On the menu at Trentham Estate

Chef Mark Withnell takes us through the menu at Trentham Estate Winery restaurant. Come and enjoy house-made specialities and enjoy the huge outdoor area and a flexible fine dining menu.

How would you describe the setting?

We’re an indoor and outdoor restaurant that seats 200 people on the banks of the Murray. Houseboats pull up to the bank and people can walk straight up into the restaurant to dine on the deck or the lawns. It’s gorgeous and the vibe is fantastic, it’s such a relaxed place to be.

Trentham Estate Winery, The Murray

What about the food?

We offer build-your-own platters with antipasto and cheese if people want to relax for an hour or two. The à la carte menu is international with a lot of Italian influences. They call this region a fruit bowl: there is a lot of local produce, but you need to know how to get it by developing relationships with people, which is what I’ve done in my five years here.

Trentham Estate Winery, The Murray 

The Murray cod is an iconic local freshwater fish – do you use it?

We actually have a Murray cod farm next door to us, and it’s used in one of our signature dishes. Everybody has heard so much about this fish and they want to try it when they’re in the region. I take the whole fish and portion it up – the flavour and sweetness mean it’s so versatile. At the moment, we are pan-searing the fillets and serving them with an orange and fennel salad, roasted chat potatoes and salsa verde.

Trentham Estate Winery, The Murray

Does the estate wine find its way onto the food menu?

It sure does. Through the winter we have slow-cooked Murray Valley lamb shanks braised in our shiraz and flavoured with rosemary picked from our herb garden. We cook it for four hours till it’s falling off the bone, then serve it with potato puree. It walks out the door. We also use our chardonnay and pinot gris in our linguine marinara with prawns, scallops, squid and a garlic, parsley and white wine sauce. We’re not on the coast but we use Australian seafood and it’s a very popular dish. Wine even makes its way into dessert. We have a late-picked botrytis-style sweet wine called Taminga, and we put that in our panna cotta and use it in the glaze that goes over the top. It’s delicious.