The dish in front of me is called simply: lamb, curd, tomato. It’s an absolute beauty. Thick, pink tranches of meat with a crisp crown of crackly fat come scattered atop a bed of curd and a colourful array of roughly chopped tomatoes that sing of the season, the two creating a creamy-sharp sauce to cut through. Purple and green basil of powerful personality and slivers of sweet raw zucchini complete as good a lamb dish as you’ll see right now. To the table next to me, there’s a plate of the same, though it’s piled high with cutlets to gnaw.

Welcome to Matt Stone’s zero waste kitchen at Oakridge, where the cut of meat you’re served depends entirely on where on the (whole) beast butchered in house they are up to at any one point. In an industry where consistency comes at a cost paid by us all, it’s a sight to behold. Matt Stone is a poster boy of sorts for the zero-waste movement, and, while that laudable philosophy informs all the menu here, dogma has not replaced delicious, helped in no small way by the produce Stone has access to on the doorstep here in the Yarra Valley (literally, in the case of the veg that comes from the patch out back).

Last seen in Melbourne at the zero-waste café Brothl, Matt earlier earned his cooking chops over at Margaret River’s Leewin Estate, so he’s well versed the language of the cellar door dining room and is using both experiences to excellent effect in this dining room that’s as dramatically refined as Oakridge’s award-winning wines.

Stone is joined in the kitchen by partner Jo Barrett, the duo turning out refined plates that remain rustically true to place. From the excellent house milled-and-baked bread with cheesy hand-churned butter to begin, to a chocolate and corn custard that comes artfully sheathed in flyaway coconut dust to end, Barrett bookends the meal with skill.

In the middle, Stone plays equally well with Asian flavours – punchy nahm jim on locally farmed Murray cod; a gingery house-made XO sauce slathering yabbies cooked on the grill – as Euro-combos such as pork, peach and fennel, or duck with fruit.

There’s a painterly use of striking colours throughout the meal that’s considered without seeming overworked; much like the wines from the vines that take up the postcard frame of the floor-to-ceiling windows, this is a produce-first, technique-second approach that pays off.

With a glass of David Bicknell’s wine in hand from the estate-only list, it’s a scene to behold. For a true celebration of the Yarra Valley, Oakridge’s zero waste kitchen is one you should waste zero time in visiting.

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