Point Leo Estate lures Rockpool chef Phil Wood
The multimillion-dollar sculpture park and restaurant, Point Leo Estate, is shaping up as a drawcard for Australia’s foodies and art lovers.
It opens next week, giving people the opportunity to taste food prepared by one of Australia’s best chefs.
Point Leo Estate had recruited Phil Wood, executive chef at Sydney’s Rockpool and Eleven Bridge, bringing him all the way to Merricks.
So Wood relocated to the Mornington Peninsula and he has spent the past few months sourcing the best of regional produce for the Point Leo menu.
“The food concept is about promoting the region and where possible using what is available to us in a seasonal way,” Wood told the Herald Sun.
“We are trying to make it unfussy but very flavoursome, where everything has a purpose. There is no unnecessary embellishment that doesn’t provide a certain flavour or work with core produce.
“Hero ingredients will be elevated and not overshadowed.”
The menu offers the best of what’s local. It includes Wallaby Pie, Beetroot Pancake with Lemon Curd and Salmon Roe, Fried Ricotta Polenta with Pickled Fennel and Main Ridge Goat’s Caprinella. And there’s locally sourced wood-fired duck and beef.
Wood has put together a team which includes Ainslie Lubbock as restaurant manager, Joel Alderson as senior sons chef and Andrew Murch as head sommelier.
The aim, Wood says, is to turn the 100 seat restaurant into a “great place to come”.
“We want it to be a place where it’s a community restaurant; we don’t want it to be any national and exclusive restaurant,” Wood told the Herald Sun.
The 134 hectare property and $50 million venture, held by the Gandel family for 25 years, includes a 20 hectare vineyard and a sculpture park featuring major works by prominent international and Australian artists. That includes pieces by renowned Australian sculptor Inge King’s gigantic steel Grand Arch and works by international figures including Tony Cragg, George Rickey and Zadok Ben-David and celebrated Australian pioneers of modernism including King and Lenton Parr
You don’t have to dine at the restaurant or visit the cellar door to see the sculpture park. All it costs is $10 and it’s done via a self-guided tour or by using a mobile app.
by Leon Gettler, October 18th 2017
image - Herald Sun
