East, west, home-grown's best

In the race to capture freshness and flavour and put it on the plate with the shortest possible time between harvest and dinner, country restaurateurs win hands down.

This year more than ever before we found them collecting eggs, pulling up feathery-topped carrots, brushing dirt off potatoes and, with secateurs in hand, clipping dainty sprigs of herbs - sometimes in the middle of service.

It's been a while coming, but a kitchen garden is now de rigueur for country chefs. It can be as simple as the potted herb garden that Beau Vincent has in the backyard of his inner-city Newcastle restaurant Subo, or as elaborate and diverse as the sprawling garden planted at Roberts in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley and at Biota, this year's regional restaurant of the year (see Terry Durack's review, page 5).

It may be the relatively benevolent climate, but the Hunter chefs have taken to the garden like no other region. The yardstick is at Margan in Broke, winner of the Good Food Sustainability Award. Planted six years ago, it's now a flourishing centrepiece that provides up to 90 per cent of the restaurant's fruit, vegetable and egg requirements in summer and 70 per cent in winter.

''It's not an innovation,'' chef and co-owner Lisa Margan says. ''Country people have always grown their own food. But, for us, it solves the problem of supply, and rural restaurants are always limited by supply.

''We write our menu completely around what's coming out of the garden and it rewards with variety, freshness and novelty.''

It was the taste of fresh herbs that propelled Vincent to start growing his own. ''Using something that's just been picked makes such a difference,'' he says. The point is nicely made in an intensely perfumed meringue parfait made with sugar infused with crushed rose geranium leaves. ''The fragrance has pretty well gone and the colour has faded in herbs bought from the shop,'' Vincent says.

One up from the kitchen garden is the farm, and there are chefs and restaurateurs around the state who swap their toque for an Akubra when they get home at the end of a shift.

Most of what Anna Wong and Jerry Mouzakis grow on their Cowra farm is destined for their restaurant Neila, especially the Ziziphus jujuba, or Chinese red dates, which Wong pickles and uses throughout the year because, she says - with her farmer's hat on - the little-known fruit is ''so hard to sell''.

Every now and then, Wong finds a discerning buyer. Chef Ben Greeno, of Momofuku Seiobo, loves them and has asked for more.

One of the advantages of growing your own food is that it can be left on the tree until fully ripe, which is not always the case with commercial crops. ''We pick when we want to use it and the flavours are better,'' Wong says.

In Paul Nolte and Marcia McCoy's Mates Gully Organics cafe in Wagga Wagga, the daily delivery from the farm doubles as a seasonal table display in the cafe; the just-picked fruit and vegetables providing a lovely touchstone, especially for city customers out of sync with the seasons.

And when the glut arrives, as it invariably does, the pickling and preserving equipment comes out of the cupboards and the chefs get to work. The fuyu persimmons that Wong and Mouzakis planted when they moved to the central west 20 years ago fruited this year (hurrah!), which means a very large batch of kim chi-style pickled fruit that Wong serves with white beans and cauliflower.

The search for good fresh food extends well beyond the garden boundary and over the neighbour's fence because country chefs realise the importance of having local food on their menus.

''It's an ethical choice,'' says Josh Tyler, of Tyler's Pantry in Mogo on the south coast. ''Local produce on my menu is the starting point.''

It's not always the easier option. For Tyler, winter brings a wealth of top-quality seafood such as abalone, sea urchin and crayfish, but at the same time a severely limited variety of vegetables.

''It makes us highlight one ingredient that becomes star of the dish,'' he says. ''And get more creative.''

At Zanzibar Cafe, in Merimbula, chef Huw Jones feels his regional isolation keenly. When he arrived in town two years ago, he waged a concerted campaign to find and connect with local growers.

''It's changed me as a chef,'' he says. ''I'm much more conscious of what's in season.''

Some, such as the January local blueberry season, are brief. ''You've never had a blueberry like it, and they're only around for a month,'' he says.

''I think everyone should be looking to grow food. I find it inspirational to go to the garden with an idea and come back with dinner.''

Other things they're raving about outside Sydney

Foraging

Beau Vincent has to hold himself back from posting pictures of the seaweed he forages from the Newcastle foreshore. ''There's all kinds: sea lettuce, samphire, dulce and, sometimes, wakame,'' he says.

Pop-ups

They're in the regions, too. Steven Snow has a Portuguese pop-up in the bar at Fins in Kingscliff, which will run until October.

The personal farmer

Chefs buddying with local growers to grow food on their behalf. Organic farmer John Cutts, at Duranbah in northern NSW, grows a wide variety of vegetables for Fins.

Preservation

The sustainable and ethical ethos applies to meat, with salting, drying and curing all the go. Check out the Caravaggio-inspired still life in David Campbell's dry-ageing room at Wharf Rd in Nowra.

Innovation

A bar in a florist shop, a cafe in a pub and a gin shrine in an art gallery were some of the more delightful finds on the road in NSW this year.

Culinary tree change

Keep an eye on the growing band of Gen Y chefs drifting from the big smoke to the country with serious city creds under their belt. Arman Uz (from Efendy to Flanagan's, Thirroul), Michael Robinson (from Becasse to Margan, Broke), Keaton McDonnell (various venues in Sweden and London to Pulp Kitchen, Canberra); Darren Foots, with wine writer Greg Duncan Powell (from Centennial Park Cafe to Bacchus@Milton, Milton); and Darren and Stacey Tracey (from Manta and Adriano Zumbo to the Old Mill Cafe, Millthorpe) join the wave started by James Viles (various venues including one in Dubai and Signorelli Gastronomia in Sydney to Biota, Bowral); the Jones brothers (from Tetsuya's and Quay to Zanzibar Cafe, Merimbula); Josh Tyler (Tyler's Pantry); Chris Thornton (The Ledbury in London to Restaurant Mason) and Beau Vincent (from Bistro Guillaume in Melbourne to Subo in Newcastle).

Hot stuff

A host of new Asian restaurants has smashed the tired country Chinese restaurant stereotype for good. Japanese rules on the north coast with the arrival of two Japanese diners, Federal Doma Cafe (Federal) and Izakaya Yu (Mullumbimby). Also in Mullumbimby, the Rock and Roll Coffee Company does a rockin' Thai. Down south, the Dew Drop Inn at the Nan Tien Temple (Berkeley) is a serene pit stop, while chef Na Lan continues to woo with her superb steamed buns and dumplings at Rylstone's 29 nine 99.