Inside Coffin Bay’s Tasting Australia festival

A tiny outpost on the South Australian coast renowned for world-class oysters proves it has even more to offer when a stellar team of chefs descend for the annual Tasting Australia festival.

Maggie Beer stands in the crystal-clear shallows and watches the activity around her feet. Teeny crabs scuttle across the sand and pebbles on the bottom, heading towards her suddenly vulnerable toes.

Coffin Bay is synonymous with oysters and you can see some of the racks, where they are raised, as you begin the descent into town. They protrude like fence lines from the tranquil waters of the bay.

In Coffin Bay, you'll find a general store, pub and two restaurants. Beyond that, bushland, vast dunes and, finally, the roar of the Southern Ocean.

The itinerary is extraordinary. Four different locations. Four exceptional chefs. The finest seafood and regional bounty. Oysters, blue fin tuna, kingfish, marron... It's all here.

Join Beer aboard a purpose-built vessel to travel further to an oyster patch in open water, where the boat could tie up and the crew wade out to the racks and bring back a basket.

Chef Emma McCaskill (of England's Sat Bains and Penfolds Magill Estate) is under a marquee, wok-frying vongole with her own XO sauce.

After slurping the sweet meat from the shells, mopping up juices with chunks of bread, guests laze on picnic rugs or stand barefoot in the water sipping pinot gris.

At Coffin Bay's yacht club, chef Peter Clarke of Vintners in the Barossa Valley has taken over the kitchen inside with his team to create a tasting menu of top-shelf local seafood.

Diced kingfish, edamame, seaweed and puffed rice are combined to make a mini poke bowl. Charred octopus tentacle gets a splodge of sunny romesco sauce.

At Coffin Bay Marron, Darren Robertson of Three Blue Ducks is tending a campfire, looking like a swagman who found his billabong.

He arranges marron, split head-to-tail, on a wire grill above the coals. As the shells begin to char in the heat, he dribbles a lemongrass, coconut and butter emulsion over the slowly whitening flesh.

The NSW-based chef praised Coffin Bay. He said: "It's still a bit untouched. The people living here embrace the area and have simple lives. They are the luckiest people on the planet."

Author: Simon Wilkinson Photography: Jonathan Cami Producer: Simone Kealy Swipe up for more travel stories. in partnership with Read more