Paddock to plate. While every chef worth his tattoo sleeve is talking the talk, few actually pull on the gumboots and walk the walk quite like Simon Tarlington.

For at Windsor’s Railway Hotel, a sprawling complex that includes a 24-hour bottle shop, public bar and beer garden terrace, he helms a kitchen for which almost all produce is sourced from the hotel’s own farm for the hidden, spot-lit, moody 30-seat dining room.

With brilliant blooms on the bar, a patch of pumpkins on display and bucolic art on the walls, it’s a comfortable space to take the manageable five-course degustation journey across the farm that starts with a crunchy, buttery Vegemite scroll draped in lardo that’s all sorts of yum and finishes with a Bundy rum-flamed pinecone to DIY a toasted marshmallow that’s all sorts of fun.

In between there might be hot-smoked lamb with horseradish tofu, pickled pumpkin hiding translucent Moreton bay bugs, and a mushroom-and-urchin take on fried rice that’s an instant classic.

While some dishes would benefit from a little editing – a thick blanket of dehydrated mussel powder did no favours to an excellent piece of farm-reared beef; saffron broth an exotic, unnecessary addition to that otherwise brilliant lamb – this is innovative, yet approachable cooking.

Staffed with serious professionals wielding an impressive, if disappointingly Eurocentric, wine list, Highline is an ambitious offering that delivers on the farm to fork mission statement like few others can.

Must-eat dish: Vegemite scroll
Instagram: @railwaywindsor