Pure South Dining’s King Island Degustation Dinner

Pure South Dining thrilled guests with a taste of King Island on Friday last week. The evening’s menu was inspired by this year’s King Island Long Table, a grassroots festival that celebrates the island’s unique produce. Pure South’s chefs, staff and owners play a key part in the festival each year, designing menus and running masterclasses.

King Island boasts some of the planet’s purest soil and air, with produce that is coveted the world over. For 14 years, Pure South Dining has fostered relationships with the island’s, growers and producers, enabling the restaurant to offer some of the best and rarest produce from the island.

The special event included King Island’s pasture-fed wallaby and local prime lamb, currently not available anywhere else on the mainland.

Set in Pure South’s awarded Dining Room upstairs, Michelin star executive chef David Hall designed six courses celebrating King Island producers with matched wines from Pipers Brook Vineyard in Tasmania’s North East.

Showcasing some of Pure South’s most remote, and in some cases exclusive, suppliers, the hero ingredients were flown in by light plane from King Island’s farms, dairies and fishermen.

We loved tasting our way through the menu. 

To start, we fell in love with the King Island salt-baked beetroot. Simple, yet simply beautiful, the earthy beetroots were served with luxurious goats curd, glistening King Island honey and walnuts. 

Another absolute highlight was the dish of Southern Rock Lobster served with fennel, rouille and the most decadent bisque. Cooked to perfection, this delicate dish allowed the subtle sweetness of the lobster to shine.

The King Island lamb was similarly delicious. 2 cuts of lamb featured on the plate – both cooked beautifully. This was a hearty and rich dish which featured a heavenly garlic sauce.

Our evening concluded on a high with King Island Dairy cheeses, ‘Surprise Bay’ cheddar and ‘Furneaux’ double cream. Simply stunning.

Long before provenance became a buzzword, Pure South Dining’s close relationships with an extensive variety of remote growers and producers has proven their ongoing commitment to bringing the best of Tasmania and the ‘pure south’ to their Melbourne table. 

Location: Pure South Dining, River Level, Southgate, 3 Southgate Ave
Phone: 03 9699 4600.
Link: http://www.puresouth.com.au