Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique.
September 2024 update: Peasant has just revealed it's moving to a new location, so stay tuned and watch this space as we reveal more details.
Peasant’s premise is interesting from the outset: visitors are promised “food from the Earth” and each dish in the five-course degustation (you can choose meat or vegetarian) is a simple but smart presentation of humble, locally sourced ingredients. The menu changes every month and it’s been designed as a lean operation to ensure no produce goes to waste.
On the website, you’re met with a riddle-like quote from Gertrude Stein: “The Earth is the Earth as a peasant sees it, the world is a world as a duchess sees it, and anyway, a duchess would be nothing if the Earth was not there as the peasant sees it.” It’s been a while since my English lit degree, but I reckon ol’ Gertie’s saying that we’re all a bit more interconnected and reliant on one another than we realise.
Signature fragrances are something retailers and restaurants have only really started to get behind in recent years, but Peasant is onto it. The beautiful fragrance filling the room is the burning of fragrant vanilla and star anise oil, I’m told. It’s in these thoughtful touches that you sense a transportative quality to the restaurant. There’s a woman carrying a wicker basket of bread, and on the wall glows a menu with the kind of font you might see in ye olde grimoire of spells. Intentionally or not, it’s giving out-of-town tavern from The Witcher.
“It’s purely a decorated bar in that nothing has been destroyed or renovated,” the maître d' tells me, as he kindly drapes a napkin over my lap. His name is Dan Tesoriero, and it was at the since-closed Carlton North eatery Billy Boy Blue that he and business partner-cum-chef Doug Kerr first got excited about presenting ‘old fayre’ in a modern way. (Side note: another great regional Victorian restaurant doing a similar sort of thing is South Gippsland’s Trulli, which practises the Italian philosophy of la cucina povera, or in English, ‘the poor kitchen’.)
With a glass of sparkling chenin blanc in hand (I’ve added the wine pairing option to my meal), I’m ready to begin. The first amuse-bouche is a sort of fried polenta cake on a bed of baby gem lettuce. It’s topped with a dollop of caper and garlic mayonnaise, and a curled-up anchovy – a sharp and pleasant enough way to begin, if not particularly groundbreaking.
Things soon get more exciting thanks to a kohlrouladen (German stuffed cabbage roll) that comes with swede puree, confit heirloom carrots and a sophisticated beer and Warral Maldon honey reduction. Still, the flavours are relaxed: sweet and vegetal.
A bowl of fried potato and goat’s cheese gnocchi that comes next is a dreamy soft cloud of comfort, with creamed cauliflower, goat’s cheese cream and shaved parmesan whisking me off to tryptophan heaven.
Next, the savoury portion of the night is sealed with that classic peasant’s dish of the French: beef neck Bourguignon with parsnip mash, pancetta lardons, roast onions and a red wine reduction. Bursting with rich layers of complex, slow-cooked flavour, there’s no denying it’s been prepared masterfully – and it’s at the level of or probably beyond some of the finest French bistros I’ve visited back in Melbourne.
So has it all been sumptuous and wonderful? Absolutely. But, perhaps unsurpisingly for dishes that hark back to classic European peasant-style recipes, the meal may not strike one as original as the concept and deco would first suggest. After all, versions of such homely and hearty fare – while artfully done here – are indeed available at some of the greatest gastropubs in the state, so lucky are we.
I suspect there’s more room for creativity and risk-taking at Peasant if it wants to take things to the next level, more tricks up the chef’s sleeve for future menus.
Dessert is a charmer, an apple and rhubarb cobbler with vanilla custard and roast rhubarb ice cream. Again, it’s executed perfectly – the flavours are crowd-pleasing, it’s tasty and simple, and shows that simple ingredients really can be elevated to fancy heights.
Lastly, a short but essential note about the service: it’s been outstanding the entire night. Wines from the incredible list were matched and explained beautifully, with genuine insights into the inspirations behind Peasant revealed.
It's this that cements the restaurant as a special experience worth checking out in Ballarat and I’m excited to see what the team cooks up next.