Pilu at Freshwater

Some chefs produce great dishes from their kitchen that pass the test of time. Some produce brilliant young chefs from their kitchen instead, who go out into the world with the right skills and attitude.

Some, like Giovanni Pilu of Pilu at Freshwater, do both. His kitchen not only delivers that now legendary porceddu, or roast suckling pig ($100 for two), it has been the training ground of many a young gun chef, including Mitch Orr of ACME and Jason Saxby of Osteria Russo & Russo.

So who is now making waves in the Pilu kitchen, while real waves roll and break on the sands just out the window? I ask only because the words "suckling pig terrine" on the menu do not prepare me for what comes: a two-hander of a sandwich swaddled in waxed paper as if from an Italian paninoteca ($27). The outside is nutty chickpea-flour "focaccia" that's like crisp farinata, and tucked inside are thick, warm, sweet, soft, folds of meltingly soft, fatty meat, smeared with salsa verde. It's like mortadella made with pig's head, and it's about as much fun as you can have with 30 zillion kilojoules and a cupboardful of carbs. This, I was not expecting.

Enter Giovanni Pilu's current head chef Matteo Zamboni, having cooked in some of Italy's more creative kitchens including Cracco in Milan and La Pergola in Rome. Like Pilu, he's what I think of as a "nonna-chef", able to lighten traditional cuisine – and in this case, the proudly regional cuisine of Sardinia - without destroying that innate Italian casalinga charm.

That terrine, for instance, uses the leftover pig's heads from the signature suckling pig, leaving little waste – that's nonna-thinking.

Yet everything that hits the table has that little extra sense of refinement, from parsley-green malloreddus pasta strewn with nutty chickpeas and softly cooked mussels ($28) in a bowl lined with chilli paste, to hand-rolled fregola ($28) topped with zucchini flowers, baby zucchini and mint, with a pour-over of milky pecorino broth.

Corn-fed chicken served with Dutch cream potatoes and an intense chicken broth ($45) may look fancy – pressed into neat bricks and cooked sous-vide – but it tastes deliciously of Sunday's roast. Even a straight-forward fillet of the underrated red gurnard gets a nonna-chef dimension in a deep, well-built puttanesca sauce ($45) of tomato, olives, and capers.

Pilu's comfortable, lightly formal inner dining rooms still segue onto an enclosed balcony overlooking gardens and beach; the only duff note being the middle-of-the-road music.

"Old hand" floor staff know their way about the award-winning wine list, a shrine to the glories of Italian and in particular, Sardinian varietals. They respond to interest with just the right amount of information, able to recommend an intense, complex, yet soft Dettori Renosu Romangia Cannonau ($90) that's a natural fit.

If you've had the seadas (also sebadas) here before, then head back and have it again. The traditional, often heavy, Sardinian pastry stuffed with ricotta and sultanas ($18), is a golden little frisbee of bittersweetness that's like a raviolo made of crostoli, topped with a perfect disc of crisp dehydrated orange and a bittersweet swirl of single varietal Corbezzolo honey.

This is Sardinian/Australian food cooked and served properly, by the book; yet still questioned, refined, upgraded, progressed. Portions are perhaps more modest than a few years ago, and prices remain special-occasion high at $45 a main course, but Pilu sits very happily on the cusp of old- and new-world, looking both forward and back.

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: And old favourite gets fresh wind in her sails.
Worst bit: Some tables are not as sea-worthy as others.
Go-to dish: Suckling pig terrine, chickpea focaccia and salsa verde $27.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.