Luxury Lodges of Australia

Executive Chef Tim Bourke is back at Southern Ocean Lodge

Southern Ocean Lodge is excited to welcome back Tim Bourke as Executive Chef, who plans to reinforce the Lodge’s standing as a premier food and beverage destination for South Australia. The emergence of experiential food tourism offers great opportunities for guests to experience fresh regional produce first hand and at the table, a phenomenon that adds a real sense of place to dining.

Guests at Southern Ocean Lodge have a real taste of Kangaroo Island, with highlights such as Ligurian honey, sheep’s milk ricotta, fresh olive oil, abalone, free range lamb, marron and aquaculture farmed barramundi. Tim’s career in the kitchen is driven by a passion for using local, seasonally fresh ingredients to create daily-changing menus, an approach that is central to the Baillie Lodges dining experience.

Tim originally spent time in the sun at sister property Capella Lodge, where he developed a light European dining style well-suited to the island’s climate and driven by a plentiful supply of fresh local produce. Tim was then excited to head up the kitchen team at the newly opened Southern Ocean Lodge.

Working closely with Lodge owner James Baillie and Manager Ben Lanyon, Tim developed the Culinary Philosophy, designed to offer guests a sense of place in their dining experience at Southern Ocean Lodge. This ‘locavore’ approach to wining and dining means that all food and beverage ingredients are fresh and in peak season, and sourced from local suppliers both Kangaroo Island and South Australia. Tim brings to the table a menu that is at once sophisticated and simple, designed to honour the flavours of each ingredient.

Tim took a break with a stint in Sydney at neigbourhood favourite ‘Jaspers’, where he quickly gained a dedicated following for his dishes founded on fresh ingredients from the local food-producing Hills District and Hawkesbury regions.

Happily for Southern Ocean Lodge, Tim decided to return in 2011 to complete ‘unfinished business’. Back at the Lodge, Tim continues to source and develop mutually beneficial working relationships with local artisan producers, who often operate on a small scale, sustainable and organic basis. Tim says that since he’s been back he’s been thrilled that more and more producers from Kangaroo Island and the South Australian mainland are contacting him with exciting food ideas and great produce. The pleasure is in developing great relationships direct with suppliers; Tim sites Tina and Eddy from KI Fresh Fish as a prime example. The couple calls in each afternoon to report on what’s available; usually it’s small amounts of a variety of seafoods, whatever’s been brought in by local fishermen. According to Tim, they are the best seafood suppliers in Australia.

Look out for artisan breads, organic greens, aquaculture, oysters, wild saffron, ducks and geese next on the menu at Southern Ocean Lodge. It’s Australian Luxury Defined.