Provincial Cuisine
Our time at Bittern Cottage now spans thirty years.
As cooks, we still believe that our principal purpose is to connect the producer with the consumer.
In the first ten years we learnt to cook step-by–step ..first scones, then pancakes and finally dishes from favourite writers, especially Elizabeth David.
In the second decade we visited France and Italy several times with our children and spent mornings in villages at open air markets, and by dining at small family restaurants we began to appreciate traditional regional dishes and to prepare meals with produce bought earlier. - Jenny has recorded these experiences in her diaries which later have become a valuable reference and inspiration for her to cook, as our own “provincial” cuisine, when we returned to Bittern Cottage.
Now, in our thirtieth year and continuing to evolve, Jenny still loves preparing dishes for our seasonal Set Menus, while Noel travels on person-to-person circuits of the region and the city, visiting farmers, orchardists, butchers, and also specialist providers at the Prahran Market, and, above all, we enjoy welcoming old friends, meeting new friends, and sharing interests in food, wine and travel.
Jenny and Noel Burrows