Brae

Chef Dan Hunter's restaurant Brae is consistently recognised as of the World’s 50 Best. Nominally, the menu is a degustation. In practice, it’s more like a long, leisurely Christmas lunch of more than a dozen courses at your aunt and uncle's house.

The difference being, of course, that your uncle Jim and aunt Mary don’t have a huge kitchen garden, a dehydrator in their kitchen and a cellar full of 20-year-old sakes, obscure wines from the Canary Islands, or even Best’s Great Western 2005 pinot meunier, produced two hours away in the Grampians.

Speaking of that kitchen garden: you should absolutely have a look around it before, after or even during your meal. It puts into perspective the sheer effort involved with planting, growing, picking, preparing and plating each dish. Yes, a meal at Brae will set you back. But once you see the work that goes into your food, it’s not bad value.

Depending on when you visit, dessert could be mulberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries served straight from the garden. Apart from being the best berries you’ll ever taste, they highlight Hunter’s willingness to step aside and let nature do the cooking, where appropriate.

It’s touches like this (as well as the option to stay overnight) that bring Brae back to earth and make it feel less like a restaurant than a visit to your close friends’ country house, just as Hunter and his partner Julianne Bagnato intend.