Shore Leave Festival 2024: Review of the Matt Stone-curated Mid West Paddock to Plate

Last Saturday, Kojarena’s Yanget Farm transformed for the Mid West Paddock to Plate event, a staple of the Shore Leave Festival, which is now in its fourth year. A drive down an unassuming gravel road, a paddock for a carpark . . . and a kitchen. You wouldn’t suspect it, but it will lead you to the fairytale setup for a feast. Illuminated with fairy lights, open fires and with a soundtrack of live music, more than 300 guests came to enjoy guest chef Matt Stone’s menu. Hailing from Margaret River, Stone is based in Byron Bay as the owner of multiple hospitality venues, and brought a wealth of wisdom to the table. Celebrating local ingredients is the top priority for Stone, who used lamb reared on Yanget Farm as the hero of the three-course menu. The menu began with a cucumber and pickled sardine entree, and a nod to my new favourite fun fact — the Mid West is the country’s’ biggest exporter of cucumbers. This was followed by artichoke toast and smoked beef jerky, using Yanget Farm beef, and waiting on the table were loaves of fresh bread, seaweed butter, and Baston Grove olives. A shared entree course began making its way to the table, changing all misconceptions about vegetarian food. Barbequed peppers and fennel atop an eggplant romesco were a personal highlight of the evening. The second entree was another nod to the terroir, using seared Yanget Farm beef in a tartare-adjacent dish with garum — a fermented fish sauce — and prawn crackers, It was a much more civilised version of surf and turf. Credit to the organisers, who knew to space out each course accordingly so as to give me time to develop an appetite for more food. The main course was Barbecued lamb with spices, herbs and picked shallots, lemon myrtle and mountain pepper chicken, charred cucumbers with sour cream, crispy potatoes and an entire head of iceberg lettuce decorated with bacon and Caesar dressing. Despite the chefs being squirrelled away in a makeshift commercial kitchen in a tent, the food was of an exceptionally high standard, and proved simple ingredients can make incredible, complex flavours. Dessert is something I will always have time for, so when it was delivered I was thrilled to see a nostalgic and familiar face, rice pudding. Passionfruit, mango and finger lime offset the sweetness of the pudding and ended the evening on a high. I know the nearly $400 price tag can seem confronting — that’s a six-month car rego payment for me. However, I urge anyone who has the opportunity to attend any future Mid West Paddock to Plate event to hop on the charter bus and spend their evening in a culinary frenzy. Make the most of the free-flowing booze and incredible food, and trust in your good company — the ticket price is worth it.