Dining Galleries – Falling Autumn Leaves

Muse to many. Season of harvest and reverie. Autumn and its delights will shape this Saturday lunch. Crafting it are Brigitte Hafner, Kane Pollard, Georgie Rogers and Emma Shearer – chefs who eschew fuss for maximum flavour.

Devour elements truly of the moment: just-picked chestnuts, duck from Braeburn Farm and Choice Mushrooms on the Fleurieu Peninsula, bread warm from the oven. And to drink? You can count on classics like pinot noir, and on additional selections perfectly suited to the season.

Hafner helms Tedesca Osteria on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Fresh pasta and seafood frequently star on its ever-changing menu, with most ingredients grown in biodynamic paddocks beside the restaurant and cooked over a wood-fired hearth.

Pollard is Tasting Australia food curator and creative director of Topiary in Adelaide’s north-east. Growing up in an Adelaide Hills market gardening family fostered an early love for foraging and seasonal fare, passions that continue to guide his cooking.

Rogers, meanwhile, is executive chef at Angove Family Winemakers in McLaren Vale, a role that followed time at Adelaide’s East End Cellars. Spanish flavours often feature in her dishes, made in collaboration with a network of local suppliers.

Sourdough is among the treasures stocked at Shearer’s Bowden bakery The Lost Loaf. Her start came as a chef, but it was pastry that captured her imagination and inspired a devoted following.