From the ground up: inside Wayfinder’s new farm-to-table restaurant

Their farm-to-table garden sits at the heart of Wayfinder’s Winery & Farm in Cowaramup, filled with a wide range of produce that changes with the seasons. Beyond them are orchard plantings, a certified-organic vineyard and a working farm – all feeding, quite literally, into the experience at the estate’s new restaurant.

It’s farm-to-table dining in the truest sense, but also the next chapter in a much bigger idea: to connect farming, wine and food back to the land they come from.

For Executive Chef Brendan Pratt, the opportunity to create a restaurant within a working farm offers something increasingly rare: the chance to cook with produce grown just metres from the kitchen.

“The garden, the Farm and the wines are all part of the same story, and that gives us a clear starting point for the food,” says Brendan. “We want the menus to feel seasonal, generous and connected to the property, without overcomplicating what’s already beautiful.”

What’s growing in the garden naturally helps determine what appears on the plate. Produce from the one-acre Market Garden is joined by ingredients raised and produced across the property, including lamb, eggs and honey, while relationships with local growers and producers fill the gaps that the farm cannot.

As the seasons change, so too do the ingredients, with à la carte and tasting menus offering different ways to experience what’s coming from the farm.

It’s an approach that feels particularly at home in the Margaret River Region, where some of the most memorable dining experiences begin in the farms, vineyards and waters surrounding it.

A short walk from Brendan’s kitchen, Head Market Gardener Amy Dyson is responsible for nurturing much of what eventually lands on the plate.

Her domain is Wayfinder’s one-acre market garden: more than 40 no-dig beds planted with vegetables, herbs and edible flowers, alongside orchard plantings and areas dedicated to experimentation and learning.

“The thing I love most about this kind of work is the connection to nature,” says Amy. “It’s an absolute privilege to witness and be part of watching the seasons ebb and flow.”

That means paying attention to what the soil, weather and changing seasons are doing and working with them rather than against them. What thrives in the garden changes throughout the year, and the kitchen responds in turn.

The relationship between gardener and chef is deliberately close. Rather than growing to meet the demands of a rigid menu, Amy and Brendan can respond to what is abundant, at its best or particularly interesting at any given moment.

“A short stroll from the restaurant, from garden to plate,” says Amy. “I don’t know that it gets much better than that.”

The Market Garden is just one part of a much broader approach to agriculture at Wayfinder.

The estate’s vineyard has been certified organic since 2022, with regenerative farming practices focused on building healthier soils, encouraging biodiversity and creating a more resilient farm for the future.

“For us, innovation isn’t about doing something different for the sake of it,” says Wayfinder’s Head Winemaker Andrew Trio. “It’s about finding better ways to grow grapes, make wine and feed people that will still make sense in 20 or 30 years.”

That long-term thinking can be seen across the property, from Wayfinder’s involvement with EcoVineyards and its four-acre bushland regeneration project to the off-grid, gravity-fed winery where its single-vineyard wines are made.

There’s an acceptance, too, that farming means relinquishing some control. As the Wayfinder team has previously put it, “We’re really at the whim of the weather, and it’s something that is completely out of our control.”

The restaurant adds another layer to that philosophy. Instead of simply talking about seasonality and provenance, visitors can experience both on the plate and in the glass.

And that connection doesn’t stop at the kitchen door.

Designed by Kerry Hill Architects to sit within its natural surroundings, the Winery & Farm invites visitors to experience more than the finished wine or dish. The vineyards, garden and working farm form part of the setting, making it possible to see where many of the ingredients on your plate – and the wine in your glass – began.

A meal can be paired with Wayfinder wines grown and made on the estate, while guided tastings among the vines and hands-on family experiences offer other ways to explore the property.

It makes the restaurant less of a standalone destination and more of a window into the whole Wayfinder story: farming, growing, making, cooking and sharing.

There’s something particularly satisfying about eating a vegetable within sight of where it was grown, or drinking a wine surrounded by the vineyard that produced it.

At Wayfinder’s Winery & Farm, that connection is the point. Come for lunch, stay for a tasting, wander the property and see what’s growing. The menu may look a little different next time you visit – but that’s all part of the experience.