Tasmania’s first farm-based cooking school, The Agrarian Kitchen set up shop in 2008, offering paddock-to-plate cooking experiences in a 19th century schoolhouse surrounded by five acres of scenic lush land. The Agrarian Kitchen was established by Rodney Dunn and wife Séverine Demanet, who had always dreamt to reconnect with the earth to grow and cook authentic food with real ingredients.

Nine years later in 2017, Rodney and Séverine expanded on the same concept to open The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery in a beautiful Bronte building in nearby New Norfolk’s Willow Court – the town’s old mental asylum. With its expansive spaces, large windows and high ceilings, The Eatery offers a memorable dining experience in a majestic heritage setting.

Everything at The Eatery is made on site, from the bread, butter and cheese to cured meats, preserves and pickles, complemented by locally sourced lamb and Highland cattle beef plus pork that comes from the couple’s own farm. The goats, chickens and bees provide milk, eggs and honey, and their abundant supply of fruits and vegetables comes from the community garden, located right across the restaurant.

When Rodney decided to open The Eatery, he wasn’t set on the menu but was certain that he wanted to give diners the chance to experience simple but beautifully cooked food using fresh locally grown produce.

Electrolux Professional seemed like an obvious choice for the commercial kitchen equipment. Familiar with the brand from his previous culinary roles, Rodney was confident about the quality and durability assured by an Electrolux Professional kitchen.

The kitchen is designed around the existing space with Electrolux Professional’s modular cooking equipment arranged to provide Rodney and his kitchen brigade maximum space and flexibility.

The deep fryers are on constantly to produce one of The Eatery’s favourite dishes – the light and fluffy sour dough potato cakes. The pasta cookers get a real workout producing beautifully cooked house made pasta as well as perfectly blanched seasonal vegetables. The combi oven is reliable and versatile, used daily to pump out menu items and handy for the bulk preservation of out of season produce when used in conjunction with the Electrolux Professional bratt pan.

In fact, every week during the summer months, you will find one of the chefs either pickling, fermenting, curing or making jam in the dedicated preservation kitchen.

“The pans make light work of turning a ton and a half tomatoes into chutney and preserves – as you can do it in one hit,” says Rodney.

The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery is in New Norfolk, just a 35-minute drive out of Hobart in the beautiful Derwent Valley.