundation in 2016 when he invited chef Stephen Santucci to helm the kitchen.

It is a cafe born of great passion. Daily breakfast and lunch dishes range from avocado on black beans, with poached eggs, smoked chilli and breadcrumbs, to slow roast pork neck with pickled peppers, and, its most popular dish, a charred broccoli sandwich masterpiece, with smoky chilli and cashew butter.

Lavers, a former financial trader, began converting a cattle property into an organic farm in 2006 after he moved from Tokyo with his wife, Lisa.

Santucci, previously head chef at Vini in Surry Hills, moved to the Southern Highlands to oversee the cafe and its sister venue, Moonacres School.

He also initiated the Moonacres menu at Hearth, a cafe at Ngununggula, the Southern Highlands regional art gallery founded by artist Ben Quilty.

Santucci recalls how his first visit to Moonacres Farm a decade ago transported him back to his grandparents’ abundant suburban Sydney garden where he picked peas and chomped fresh cucumbers.

“Moonacres was the same but on a much larger scale,” he says. “I was like a kid in the lolly shop.”

He also recalls being astonished by a peculiarity at the same time. “When Phil wanted to set up his cafe, his produce was all being sent up to Sydney,” Santucci says.

“There were no restaurants, no cafes, no venues locally that were buying his produce.”

He recalls three Michelin-starred French restaurant Mirazur, voted the best restaurant in the world in 2019, holding a three-week pop-up at The Gantry in 2023, requesting Moonacres produce.

“They had heard of Phil,” Santucci says.

“You’ve got this amazing produce renowned by world-class chefs and it’s not being used locally. But, I’m glad that’s changed now.”

Santucci remains thrilled by Lavers’ produce. This season, he talks passionately about the farm’s peas, tomatoes, chicory, silverbeet, fennel, beetroot, zucchini and rhubarb.

“I think Phil’s rhubarb is the best in the country,” he says.

“We had people from the CWA, big rhubarb fans, coming in and asking, ‘How did you make it this colour?’

“I don’t do anything. It’s because of the soil, the way it’s farmed, the way it’s grown.”

Santucci says he adds only sugar, orange juice and zest to cook it. “That’s about it,” he says. “It’s the produce itself.”

Santucci also has a hand in making things so delicious. Two eggs on toast, combining Jamberoo Mountain Farm free-range eggs (laid by pasture-raised hens whose mobile shed homes are moved through paddocks) and crisp, beautifully chewy sourdough made in Moonacres’ bakery (founded by Dougal Muffet, now known for A.P Bakery), is classic loveliness.

The excellent salt cod and potato hash mingles herby spud cubes under tender, sweet white fish, a sunny fried egg and spirals of zucchini with salsa verde on charred sourdough. Freshness bursts forth.

The fruit bruschetta, with fresh apple slices, baked pear, honey, mascarpone, fresh walnuts and that rubiest of stewed rhubarb, sings with natural sweetness.

Other picks include mushroom bruschetta, featuring pickled Mussett Holdings mushrooms, and house-made baked ricotta. Pancakes are perfectly pillowy marvels served with poached rhubarb, baked apple, coffee caramel and mascarpone.

Moonacres Kitchen, which creates its own charcuterie, uses produce from other farms, growers and food producers.

“The relationship we have with the farmers and producers is fantastic,” says Santucci.

“I can ring Frank and Annemarie at Taluca Park pig farm and say, ‘Hey, I need to make a certain product, I need a pig of a certain size, certain breed.’

“And they say, ‘Yeah, I can do it” or ‘I can’t’, or ‘I’ll have it ready in X amount of time.’

“It’s the same with the egg farm, everyday on the phone asking, ‘How many eggs do you need today?’

“This kind of relationship can only be born out of proximity and a close relationship to so many of these people. Professionally, it’s made moving down a dream. A pure dream.”