James Viles’ menu at Biota Dining speaks to his connection with the land and his local community in the Southern Highlands. His plates, imbued with integrity, creativity and a bit of playfulness, underline his reflections on the food world. A flurry of creative snacks set the scene for a menu that showcases local ingredients, wild food and clever nods to Australian food history. Dehydrated apple is thinly sliced and rolled up like a cigar to encase a thin wedge of Pecora Dairy blue cheese, deer heart is dehydrated and shaved over a crispy ‘waffle’, and a bite-sized spoonful of whipped dory roe with air-dried meat is a playful take on surf ‘n’ turf.

Carefully considered textures and materials make up the plateware and crockery, enhancing the focus on what’s on the plate. Smoked duck and oat sausage is served on charred twigs, live seed bread with cultured butter is in a soft felt bowl and a braised wallaby stew is served in a ‘Furphy’ style pot, a nod to the cast iron pots historically used by bushman to cook over coals.

The degustation segues from delicate vegetable dishes like Jerusalem artichoke dotted with cubes of fermented turnip, sweet pine oil and a silky onion milk, to sweet wedges of sand crab meat atop creamed garlicky eggs and a punchy smattering of smoked and dried chilli. A quivering warm egg yolk from the Biota chickens takes centrestage in a wreath of wild greens, a selection of bitter brassicas, mustard leaf and crispy heads of wild-grown fiddle fern. The runny yolk forms the sauce and it’s a masterful combination. Octopus is cleverly cooked into a rich Bolognese and stuffed into a jaffle with a white sauce, a crowd pleaser with a twist, while the aforementioned wallaby stew is cooked ‘osso bucco’ style, the unctuous meat cooked on the tail bone in a sauce flavoured with bush spices, and served with lemon myrtle damper. Viles’ take on an ice cream ‘sanga’ is flavoured with dried banana and sheep’s milk whey. It’s clever food without being tricked up, designed to challenge our palates and teach us something. Biota is the way forward.