River beds and breakfast

COMBINE a gourmet meal at Berowra Waters Inn on the NSW Hawkesbury with a convivial overnight stay.

The food and million-dollar views vie for diners' attention at the bright and airy Berowra Waters Inn restaurant.

IT is such a European idea, this notion of a restaurant with rooms attached, where the chef-owner is as likely to be pottering in his herb patch or painting the guttering as presiding over the stoves.

But in the case of Dietmar Sawyere, make those other endeavours fishing and boating. When you run a restaurant and a guesthouse beside a river, in a slightly wild location with no road access, you become by necessity something of a water rat and Sawyere seems delighted to be messing about with boats. The chef's latest incarnation, at the fabled Berowra Waters Inn, an hour's drive north of Sydney, on the Hawkesbury, is a universe removed from his domain at Forty One atop an office block in Sydney's central business district.

When Dietmar severs ties with Forty One this month, he will devote his time to Berowra Waters Inn and a new bistro, Ad Lib, on the Pacific Highway in the northern Sydney suburb of Pymble. With wife Nicole and his young family, he seems totally attuned to life on the Hawkesbury. Guests can now share the experience by staying at the recently opened Berowra Waters Guesthouse, about five minutes by boat from the restaurant, at a bend of the river where seaplanes skim to a stop and circle back to drop off diners.

The Sawyere family lives above the one-bedroom guest suite, which is more the size of a city studio apartment, and there's the soft patter of children's feet on the wooden floors above, regular visits from Nicole bearing snacks and breakfast provisions, and the lovely feel of being invited guests in a garden granny flat rather than paying punters.

Not that the decor and fittings are nannyish: there's an all-white bedroom, chic little bathroom with an old French-style basin and lavender-scented Duchy Organics toiletries, and a long main room (again white, with touches of apple green) with flat-screen television, well-cushioned couch and a fitted kitchen with coffee machine and all the gadgets one needs (although it seems faintly preposterous to be contemplating cooking with Dietmar in the house). Provisions include various blends of coffee and T2 teas, sweet and savoury biscuits, Valhrona chocolates, Parkers organic juices, Voss bottled water and Echire butter.

Guests can pre-order their choice of snacks, from acorn-fed Iberico jamon and olives to salami and a selection of fine cheese from the restaurant, such as Roquefort organic blue ewe's milk cheese or Tallegio washed rind.

Lifestyle magazines are in abundance, and there's a selection of DVDs and plenty of books, presumably an extension of the Sawyere library, which Nicole says holds at least 900 food titles. There's even a wood-clad sauna hut in the garden and the prospect of petanque on the front strip of lawn. It's not fancy and ultra-luxe but deeply comfortable and slightly quirky, assembled by a couple who care about the sort of elevating details that can push an establishment up a star on a pernickety inspector's rating scale.

Nicole pads in with the makings of dinner in small white dishes and on platters: it's to be a savoury fondue that nods to Dietmar's Swiss heritage, but instead of cheese there is a simmering chicken stock into which to dip the prepared ingredients.

The line-up includes snow peas, little spears of white asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, yellow-fin tuna, florets of cauliflower and broccoli, prawns, fat scallops and chunks of organic chicken and wagyu. To dip, six sauces, including pesto, truffle mayonnaise, a party-pink cocktail relish, even hibiscus salt.

There are mini tubs of gourmet ice creams in the freezer, chilled boutique beers and the Berowra Waters Inn wine list to hand.

The dining table is a long bench under windows that concertina open to frame a view like a wide-screen telly tuned to the National Geographic channel. A kookaburra lands on the sill and eyes the diced wagyu; there's the frequent putterings of boats and plip-plop of fish.

We have had a six-course degustation lunch at Berowra Waters Inn (I am still swooning over the unexpected flourish of Dietmar's pre-dessert: pineapple jelly with Malibu coconut cream, like an effervescent shot of pina colada) and this do-it-yourself riverside meal is just the shot as a light but sophisticated Sunday-night tea.

Life here is not just on but of the river, ruled by currents, the vagaries of humid summer and bone-cold winter. The Sawyeres provide a kayak, tinnie and fishing tackle for guests but the day has been too stormy to go out; the Hawkesbury is surging, leaf litter and branches are barrelling past and the water is the colour of cafe au lait. Even that greedy kookaburra is swaying in the squall but the pink frangipanis, the jacarandas and the curtain of wisteria that provide privacy are all but purring with delight at a good soaking. Crickets launch a creaky symphony as we scoop up the last of the delicious fondue.

Next morning we must leave early and there's no opportunity to sample more than Nicole's blueberry muffins, a lovely sheep's yoghurt with honeycomb, pears poached in sauvignon blanc, and sliced fruit that includes tart little plucots, a marriage of plums and apricots.

Dietmar returns from taking his son to "the mainland" for school and picks us up for our quick transfer to the jetty where we have left our car. He is the most amiable and knowledgeable of boatmen, but make that a sailor who can cook up a storm.

Berowra Waters Inn was named a member of the Kurosawa Collection in The Australian's Travel & Tourism Awards (T&I, February 20-21).

Checklist
Accommodation packages include boat transfers from the public jetty, six-course degustation lunch or dinner at Berowra Waters Inn and one meal and breakfast at the guesthouse, snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. Summer rates, $1200 a couple a night; winter rates, $950. Available Thursday to Sunday nights inclusive; other weeknights on request. More: [phone]; www.berowrawatersinn.com.