It’s back to business,after ‘those’ years

The Peninsula is once again the thriving food and wine community and culture that it always was. Perhaps even better and stronger. With those three disruptive and destructive years of COVID behind us, people are back enjoying life to the full. What these years showed us was the incredible tenacity of the people who work in hospitality, and the business owners. They have an innate urge to look after others. To cook for, serve, and make other people happy. The way the owners and managers found ways and means to support their staff and keep them employed was remarkable.

By the same token, the way our community rose up and supported our businesses was outstanding. The speed with which the people of the Peninsula came out to buy take-home meals and dine in pop-up outdoor spaces showed significant solidarity between host and guest. We realised that the places we love to eat in and drink at are essential to our enviable way of life. They are part of the very fabric of society.

We are lucky to have some of the best hospitality businesses in the nation. With the recent swathe of openings down the Heads end of the Peninsula, Sorrento was recently dubbed “the new dining capital” of regional Victoria by one influential food and wine publication. The opening of celebrity chef Scott Pickett’s Audrey’s restaurant in the multi-million-dollar refurbished The Continental Hotel was perhaps the jewel in the coastal town’s crown. We also have what is considered to be Australia’s best regional restaurant, Tedesca at Red Hill. Brigitte Hafner’s restrained cooking and farm-to-plate ethos has seen her compared to chefs such as Dan Barber from Blue Hills at Stone Barns in upstate New York. Add to these the basketful of award-winning winery restaurants and you realise that we live in a region densely populated with some of the finest dining rooms in the country.

While for many these are special occasion places to dine, the towns and villages of the Mornington Peninsula leave you spoilt for choice when it comes to everyday quality eating. From perhaps the best Sri Lankan food in the state being cooked in an industrial estate on the edge of Frankston to handmade pasta made by young ‘Aussie’ brothers in McCrae, everyday dining is pure pleasure on the Peninsula. Then there is the rise of regional food trucks such as the mussel van at Flinders Pier and the pho truck in Flinders’ Cook St. Some of the best Thai can be found in Hastings, and the state’s best chips are freshly fried on a potato farm in Boneo. Add to this our exceptional farmgates where you can buy apples fresh from the tree; our award-winning butchers and bakers; and the farmers who continue to grow great lamb, beef, chickens and eggs, and you can understand why we do food and drink so well down here on the Peninsula.

Now that we are running on all eight burners, with our cafes, restaurants, pubs, wineries, farmgates, distilleries and breweries open for business once again, it’s time to get out and eat and drink on the Mornington Peninsula.

RICHARD CORNISH