KAT’S CORNER - SPRING MUSINGS.
A lot has changed in the Last One Inn kitchen in the three months since I became a part of the team. This has been the first time I’ve been involved in a whole kitchen changeover as a chef in the incoming team, and it’s been fun in some surprising ways! The opportunity to rearrange the dry store, label kitchen equipment, and reorganise the coolroom for maximum storage efficiency may seem dull to some, but for me, it was nothing but exciting. Picture multiple shelves of herbs and spices, not arranged alphabetically as you might expect, but instead by colour—so you can see what you need at a quick glance. A life-changing concept!
The ingredients we’ve been using in the kitchen recently are as local as ever. On my way to work on Thursdays, I stop by Kinsfolk in Moriac to pick up produce. Tom and Bridie are absolute legends whom we love to support as much as we can! By the time I get to the restaurant, most of our other deliveries have arrived. There’s always some Otway pork making an appearance at Sunday Asado lunches. There might be some PortArlington mussels or other locally caught seafood waiting to make its way into the menu. Sometimes, there’s a box of lemons or limes dropped off by a local who has a tree or two in their backyard. And Thursday afternoons are always rounded out with the most exciting delivery of the day: Ben from Bird Rock Farm with the beef delivery!
I’ve been making weekly or fortnightly visits to some lovely friends in Pennyroyal, who I met while working at Little Picket in Lorne. They have a beautiful vegetable garden in their backyard and kindly share their overproducing fruits or vegetables with me, and I pick an assortment of herbs or flowers, which often make their way onto the plates in the kitchen as a finishing touch. In addition, we’ve planted some herbs and seedlings in a humble veggie patch at the edge of the LOI car park. It’s not much yet, but it’s good to get your hands in the dirt every now and then and to lovingly watch something you’ve planted grow into a crop that makes its way into a dish. We’ve also started a composting program to better handle our kitchen scraps, but more on that another time…
As spring finally rolls around, we are looking forward to more change, particularly in the availability of different produce. While winter staples such as brassicas have their last hurrah, we’re starting to see an emergence of spring crops such as asparagus, beans, broad beans, and peas. You can expect a lot of menu changes in the near future as we experiment with vibrant and fresh flavours in the kitchen and in our newly expanded outdoor cooking area. I hope you love what we come up with!
Kat