REGIONAL RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

A big thank you to all our staff, producers and farmers that make Loam what it is, without you all we could not make this happen.

We have also been lucky to be included in Gourmet Traveller's 2012 Top 100 restaurants in Australia coming in at number 30 and number 2 in regional Victoria. It is an honour to be involved and included amongst such great company.

GLENLOTH GAME

Simply Advantaged

We thought it was time for us, the staff, to voice our experiences on the site. So here is one take on our first staff development day back from holidays.

Firstly, it was another reminder in the importance of us seeing the reality behind our produce, the stories generously shared therein, as well as having amazing dialogs with incredibly passionate and proud people. Good people.

Perhaps too, for us, Wednesdays are a reminder that we are exceptionally fortunate to work for such a remarkable owner team. Astrid and Aaron invest in us in a way which can only benefit you our guests. The result of these trips hopefully reflects in our service but above all raises our combined awareness of the genuine people, processes, politics and pride behind what we consume. Besides that, we just really enjoy it. We get to be together in a different environment and it’s just more than simply ‘staff development’.

Our day started at 4:30am, after a selection of home-cooked yummy curries by Astrid followed by board games the night before. Our phone alarms went off in unison throughout our Bendigo encampment. 5am sharp we’re off, towards Wycheproof to visit Glenloth Game (game & fowl grower/caretaker specialists). Adding to that, they run a celebrated abattoir. We arrived at 7.30am for the squab and chicken processing and as we witnessed it can’t be done better, more humanely or with higher ethics constantly in mind. The sentiment at Glenloth is 'damn the buck – let’s just do it right'!!

We also had the opportunity to visit the chicks, the chooks, the wild goats and their two week old kids, this all in an 1874 settled pastoral reminiscent of Fred Williams or Frederick McCubbin.

An enlightening experience!

From all the staff at Loam thank-you, Kate, Ian, Spud, Peter and the team at Glenloth - you do an amazing job!

LOAM VS GARAGISTES

IMAGES FROM THE KITCHEN

WINTER BREAK

It is that time of year again with our annual winter break fast approaching! Loam Restaurant will close on the 18th of July and shall re-open again for lunch on Thursday the 18th of August.

We would like to thank all of our wonderful guests whose continued support and kind words of encouragement have made this such a fantastic twelve months. We would also like to extend a special thanks to our hardworking producers, farmers and suppliers. Their efforts day in and day out make our job easy.

And finally a huge thank-you to our amazing team. Their passion, dedication and unerring support is truly the key to our success and sanity!

We look forward to another great year.

Aaron and Astrid

WESTERN PLAINS PORK

On a recent staff trip we headed off to visit Judy and the Pigs at Western Plains Pork.

It's one thing to work with great produce, it's quite another to see first hand the amazing work the whole team at the farm do week in week out to ensure a great product with integrity is produced. They love their pigs and so do we!

This year we were very lucky to be awarded Dish of the Year in the Age Good Food guide for our dish of Sucking pig, melon, fennel pollen and goats curd. The suckling pig from Judy is the best I have worked with by far and just simply roasted with a little salt allows the delicate flavour to shine, a true testament to Judy and the team at Western Plains Pork

http://www.westernplainspork.com/

UPCOMING LUNCH - LOAM VS' GARAGISTES

It is confirmed - on Sunday 3rd of July Loam with play host to the Garagistes team - Luke, Katrina & Kirk! We are VERY excited; good food and wine is afoot. Details to come...

www.garagistes.com.au