Blue Mountains retreat Spicers Sangoma restaurant AMARA opens to visitors
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Blue Mountains retreat Spicers Sangoma restaurant AMARA opens to visitors
Spicers private Blue Mountains Retreat, Sangoma, opens restaurant AMARA dining to visitors from Friday 5 March.
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Spicers Sangoma RetreatAmara Restaurant at Spicers Sangoma Retreat head chef Will Houia.
From Friday 5 March, Amara Restaurant at Spicers Sangoma Retreat, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, will be taking bookings from guests who simply wish to dine - to experience the intimate, personalised degustation dinners and lunches by head chef Will Houia. No longer is there a need to stay inhouse to indulge in Will’s culinary expertise, impeccable creativity and signature emphasis on locally sourced produce.
As the Zulu word for ‘grace’, Amara puts diners at the centre of an ecosystem of local producers and sustainable on-site practices, which together serve up an incredible elegant and graceful dining experience in harmony with nature and the alluring bushland surrounds.
Every day the Amara Restaurant team creates a dinner degustation menu of seven courses, and for lunches on Friday to Sunday – a five course degustation all based on the freshest organic and seasonal meat, cheese and hero produce available within 100km (or one-hour drive) of Sangoma, among the historic and highly fertile Hawkesbury region. Affectionately called the ‘Harvest Menu’, the shared lunch concept, offered on Monday to Thursday, focuses on one succulent protein and four of the freshest organic vegetables, mostly sourced from local friends at Harvest Farms, followed by an irresistible dessert.
Houia’s food philosophy embodies a simple, ultimately natural approach to cooking, preferring traditional cooking techniques with charcoal and fire over gas and electricity, and the use of controlled dehydration to prepare fruit and veggies, as well as indigenous ingredients to add subtle layers of flavour.
Head chef Will Houia was part of the team at one of Queensland’s most awarded restaurants, Homage at Spicers Hidden Vale under executive chef Ash Martin. It was Homage, where most of the menu is locally sourced or grown on the property, that amplified the young chef’s passion for farm-to-table fine dining.
“We have built incredible relationships with our local suppliers,” said Houia, “and work together to deliver the finest produce the region can provide and bring out it’s best in the kitchen. We’re very lucky that Spicers has so much support for standards we set in Amara.”
Amara sources as much of its produce as possible from Harvest Farms, a community supported agriculture (CSA) project that supplies local restaurants and fruit and veg boxes for the public, from two organic farms in the Hawkesbury: the Bilpin farm for delicious veggies and Mt Tomah farm for berries, figs and nuts.
Amara’s meat and seafood include ethically grown Melanda Park Pork and beef and poultry from Wilberforce Meat Co., and they support the GoodFish project to only serve seafood from sustainable fisheries.
All of the fresh produce for Houia’s Heirloom Tomato, Basil, Cucumber Granita, Chamomile dish are source from the organic Harvest Farm, and expect to be tempted by the Squid Over Coals, Turnip, Chicken Broth or the Braised Lamb Shoulder, Butter Beans, Broccoli, followed by, of course, desserts the likes of Smoked Ice Cream, Praline, Raspberry, Dulce, Milk Skins.
Spicers Sangoma Retreat has its own in-house Green Team to ensure nothing is wasted and one-use products are avoided. The main structure sports solar panels and rainwater tanks, and an in-house compost machine supplies a local farm with high-grade, ready to use compost in exchange for fresh seasonal fruit and veg. They even keep European honeybee hives on the property, tended to by team member Kate, a qualified beekeeper, who supplies the kitchen with honeycomb.
Will Houia has honed a fierce respect for local, organic and sustainable produce through a 14-year career that has led him into some of the best kitchens in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
Kiwi-born Houia was classically trained in Auckland before arriving in Australia and joining executive chef Ash Martin at Queensland’s hatted Homage restaurant at Spicers Hidden Vale, where he was named as a finalist in the prestigious Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year Award.
After three years at Homage, Houia joined Christian Puglisi’s acclaimed Relæ in Copenhagen, a Michelin-starred restaurant that has featured on multiple top 100 in the world lists; and Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken, Sweden (now closed) has been an inspiration to Will, as is Ben Shewry from Attica.
From Denmark, Will ventured back to New Zealand and worked at the progressive and plant-centric three-hatted Roots Restaurant, Lyttleton, under Giulio Sturla and also with Ed Verner at Auckland’s tiny and inventive Pasture, another of New Zealand’s three-hat set.
Sangoma offer all-inclusive packages for a minimum two-night stay, with all exquisite dining and beverages, and a premium mini-bar replenished daily. Guests and visitors can enjoy a flight of wines paired with each course, or peruse the wine list, which features a well-planned balance between prestige and more innovative labels that’s always evolving with new selections, organic and limited releases to keep it interesting.
Amara dining only guests - an intimate fine-dining experience by appointment
Dinner - 7 course degustation. 7 days 6pm-9pm $125pp
Lunch - 5 course degustation. Friday to Sunday 12.30pm-2.00pm $105pp
Lunch – Harvest Menu. Monday to Thursday 12.30pm-2.00pm $85pp
Email through the contact form below to make a reservation.
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