chefs of the Mornington Peninsula

Chef Dan Lidgard has attracted a strong following at the stylish Bau Bau Dining in Mount Eliza. It’s a small Italian bistro, intimate, bright, stylish but comfortable, the type of place you’d find in Rome back streets packed with well-dressed families. The space was formerly a Japanese restaurant, compact and minimalist. Dan has kept the compact kitchen with just enough fridge space for the ingredients that day’s service. This means everything is made fresh, daily with an emphasis on painstaking traditional Italian kitchen technique.

All the food is delivered daily. Much comes from the owners’ farm near Daylesford. They also co-own Bistro Elba in Sorrento and Patsy’s vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne’s Franklin Street. Dan was formerly at Pt Leo Estate and Donna Maria in Flinders, working with Bau Bau Dining co-owner Clinton Trevisi.

They both know the power of local story telling and embrace Mornington Peninsula Produce during season. Summer sees a flood of tomatoes from Daniel’s Run and soon Harry’s Mussels from Flinders with be on the menu. Clinton pours Three Bays Mineral Water as the house sparling water and loves the textural white wine Kathleen Queally makes from her Malvasia grapes. “People love to see something on the menu that comes from where they live,” says Dan.

He returns to the kitchen and sends out a dish of pan seared snapper, its skin perfectly crisp, a quenelle of butter enriched with sea urchin from Port Phillip and wakame from Southern Sea Greens. It is truly delicious.

Fact: Bau bau is Italian for ‘woof woof’.

Words and pics: @foodcornish
Instagram: @bau_bau_dining
Website: www.baubaudining.com.au