THEME: COLLABORATION

We're not just dealing with COVID, we're also dealing with disconnection. With that in mind, it's heartening to see an often competitive restaurant industry come together with exciting, fun and occasionally off-beat collaborations.

Red Hill's Avani Wines was planning a series of spring lunches with guest chef Helly Raichura, from Enter Via Laundry. That was not to be.

Instead, they're boxing up Raichura's exciting regional Indian flavours with carefully chosen estate wines and delivering them across Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula.

There's a celebratory spring slant to the menu: betel leaf is topped with marigold, Geraldton wax and toasted coconut, asparagus is tossed with crisp papad, and morels are garnished with pea tendrils.

The seven-dish meal is paired with a floral, grippy pre-release 2020 Amrit Syrah, made by Shashi Singh. Two women of Indian heritage – one a chef, the other a winemaker – make this a special collaboration.

"It's a meeting of minds," says Rohit Singh, who makes wine with his mother. "We love to collaborate with chefs who are at the top of their game and who share the same philosophy around biodynamic farm practices and heroing great produce. We were fortunate to meet Helly a little while ago and immediately connected with what she was doing."

Helly Raichura became well-known for her home-based Box Hill restaurant with just 12 seats, a waiting list of thousands, and menus that were Indian in inspiration but often used native Australian ingredients.

Over summer, she took up a residency in Monbulk; Avani was to be her next semi-permanent home.

"I've been serving Avani's wine from the beginning of Enter Via Laundry," she says. "Given my parents are back home, when I met Shashi and her husband, I almost felt like I was meeting my family."

The emotional bond is just as important to the Singh family.

"We can't host Helly in the way we hoped but the connection piece is still very important for us," says Rohit Singh. "A lot of people are feeling isolated and down. We may not be able to offer the full experience but we can do something to brighten someone's day and keep us all connected around those simple pleasures: a great meal and a glass of wine."

The current menu is available on September 24-26; $150 for two people, plus $40 wine and $15 delivery. The food is fully prepared and ready to heat and eat. Order online: entervialaundry.com.au/evl-at-home

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