“I’ve been dying to get into the kitchen since I left it 25 years ago for television,” he says.

Based at the back of the 1871 Fitzroy Inn, ingredients in dishes at the Farm Table restaurant include produce from Jansz’s own Bowral farm, plus surrounding growers and producers, and select produce from interstate.

“We’ve worked on the philosophy that we just open the doors, people spread the word, and they will come,” he says.

Oberon truffles are shaved over a delicious, umami punch of celeriac puree from his own farm while his green curry paste includes galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, turmeric, coriander and chillies, all sourced from his own farm.

“All those things that go into it are just picked. The Thai flavours you have in that little spoon (pictured), when you pick directly from our garden, it’s the time from the pick that is so important,” he says.

“The minute you pick it you start to change its flavour. We are really proud of that paste.”

Jansz is also making his own sausages from pork supplied by Katy Brown of Glen Eyrie Rare

Breeds Farm and Green Isle Pure Bred Pig Stud on the NSW/Victoria border and processed in The Meat Room in Kilmore, Victoria.

“We are just getting together with similar-minded farmers who are doing the same thing,” he says.

“People who know us come back, they tell their friends and bring them back. It’s going to have its own organic growth. At the end of the day we have probably quadrupled the business.”

Jansz’s son Harrison, 21, is on the floor at the restaurant.

“It’s a great father-son relationship we have,” Jansz says.

 

Source: The Daily Telegraph, 18^th August 2015
Originally published as Geoff Jansz back in the kitchen