Modern Italian. Pokolbin, Hunter Valley.
Famed for its passion, generosity, and deeply rooted traditions, Italian cuisine inspires and entices food lovers like no other. At éRemo, this celebration of Italian cuisine continues, with the chef’s contemporary flair bringing the menu into the pantheon of modern day Australian culinary classics.
éRemo is the embodiment of cultural depth and character, and the dining experience is reminiscent of a long luxurious meal enjoyed at a close relative’s home in the abundant European countryside. The approach is genuine and heartfelt.
Avido – the ‘greedy’ menu
éRemo offers a range of dining experiences, from sitting on the lawn with a hand-spun pizza and Peroni, to a diverse a la carte menu, and a four-course shared dining experience with the ‘Avido’ menu (‘greedy’ in Italian), which is Head Chef, Jayden Casinelli’s selection of dishes, served to share.
“I love the confidence of locals to not look at the menu and leave the cooking to us,” enthuses Jayden. He describes the style as inviting and relaxing, with a ‘coming home to the family’ vibe, with Italian inspiration in everything they do.
“Creating seasonal gnocchi dishes is one of my favourite things,” says Jayden. “Making gnocchi by hand with just roasted potatoes, flour and salt is a wonderful foundation for any flavours you can create. And I love tiramisu, it’s such a classic – who doesn’t love coffee and alcohol!”
Jayden is a fan of cooking ‘low and slow’, mentioning gelatinous beef cheeks or large cuts of lamb and venison given gentle treatment to relax the meat and unlock rich flavours that you can’t get any other way. He can also finish the meat on a BBQ to give it a smokey richness and add a crust of seasoning and fat to the dish, as with eRemo’s dish of a Jack’s Creek MB6 wagyu tri-tip, cooked sous vide for 36 hours then char grilled and served with pepperonata and candied onions.
Seasonal ingredients from trusted suppliers
éRemo is a destination in itself or the highlight of a country experience with the beauty and vitality of the environment being expressed, devoid of pretension, on the plate in front of you.
The éRemo garden grows kitchen staples that are picked daily, giving the kitchen team a sense of care for the food they’ve helped grow, including a wide range of herbs and zucchini, pumpkin, butter beans, passion fruit and heirloom cherry tomatoes.
Chef Jayden knows that choosing local products creates a relationship that keeps on giving, and éRemo sources from local growers and suppliers like Huntervale Hens for free-range eggs, Ali Farm for zucchini flowers, and Pokolbin Proteins for top-quality meats.
Jayden explains, “It’s great having a relationship with the producers because you get first-hand information about the food scene, you find out how you are doing and where the industry is heading.”
He continues, “If something comes up with late notice it is great to have a close relationship with people you know are happy to help you out and give back.”
Where the winemakers dine
Spicers Guesthouse and eRemo Restaurant are near some of the most iconic cellar doors the Hunter Valley has to offer. Brokenwood’s cellar door complex is the largest in the Hunter Valley, and one of Australia’s First Families of Wine, Tyrrell’s, established in 1858, has a suite of tasting experiences that showcase their heritage vineyards and museum wines.
“At éRemo we get to cook for some of Australia’s best winemakers and their well-trained palates, it’s another great thing that makes this place exciting,” Jayden says.
“When creating new dishes I like to think what wine I would drink with this, I imagine being the guest and thinking what they’d enjoy,” Jayden explains. “Likewise when tasting a new wine, I think about what matching flavours I’d like to experience in a meal, and how I could balance that against the subtleties of the wine,” he says.
The bottles catalogued in éRemo’s wine list are exhaustive and inspiring, displayed provocatively on a scenic wine wall, offering a cross-section of the best local producers, including First Creek, Lakes Foley, Tulloch, Usher Tinkler and Angus Vinden, including rare vintages, and rounded out with classic regional Australian and international styles.
