How Canberra’s Pialligo Estate lured away one of Melbourne’s top chefs

Mark Glenn, executive chef at Canberra's Pialligo Estate, which has a paddock-to-plate philosophy.

Seven months into what would become one of the world’s longest city lockdowns, Melbourne chef Mark Glenn decided he was sick of dishing food into takeaway containers. When he took on the role as executive chef at Canberra’s Pialligo Estate two years ago, he’d never set foot in the Australian capital before.

Cumulus Inc, where Glenn was head chef, is an upmarket eatery and wine bar in Melbourne’s hip Flinders Lane precinct, so turning his back on the bright city lights to go bush raised a few eyebrows on the fine-dining scene. “It was big news for a week,” he says, with a laugh. But with the influential Good Food guide championing Canberra’s new wave of “destination dining”, the opportunity to expand Pialligo’s farm-to-table philosophy was too good to pass up.

Canberra is making a name for itself on the fine dining scene, with Pialligo one of the stars. Photo / supplied

“Seasonality is a real buzzword but in this microclimate, we live the reality of that,” says Glenn, who works alongside head gardener Peter Anderson on the 28-hectare estate. “To be able to grow pretty much whatever I want within reason — we don’t grow coconuts — and let that inform the menu, is pretty unique.”

Set on the banks of the Molonglo River, this fertile land has been a working farm since the early 1800s. Today, the property includes an olive grove with 400 correggiola trees (the harvest is pressed for olive oil), 150-plus vegetable beds, 1400 fruit trees, a smokehouse, honey hives and a vineyard producing merlot, sangiovese, riesling and shiraz for house-label wines served in the Pavilion restaurant.

Alongside the stellar food and wine, guests to Pialligo Estate can enjoy tranquility and country views. Photo / supplied

Inside, a blackboard lists all the produce that’s in season, picked at dawn every morning for delivery to the restaurant, where the view extends across Lake Burley Griffin to the flagpole-topped Parliament House on Capital Hill. All this, just a 10-minute drive from the CBD. “It’s super-tranquil here,” says Glenn. “Turn off your engine and you can’t hear city noises. It feels like you’re in a completely different place.”

Although it's just 10 minutes' drive from Canberra's city centre, Pialligo feels like a country escape. Photo / supplied

While not officially certified, the estate follows organic practices and is moving towards zero waste. In the first year of Glenn’s tenure, perfect weather conditions saw the orchard produce a 900kg glut of plums. The fruit was preserved and made into icecream, puree and chutneys. When that barely put a dent in the stockpile, batches of plums were fermented and then dried to create a vegan version of katsuobushi (tuna) flakes. Seven months later, that was being used as seasoning on an asparagus dish.

At Pialligo Estate in Canberra, seasonal produce from the farm's gardens and orchard informs the restaurant menu.

Back in Melbourne, Glenn lived in St Kilda; he and his dog still miss the beach. But he’s seen a “real culture of food” develop in Canberra over the past few years, and the city’s high average income means there’s no shortage of discerning customers. “I eat out probably twice a week and haven’t run out of places yet,” he says.

One of his personal favourites is Fekerte’s Ethiopian, a hole-in-the-wall that’s only open for lunch and operates out of the magnificent Nishi Building, in New Acton. In the lobby, the Grand Stair leading up to the designer Ovolo Nishi hotel is an architectural masterpiece made from thousands of lengths of repurposed timber — from a dismembered house, a demolished baseball court and the construction site itself. Monster Kitchen, the hotel’s arthouse restaurant, is spread over four separate spaces and has a meat-free menu inspired by Japanese and Middle Eastern flavours.

Across town in Braddon, a cool inner-city suburb, Corella Bar has made a name for itself using “native ingredients” (think saltbush focaccia with buttermite) and was named one of Australia’s 10 best new restaurants in 2021 by Gourmet Traveller magazine. But of all the places where I ate during a long weekend in the capital, my favourite was Lamshed’s in Yarralumla. Chef Jeff Lamshed’s CV includes the Michelin-starred Restaurant Martin Wishart in Edinburgh, and locals remained so loyal throughout the pandemic that business barely missed a beat.

For wine lovers, Canberra is still off the radar for most, but the region is rapidly gaining recognition for its cool-climate vintages, with 140 vineyards and 40 cellar doors — most within a half-hour drive of the city. The first plantings actually date back to the 1840s but a resurgence in the 70s saw Clonakilla put the Murrumbateman region on the map for shiraz, while Ken Helm, at Helm Wines, did the same for terroir rieslings.

A second generation of winemakers is now emerging down family lines. Helm’s daughter, Stephanie, who won her first trophy for best cabernet at the age of 13, runs The Vintner’s Daughter, 10km down the road. At Gallagher Wines, the assistant winemaker is founder Greg Gallagher’s daughter, Lauren. A lefthander, she releases her signature sangiovese rosé under her own label, The Sinister Apprentice.

Canberra is emerging as a top spot for wine-lovers. Photo / supplied

This is bush country and it’s not uncommon to see kangaroos by the roadside but Greg Gallagher agrees with Pialligo’s Mark Glenn that cockatoos do the most damage to the vines. Not that they particularly like grapes, he says. “They’re vandals! They just do it for fun.”

To book a farm tour of Pialligo Estate or a table at Pavilion restaurant, visit thepialligoestate.com.au. Van du Vin runs private half and full-day winery tours, including lunch and up to five tasting sessions: vanduvin.com.au

CHECKLIST: CANBERRA

GETTING THERE

Air New Zealand and Qantas fly from Auckland to Canberra, via connecting flights in Sydney. Or you can catch the train from Sydney, which takes around four hours.

DETAILS

For more things to see and do in the region, go to visitcanberra.com.au