ARTICLE FROM REVOLVER MAGAZINE

"BLISTERINGLY DIVINE, GREAT TASTING FOOD & ITS GOOD FOR YOU"

Provincial European Cuisine with an organic edge and a kangaroo hopping around the top paddock. At prices that peasants can afford, feast on one of Sydney's essential dining experiences, The Peasants Feast, 121 a King St Newtown.

Entrees are fixed at $11 and mains at $17, making this bill-splitting paradise when eating with a bawdy group of wenches and farmboys. Alcohol is BYO and while new owner Robert Warlow wants to brings a health sensibility to the food ethic the emphasis remains heavily on the flavours of the hearty menu.

Robert, a doctor, embarked on his foray into the food world when he saw that his favourite King St restaurant was for sale. Since the acquisition four months ago, the lunch menu has become totally organic. However, this doesn't translate to boring and stoic, the menu changes regularly unlike many other organic eateries) and the flavours are as exciting as in any good restaurant. Robert finds that the organic produce has a richer, deeper taste and the twice- purified water that is used for all cooking and rinsing in the kitchen helps focus the clarity of the flavours.

If the Roast Capsicum Gazpacho with Avocado Sorbet is anything to go by then it's all true. This light summer soup is blisteringly divine. Avocado 'sorbet' is not just an annoying way of describing 'lump of avocado' - it is actually sorbet. The tingling green sensation dances on the tongue and is magic when combined with the dark red soup - a deliciously durable flavour that never tires. This is organic and vegetarian and comes spattered with organic olive oil like a Pollock. In Fact, Robert admits that there is also a painterly aspect to his ideal dishes. With so much enthusiasm and so many ideas pocked into the ethic of this restaurant, you might think that the dishes and atmosphere would be laboured. Not so. If you didn't know anything of the philosophies behind The Peasants Feast, vegetarian or carnivore, health freak or 'I ain't payin' for a salad in a restaurant', you'll walk out of this restaurant full of the best meal you've had in ages. While all along the benefits of chemical free, organic food will be secretly working away inside your Westernised colon.

The European Provincial style shows through in dishes such as the Gruyere Soufflé and the Free Range Duck with spiced cabbage and grilled apple, which had the pleasure of downing. The duck is crispy, with a dark, gamey meat that stands up and says 'I am duck, hear me quack.' The spiced apple was soft and fragrant, a perfect compliment in both flavour and texture.

There are also some modern touches on the menu, like the kangaroo, which is very popular. Up and coming chef Mark Scotney has a flair for developing interesting flavours in a craftsman-like way.

Alongside the capsicum soup entrée was the Yamba prawns with free-range eggs and tamponade. This is another perfect summer dish, the prawns balanced on a dark pile of olive mash surrounded by halves, of perfectly cooked eggs, hard yet moist. Accompanying the entrees was the Pesto bread, $3. Red and tomato-y it was rich in flavour, offering no respite from the deep flavours of the entrees.

The other main dish sampled was Ocean Trout fillet with grilled zucchini and spinach tahini. The fish is expertly cooked and the bed of zucchini richly flavoursome, a good match for a good catch. Every menu features a deep-sea fish, which are high in Omega 3, and some cooking is done in Flax seed oil, another source of Omega 3 as well as of a nutty Flavour.

Desserts are $9 and displayed on a portable blackboard. The Rhubarb Semi Freda with poached nectarine and strawberries is a joy. The Cherry and Almond Tort with Cinnamon ice cream sounds just as good. Even sitting back and digesting to Billy Holliday and smearing the linen napkins with the corners of my mouth is a joy.

The Peasant's Feast is closed on Sunday and carefully caters for people with special food needs and allergies. Urban Newtownites with little kitchens can also rejoice because this first class restaurant does home delivery. See you later pizza, eat my flax oil!

ARTICLE FROM INNER WEST COURIER
"EAT HERE AND NOT FEEL GUILTY"

How does it feel to enjoy every exquisite nuance of the delightful meal in front of you, knowing that with each bite you are defying the push towards overprocessed, genetically modified pesticide-laden foods. Well, it feels good.

Dr Robert Warlow bought The Peasants Feast in King St, Newtown, last September and has turned the place around with his passion for whole, organic foods.

"You often go to a restaurant and feel guilty afterwards. And rightly so," Dr Warlow says.

Very few Sydney restaurants offer a selection of completely organic meals.

But the entire lunch menu at the Peasants Feast is organic and the dinner menu is slowly attaining that standard.

Allergies and intolerences are catered to and vegan diners have a great choice. Still, diners who are bent on drinking the diet cola beverages of multinationals need not go thirsty. "We're not a censorship here," Dr Warlow says. Dr Warlow's work as a GP specialising in food allergies has fed his role as restauranteur and he knows first-hand the difference it makes to human health. When we joined Dr Warlow for lunch, John Appleyard and I tried lightly pickled octopus with hommous, $11, and gnocchi with ocean trout and basil, $11.

The octopus was of perfct bitey consistency with a delightful tang. For dessert we tried poached organic dried fruits with yoghurt sorbet, $7, proving to me once-and-for-all that my grandmother was right - organic whole foods taste better and when they are prepared like this, by chef Mark Scotney, they take on a sophisticated edge. Dinners are priced at around $19.50 and include dishes such as kangaroo loin with beetroot, soft polenta and anchovy essence. Entrees are $12.50.

And diners can rest assured, knowing all kitchen scraps are going to feed a local permaculture garden.

ARTICLE FROM SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"HONEST TO GOODNESS"

Call me a cynic, but there's something about the wholefood scene that makes me quiver. Probably because I used to be a vegetarian, I assume the food at organic restaurants will have the texture of cheesecloth. You know, where bread comes with bits of gravel in it and the only really delicious part is the molten cheese on top. The sort of food where you have to close your eyes and think of reafforestation rather than the flavour of the meal.

So, it's geat to find The Peasants Feast, an organic-orientated restaurant in (you guessed it) Newtown. Not just a place using organic produce when possible, but also one where the food is actually very good. Here are flavour-focused meals with an honest, homely simplicity you'd be hard-pressed to achieve at home.

In Britain, both vegetarian and organic food is huge. In continental Europe, thanks to lots of food safety scares, organic produce is even bigger. But the fad (or, should I say, the philosophy) is only just gaining mainstream popularity here. Funny thing, because with our wide open spaces, clean water and air, the potential for large-scale organic food production has to be as good as anywhere. It's about time we had a few restaurants showcasing what can be done with the produce.

The Peasants Feast was a conventional provincial style restaurant until Robert Warlow bought it last September. Warlow has a special interest in the nature of organics and diet. Not only is he a doctor, but also a specialist in immunology and allergy. He is convinced that organic food is better for your health.

Dishes can be designed with special diets in mind, too. If you ring ahead and let them know you're coeliac or diabetic, they can adjust the meals to suit.

Even better than the free clean-tasting, double-purified water are the prices. Entrees peak at $14.50 and most mains are under $23, with many below $20. The place is also BYO, which means you can come here for dinner without having to take out a second mortgage. Prices are just above a cafe's but The Peasants Feast is way beyond the average cafe, even if the decor is on the rustic side.

They bring the zucchini flowers with buffalo mozzarella and lilliput capers - a real knockout. Sweetly milky mozzarella has been sliced and paired with sauted, spanking fresh zucchini flowers. Scotney says the restaurants dosn't have a deep fryer, which is why he just sautes the blooms. It's a limitation that helps make his dish taste more true to the produce.

Nearly as good is the spaghetti with tomato, basil and bottarga, which is marked with an O on the menu, meaning its 100 per cent organic. (Some dishes have conventional ingredients if an organic isn't available.) Diced fresh, squidgy ripe tomatoes and fine basil threads are swirled through just-past-aldente pasta. Shaved over the top are golden glassy slivers of grey mullet roe from Sicily.

For the main course, prosciutto-wrapped chicken breast is described as coming with radicchio, nashi and pecorino. A moist, herb-stuffed breast of Thirlmere Farm's fabulous poultry arrives with real chicken flavour. But there's also pink grapefruit and mint, which means there's a bit too much going on, though the pecorino is sweetly nutty and delicious.

The Peasants Feast double-baked gruyere souffle is a decent version, not to cheesy or greasy. The finely beaded texture dances on the tongue and doesn't cloy or overwhelm the senses. It's server with a piperade of slightly crunchy red capsicum and capers. The chef uses Heidi gruyere, the great Tassie cheese, a sign that the produce has all been carefully chosen.

It's a bit of a gimmick, but those who've fallen in love with a dish from other parts of the world can contact the restaurant ahead to organise the kitchen to prepare it for them.

For dessert an almond praline parfait comes shaped like a top hat with a raspberry coulis brim. It's a tad icy, as are most parfait coulis, nicely with a lingering roasted nut flavour.

We leave happy in the knowledge that the kitchen waste is used in a nearby premaculture garden. And perfectly satisfied for less than $100, which seems unusual for a decent restaurant meal these days.

ARTICLE FROM SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"PURE PLEASURE"

Annette Shun Wah finds the time to trade organic peasantries.

Remember when so-called peasant dishes were all the rage? What a boon for chefs. They could charge top dollar for the cheapest cuts of meat. Granted, they'd been cooked for hours to render them tender and delicious. One of my dining companions, a local, remembers coming to the Peasants Feast years ago for just such a classic - cassoulet - which takes days to prepare properly.

There's clearly a different type of peasant in residence these days at this Newtown evergreen, with the menu featuring glamorous produce such as kangaroo loin fillet, free-range duck, Atlantic salmon and quail.

While the rustic decor and the name of the restaurant haven't changed, the Peasants Feast now champions "safe" eating, claiming to be Sydney's only organic restaurant. A glossy pamphlet on every table argues the case for pesticide- and chemical-free foods, and outlines the restaurant's "humanitarian core values". Even the water used in cooking has been doubly purified.

If the fad for peasant food has a successor, it would be "slow food", celebrating the time and care required to realise full-flavoured traditional dishes. Happily, long cooking times still have a place at the Peasants Feast, although more for reasons of health. As a second piece of literature on the table states, the preparation of meals here is regarded as an act of love and social responsibility. Everything is cooked at lower temperatures and nothing is allowed to burn, ever.

It's reassuring that our well-being is in such safe hands, so there's clearly no reason to hold back. My arteries direct my eyes to the pork belly with lentils and spinach. Don't worry, I'm starting with lime marinated Atlantic salmon that, as the menu states, is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which prevent heart disease and diabetes. Balance is the secret to harmony, right?

The salmon is served with a chilled noodle salad. It's light, tangy and refreshing, although for my tastes the noodles might have been liberated from the barely boiling double purified water a tad sooner. My partner's grilled zucchini, pumpkin and a fairly tasteless bocconcini finds some flavour with caramelised onion and capers, while the Local enjoys his potato gnocchi with chorizo sausage and a rich tomato and olive sauce.

He's less impressed with his Atlantic salmon main, a generously thick fillet balanced on four chunks of potato salad. Is it meant to look like a flat top truck, he wonders out loud? I reckon it's a metaphorical warning. Even though you're eating a slab of omega 3 fatty acids, which prevent heart disease and diabetes, you could still be hit by a truck.

My friend says it's a bit ordinary. I'm not sure if he's referring to the fish or my comment. Feeling sorry for his unchallenged tastebuds, my partner and I share our mains with him. Slow-roasted duck is juicy and delicious. Grilled apple and spiced red cabbage counteract the richness. With the slow cooking philosophy, the pork belly doesn't have that crispy bubbled crackling I love, but it is tender, moist and full of flavour. It's a huge serve that requires all three of us to make inroads.

I feel healthier by the mouthful, so how could we not have sweets? Coconut pie is chewy on top and sweet and custardy inside, but the flavours in the accompanying rockmelon and basil sorbet taste muddied. My partner's poached dried fruits and chocolate gelato remains mostly uneaten, the sweet and bitter fruits clashing with the gelato. The Local has the pick of the desserts with a simply poached pear and cinnamon ice-cream.

ARTICLE FROM SYDNEY EATS

"THE FOOD TRULY SHINES" .

We don't much like the tapestry tablecloths and dark-coloured napkins, nor the mismatching cutlery. But that doesn't matter, for the food truly shines. It's at least 70-75 per cent certified organic (some dishes are 100 per cent and marked as such) and prepared in a certified organic kitchen that uses only double-filtered water during preparation and cooking. The menu reads so delectably it's hard to choose, but feather-light gnocchi with chorizo and tomato olive sauce $12.50 is a hit and luscious mains of slow-roasted freerange duck with spiced red cabbage $25.50 and the 100 per cent organic pork belly with lentils and English spinach $23.50 are tender and flavoursome. Poached pear with cinnamon icecream $10 is an indulgent but delicately flavoured finish. Plenty of choices for vegos and omnivores alike.