Pear Ridge Cafe and Wine Centre

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
Owners Yvonne and Serge Lerable were born with cooking in their blood: Yvonne from Melbourne’s famed Cafe Balzac and Serge from a long line of French pastry chefs. With Pear Ridge they had a clear vision of what they wanted and started planting a two-acre restaurant garden two years before building. Now they have a stylishly modern cafe with inside and alfresco dining overlooking the trees and flourishing vegetables, herbs, berries and fruits of their labour. And it’s the garden’s fresh seasonal bounty more than anything else that determines their menus.

With their backgrounds, it’s no surprise to see on the menu a generous smattering of French flavours and classic dishes, such as a properly-made, full-flavoured pork terrine served with their own tomato pickles; fleshy, perfectly-cooked local mussels with fennel and fresh herbs in a creamy broth; a brochette of chicken livers and red wine sauce; rabbit braised in white wine with garden aromatics; or a chicken supreme in the true French style cooked from Yvonne’s father’s original Balzac recipe. It’s the style and quality of food, service and wines that deservedly won them the podium at the 2005 National Tourism Awards.

Graeme Phillips