The A.Baker Backyard Produce Dinner – what a wonderful concept!
The flyer read: Bring in a bunch, box or bag of your best produce, grown in your backyard and we’ll prepare the dinner. I loved the idea so much I booked a table for myself and three friends to share the experience. It’s a monthly event, and we were lucky enough to get a table at the first Backyard Produce Dinner for the year last night.
Dinner started at 7pm and we were promptly seated in an intimate setting. We each received a glass of champagne to get started and a glass of fresh apple juice from Loriendale Orhcard, followed by prosciutto and figs from Geoff and Gina’s garden. One of my absolute favourite dishes.
There was a bit of a wait for the entrée, so we struck up a conversation with Owen from Loriendale and got a very detailed lesson on apples.
Seared King Salmon panzanella, Allan’s Malabar spinach with Yuzu mayonnaise was served as a plate to share.
In between entrée and mains we continued to learn about agriculture and apples from our new friend Owen. The lamb neck took some time to come out but I have to say it was so well cooked and tender that it literally fell apart with the touch of a spoon. The ricotta dumplings and Owen’s green salad were wonderful accompaniments. We all commented that the lamb was our favourite of the dishes – can you believe I forgot to take a photo of the lamb?! I think I had had a few glasses of wine by this time.
After the mains, Owen (as one of the main contributors of the dinner’s fresh produce) introduced himself to the dinners and enlightened the guests with stories of his apples. Head Chef Bernd Brademann thanked everyone for participating and ran through the menu, explaining where each item had come from.
At 10pm we were all a little tired, it’s been a big week for everyone, and we were kind of hoping dinner was going to wrap up soon. At that moment dessert was served: baked apples served with maple ice cream, granola by A.Baker, fresh raspberries, jelly and a deep fried sage leaf. Can I just say, I am so glad we didn’t leave the dinner party early! Dessert was a smash, the best part of the meal.
Apart from the delayed service we all agreed that we had a fabulous night, the food was definitely fresh and it was just an overall great experience. We met some very interesting people that we would probably never otherwise meet and even got little good bags of fresh produce as we left!
The A.Baker Bakyard Produce Dinner is part of a series, I recommend keeping an eye out for the next one.
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