The new ownership group at Bairnsdale International is reopening their restaurant – the Iron Vine – with high hopes.
Owned by company D-8 Eighteen – a group of experienced hoteliers who endeavour to open multiple hotels providing excellent service to their respective communities – Bairnsdale International is aiming to be the the town’s restaurant of choice when it comes to dining out, to provide great customer service and deliver fresh, modern Australian food to its guests, locals, tourists, couples, corporate travellers and more.
General manager Eli Lancaster started at Bairnsdale International when it first opened as a Mercure before moving to Melbourne for 14 years to expand his knowledge and career with Accor hotels and Virgin Australia.
He has now come full circle with team back in Bairnsdale bringing that skill set back to provide great service.
The restaurant will be guided by head chef Regal Navarro, who has an extensive culinary background.
The Advertiser caught up with Regal prior to a day in the kitchen last week.
BA: What inspired you to become a chef?
RN: The root of my inspiration is growing up in a family where food was central and everybody loves to eat. That inspired a lifelong interest and fond memories of cooking at home. Sharing meals sparked this career path and being a chef is the only way I can recreate those moments.
BA: Were there any defining moments or mentors that shaped your cooking style?
RN: Working long hours inside the kitchen, early morning and late nights – well I guess that defines a chef. I’ve had great mentors who’ve really boosted my career path. They have provided me the most basic to the most advanced knowledge, they have passed down their European nouvelle cuisine style of cooking to molecular style of cooking. My mentors in the first French fine dining restaurant I worked in helped me a lot with discipline in cooking.
BA: How have your past experiences prepared you for opening this new restaurant?
RN: It is really my first experience in the kitchen using classic French fine dining with Australian fine dining. Fourteen years of concepts and the discipline of all the restaurants I have worked in will be put together and applied here.
BA: What is the concept behind your new restaurant?
RN: The concept is what I called the terroir-type of cuisine, where we amplify all the local produce from the region and put it on a plate. What makes it different from other restaurants are all the flavours and in-house technique like fermentation, lacto fermenting, preservation, dry aging, pickling, baking in house breads, etc.
BA: How would you describe the menu in three words?
RN: Heart to table.
BA: Is there a particular cuisine or philosophy that influence your dishes?
RN: French cuisine played a major role in the style, however I call it a European continental cuisine.
BA: Where do you source your ingredients?
RN: We source our ingredients from local business like Lucke’s Smokehouse, fresh seafood from Lakes Entrance, beef from East Gippsland farms.
BA: Will you work with any local farmers or producers?
RN: That is one of the objectives and philosophies, working with local farmers and producers, which we are actually doing already. At the moment around 80 per cent of the meat, seafood and vegetables are procured locally. I am trying to push close to 100 per cent.
BA: What’s been the most rewarding moment in your career?
RN: When I got the position of head chef in a matter of 10 months back in Sydney six years ago. I guess I was really proud of myself. In addition to that the most rewarding part is seeing the guest enjoy the meal with nothing left on the plate – that is actually what matters to me the most.
BA: Have you or the restaurants you have worked in won any awards?
RN: Yes, we won best restaurant in the hotel category from Australian Hotel Associations (AHA) for two consecutive years at Altitude Restaurant in Shangri-la Sydney the Rocks.
BA: Are there any signature dishes diners must try?
RN: My signature dish is the bourbon braised beef brisket, roasted root vegetables, rich bourbon brisket jus. They should also try the marry me cauliflower. Both are perfect for the weather we have at the moment.
The Iron Vine Restaurant’s head chef, Regal Navarro, preparing a dish in the recently reopened Bairnsdale International kitchen.