Australia’s top restaurant Orana will grace Sydney for one month.
The award-winning venue, founded by chef Jock Zonfrillo, will take up residence in the former Longrain space from 15 August to 16 September, serving lunch Thursday to Sunday and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.
Much like the offering at Restaurant Orana in Adelaide, the menu will feature snacks, mains, desserts and petit fours. However, Zonfrillo and his team are designing an exclusive menu for Sydney, incorporating Indigenous produce from around the country.
“Diners can expect well over 50 Indigenous ingredients from the land, coast and waters of Australia,” says Zonfrillo. “We’re talking seeds, fruits, nuts, trees, shoots, shellfish, honey, ants, seafood — all the flavours and textures that represent this beautiful country we live in.”
The temporary home will be reimagined by design firm SJB. The old landscape of contemporary Surry Hills, which was home to sand dunes, sandstone outcrops, banksia trees and wetland plantings, will provide inspiration.
The Adelaide site will close for the residency’s duration, with the entire Restaurant Orana team heading to Sydney.
“Bringing Orana to Sydney will help give Indigenous foods and culture more awareness and recognition, and shift the mindset around the acknowledgement of just how special the oldest surviving culture in the world is, which is right here on our doorstep,” says Zonfrillo.
“We are surrounded by delicious Indigenous ingredients that don’t require irrigation, that are
organically and naturally grown on country, and that the First Australians have eaten for over
60,000 years. The question has always been: why aren’t these foods more widely consumed? I
don’t have all the answers but for the past few years we’ve been thinking and working with
Elders on country to give their culture a voice through food.”
Orana in Residence will donate 10 per cent of profits to Zonfrillo’s not-for-profit, The Orana Foundation.
Zonfrillo was awarded the Basque Culinary Prize in 2018, in recognition of his work with The Orana Foundation, which fosters the preservation of indigenous food culture.
Bookings for Orana in Residence open on 9 July.