Delve into your pantry and pull out a packet of corn chips and a jar of blackberry conserve. Load a few of the chips with jam and sprinkle over chilli. Tuck in a serviette and crunch away. Whether it was a bad case of the midnight munchies or a moment of divine inspiration, Wayne Leeson’s dessert is the talking point, in a good way, for the drive home from The Currant Shed.

It’s two years since the South African chef took charge of the kitchen at this indoor-outdoor eatery surrounded by vineyards and a citrus orchard outside McLaren Flat. The partnership looks a strong one.

Some guidance from well-informed waiting staff is essential, as dishes are expressed only as a list of components and require significant guesswork. What do you expect from “Pork Peanut Chilli Bean Sprouts” for instance? Not necessarily belly in a chilli caramel sauce.

Kangaroo tartare comes with an Asian-style shredded salad and nori crisp. Miniature domes of zucchini panna cotta are scrattered with crumbled pancetta, salt-and-vinegar salt bush leaves and shavings of zucchini.

Squid-ink farfalle looks as if it could be cut from sheets of kelp and is tossed with octopus tentacle, mussels, clams and a wickedly good chilli butter. Slices of flat iron steak are outdone by gorgeous sweetbreads, pan-fried to a golden crust on the outside, soft and sensual to the bite. Both share space on a bed of light, creamy jerusalem artichoke puree.

Those blackberries – in the form of ice cream, poached fruit and a sauce with a lingering note of chipotle – are topped by sweet corn and buttermilk espuma and fried chips made of crushed popcorn to scoop the whole mess up.