There has been a changing of the guard at Margan Restaurant in the Broke Fordwich corner of the Hunter Valley.
Second-generation winemaker Ollie Margan, who was named 2026 Young Achiever of the Year at the Hunter Valley Legends Awards in May, is now in charge of hospitality operations at his family's business.
His credentials are impressive.
Margan left the Hunter Valley at the age of 20 to study winemaking in Adelaide and ended up turning the city's bar scene on its head, winning national and international acclaim along the way.
When he returned home to the Hunter Valley a decade later to focus on winemaking and the family business, his legacy remained. Adelaide had its own world-class small bar and restaurant scene.
In 2020 Margan launched his own wines, Breaking Ground, under the Margan banner.
His parents, Lisa and Andrew, are confident Margan Restaurant is in good hands.
"I am still involved but Ollie will shape the direction of these spaces going forward," Lisa told Food & Wine.
"Apart from being a winemaker he has lots of hospitality experience. Andrew and I look forward to him taking the restaurant into the new decade."
Margan grew up watching his parents pioneer agri-dining in the Hunter Valley. Regenerative farming runs in his veins.
"It incorporates all the same principles as organic farming, that is, no synthetic inputs. Synthetic inputs have a carbon cost to produce and are often damaging to the microbial community that exists in the topsoil," he said.
"Regenerative farming is all about building a healthy microbial community, both above and below the soil, encouraging a balanced ecosystem to naturally maintain itself.
"We find this approach to farming incredibly rewarding and the quality of the produce, be it vegetables or grapes, to be unmatched.
"We use companion planting, compost teas and mixed cover crops, native tree lots and animals for nutrient cycling (and weed maintenance) in order to achieve this thriving ecosystem that means we are feeding as much carbon to the soil as we are removing."
The restaurant uses produce from its garden and estate-grown lambs, olives and eggs to craft its hyper-seasonal menu. Anything brought in has to be sustainable and as local as possible.
It's not an easy way to run a restaurant, but it's the Margan way.
"We can look out the restaurant window and see where all the food and wine guests are enjoying comes from," Margan said.
"We are custodians of 70 hectares of soil used for agricultural crops. Depleting this soil, I feel, is an irresponsible use of a natural resource.
"Of course it is not a perfect science, but if our approach starts with a best practice approach to building soil health and works back from there, hopefully we are able to produce a meaningful product.
"It is certainly more labour intensive and, for now, more costly. It is an investment; over time we will optimise processes and eventually the plants will rely on human involvement a whole lot less and crop yields will become more generous."
You can taste the difference, too ... the freshness and intensity of flavour as well as the vibrancy of colour. On a recent visit I ate radishes from the garden with a house-made sauce and was knocked for six by the parmesan curd-stuffed ravioli.
"It is made fresh by hand daily," Margan said.
"The dish itself came from the idea of a simple brown butter, sage and pumpkin pasta taken to the next level. Using Margan eggs to make the parmesan curd and the ravioli dough, the dish also completes a zero-waste goal through the use of sourdough offcuts for the pangrattato.
"Excess charcuterie ends are turned into an XO sauce that otherwise wouldn't be used."
Joining Margan in this new chapter for the restaurant is head chef Harrison (Harry) Roese. They are on the same page when it comes to continuing the restaurant's strictly farm-to-table approach to dining.
Roese grew up on the Central Coast where he spent a lot of time fishing and diving, developing an appreciation for fresh produce at a young age.
"Cooking, to me, is about sharing, and what I love about cooking is being able to share experiences and stories. The ability to bring someone back to a childhood memory of their grandmother's food is just a lovely, wholesome experience," he said.
"There is also a sense of enjoyment in the process of developing dishes and components - like a scientific experiment - changing one variable at a time and slowing making something better and better."
Working with produce from a garden using organic permaculture practices, Roese said, "leaves you at the mercy of nature and true seasonality, especially here in the micro-climate of Broke".
It's a challenge, yes, but a rewarding one.
"There is so much beauty in this style of cooking, its respect for the land, appreciating the produce and how its treated. This is then carried into the dining room for guests to also appreciate the effort that goes into growing, preparing, and the final assembly," Roese said.
"There isn't an opportunity to tell a supplier to take back produce because it isn't the right size or perfect shape.
"Put simply, what you see is what you get, and our garden team works hard for the produce they provide, and everything on the plate is as much a representation of them as it is the kitchen team."
Margan hopes to continue building a community that places value in the provenance of food.
"Margan is unique in its sole focus being single-site agriculture paired with considered hospitality. We are entirely family, entirely Broke Fordwich, and we are in control of everything we do from soil to plate, or glass," he said.
"We are incredibly driven by some key values, as are our team. They form our house style, and will always be the story here."
