Fearlessly eating at Sunnybrae

Over the weekend of 13th and 14th March, George Biron hosted the Fearless Vampire Killers lunches at Sunnybrae as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Sunnybrae is about my most favouritest place to eat and the chance to sample a menu featuring garlic in every course – except dessert – was too good to miss. There was nothing about our lunch on the Saturday which wasn't glorious – five courses spread over an afternoon of magnificent autumn weather with a 'Fearless Cookquiz' thrown in to provide a bit of cerebral stimulation.

(Tomatillo guacamole, smoked beetroot relish, tarama, smoked ricotta with samphire-cured ocean trout)

For me the most memorable dishes were the snapper broth with prawns flavoured with sesame and cumin seeds; the tomatillos – crunchy and surprisingly citrus-y; the watermelon and garlic salad with pomegranate dressing – another surprise of texture and flavours; and the amazing verbena-poached figs with liquorice labna and vanilla ice-cream. Lunch started with a 'Gartini' and the rest of the meal was washed down with some very tasty local wines 2006 Bannockburn Saignee, 2004 Barwon Valley Pinot Noir and 2007 Pinnochio Moscato to go with dessert.

Eating at Sunnybrae confounds my recent rant about the differences between eating in someone's home and eating in a restaurant. For most of us eating at Sunnybrae is as close as we will get to eating at home with George and Diane. The atmosphere is relaxed and home-like – Diane's artwork on the walls next to George's library of books, the warm and friendly greetings from them both, the cheerful and relaxed service, being able to wander around the garden and admire the vegetables – see where the tomatillos came from – and sip a glass of wine on the verandah between courses. There is a real sense that everyone involved in the occasion is enjoying themselves - the guests want to be there and the chef and his staff want to feed you and share their food with you – which makes for a very different sort of restaurant experience.

George is an intelligent and thoughtful chef and his wide ranging interests were well represented in the Cookquiz which was great fun. And thanks to some arcane knowledge and lots of judicious guess work we managed to come away with the consolation prize – one of Diane's Sunnybrae aprons and enough garlic to keep the vampires away for some time. (We toasted our success with 2008 Leura Park Bubbles.)

On the Sunday, flushed with success and seduced by the wonderful weather I had to make some purchases at the Lorne bookshop (while waiting for breakfast to be served next door) - Nigel Slater's Real Fast Puddings because I hadn't seen it before and I am a Slaterite, Jane Grigson's English Food because I didn't already have it and Lindsey Bareham's A Celebration of Soup just because it was only $10.