The Gully

It's become something of an article of faith for food writers that cheffing is a thankless profession one step removed from the salt mines. It's part of our code to bang on about TV glamorising something fundamentally about sacrifice, hard graft and varicose veins. Then you see the crew behind Sydney cafe-restaurant Three Blue Ducks and realise no amount of lecturing is going to stop young wannabes thinking they can have it all, too.

Three Blue Ducks is a cafe-turned-restaurant opened back in 2010 in Sydney's Bronte, by a bunch of surfer types, three of whom happened to be former Tetsuya's chefs.

A few years ago they were lured south to Falls Creek, to open the Gully restaurant in the heart of the village. Later this year they'll be triangulating the Ducks experience with an ambitious-sounding restaurant on a working organic farm. In Byron Bay. Of course.

For the moment, however, our attention turns to the ski fields. The Gully (full name: the Gully by Three Blue Ducks) is a boutique operation - it's open only through the winter months - anchoring a boutique apartment complex. The Ducks seem to have adopted a timeshare approach to staffing, based on a surf-versus-snow algorithm. If they're not having fun, they're doing a damn good job of looking like they are.

Before succumbing to a major attack of lifestyle envy, I must note - albeit grudgingly - that the Gully is a definitive success that overcomes the hardships wrought by its isolation. It would be an absolute bugger getting deliveries, keeping staff and mopping up the melting snow dragged in by customers. But even though they regularly run out of their own bread by dinner, and service can get a little slow when it's a full house, it's great to see a snow restaurant that doesn't cynically take advantage of its itinerant customer base by dishing up low-rent food at high-rent prices.

The dinner menu is simple. No entrees, just seven mains, all $35 each. There's a kids' meal each night that gets beyond the nuggets-and-fries rubbish with which too many city restaurants patronise junior customers. Good roast free-range chicken with real gravy, mash and veg. Miss Picky loved it. So did her parents.

Ditto the massaman curry, a demolition job of braised beef brisket, confit shallots disintegrating into sweet onion jam and poached kipflers. They're all doused in a rich brick-red sauce with a creamy-coconut background and the break-out crunch of roasted peanuts: it's a bang-on taste of Thailand at high altitude. Like a fair whack of the menu, the pork belly also turns to Asia as the spiritual home of skiing soul food. Alongside two crackle-hatted wedges of perfect piggy goodness are a crunchy, herb-driven cabbage salad and a loose jumble of grains (extra points for not calling it a superfood risotto) lolling about in a tang-driven sauce.

What else? Confit duck Maryland dusted in coconut sambal is given a chilli-jam kick and vegies that are a winning mixture of crunchy, leafy and squishy. Whole baby trout is more of a simple Euro thing: salt-roasted and sweet, it goes nicely with golden jerusalem artichokes and fried sprigs of thyme, although the pureed leek is sloppy and insubstantial.

The wine list is perhaps the most crucial part of the apres-ski experience, and this is a great little thing, a considered hymn to Victoria, with a particular emphasis on the north-east.

To be so knowingly, winningly regional - they also make a point of using local produce - then go and stick tropical fruit on the desserts list is a head-slapping moment, but the lemon tart is nicely sour. I guess they could argue that strictly observing seasonality on the mountain would mean a menu of bark soup and roasted magpie.

On which note, conditions have been brilliant this year. If you're used to the Australian definition of snow - layers of sleet compacted into something resembling gyprock - you really ought to head up to see what real powder snow is like. But as for me, I'm off to retrain as a chef.

THE LOWDOWN
The best bit… Snow food that doesn't suck.
The worst bit… Getting there.
Go-to dish… Sticky pork belly, mixed grains, sour herb salad, $35.

Twitter: @LarissaDubecki or email ldubecki@fairfaxmedia.com.au