After cooking all around the country – as head chef at Josh Niland’s  Saint Peter and Brisbane’s Arc Dining, then as a travelling chef with a pop-up concept, then to the Northern Rivers where she and her husband Matt Stone ran The Eltham – Alanna Sapwell-Stone’s career reaches its pinnacle with Esmay.

Blanco Horner (Restaurant Botanic, The Botanic Lodge) asked the star chef to move to Adelaide. She agreed, and Esmay opened in Adelaide’s 146-year-old Hackney Hotel.

The chef describes the menu as CWA-inspired “nanna food”. The opening menu includes Jersey curd with peaches and rose; a beautifully layered tomato and red pepper terrine served with chunks of mud crab flesh and a meat-filled crab claw, all in a pool of bright red vinegar; breaded King George whiting with saltbush garlic sauce; and venison with a “naughty” bone marrow sauce.

A seven-course set menu is available whenever the kitchen’s open. It includes emu pastrami doughnuts; oysters with finger lime and seaweed garum; the Jersey curd dish; and the perfectly picturesque crab dishes.