Inside Australia’s chef-led hotels from Berry’s Moraea Farm to Daylesford’s Lake House

Chances are, when you arrive for your stay at Moraea Farm in Berry, about two hours south of Sydney, it’ll be some time in the afternoon.

And just as likely — unless you managed a sneaky Macca’s drive-through detour — you’ll be hungry. Luckily, when a property has a chef at its heart, you can expect to nibble on something a bit more interesting than the usual desultory macarons or chocolate-dipped strawberries while awaiting dinner.

In fact, Alex Prichard, culinary director and partner of Sara Dining and the Linnaeus Collection properties, has found quite a few ways to feed guests.

First up there’s a poolside menu you can order from the moment you drop your bags, whether staying at the Moraea Farm lodgings or one of the seven other Linnaeus Collection properties scattered around Berry. Know this is no ordinary room service, not least because it arrives in a stack of pretty tiffins.

It might be a proper burger, maybe, or a glazed ham sandwich with mustard, “heaps of butter” and thick-cut comte cheese. Or, South Coast oysters with spicy chipolatas or a large and crunchy Caesar salad.

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While waiting for the food to arrive, have a dig around the minibar. Here, award-winning bartender Evan Stroeve (formerly of Sydney’s The Waratah and Bulletin Place) has curated a drinks collection that goes well beyond the usual beers and pre-batched negronis. Instead, says Prichard, one thing you’ll find is 750ml bottles with house-made yuzu and garden spritzes to match the poolside vibe.

“When you’ve got these houses that are five minutes from the beach, you want something really light and refreshing and effervescent,” says Prichard, who is also the culinary director of Sydney’s Icebergs. There’s also a full wine list, of course.

And for later? If not heading to the property’s restaurant, Sara Dining, for a full meal (and you can do that at any time in the afternoon — Prichard aware that hungry travellers might want a lunch/dinner hybrid at 3pm or 4pm), you could dig into the basket of fruit and veg picked from the property’s farm and which rests right there on the kitchen counter. Scramble an egg or two from the chooks and dinner’s done.

This attention to detail around food and beverage is something you only find when you stay at a hotel or guesthouse that puts food first.

Prichard’s relationship with Moraea Farm and its satellite properties is one of the newest examples of this “chef-first” philosophy but it’s something Australians have embraced for a while.

There’s Josh Niland’s unforgettable breakfasts (marron scrambled eggs!) at the hotel above his Sydney restaurant Saint Peter. Or the fresh bread that gets hung on your door when you stay at one of the rooms attached to Brae restaurant in Victoria.

Internationally, Bangkok-based chef Gaggan Anand has announced plans for a hotel inside an old sake brewery in Osaka Prefecture and which will include three different dining concepts. In Wales, chef Gareth Ward — from two-Michelin starred Ynyshir — sends guests off to sleep in one of the 10 luxurious guest bedrooms on his countryside estate, but not before they have experienced the real reason for being there: the 30-course degustation.

The Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria, might be best described as Australia’s grand dame of chef-led restaurants and Alla Wolf-Tasker, co-owner and culinary director, is the grand dame of that grand dame.

The food at this 41-year-old luxury lodge is unquestionably the centrepiece of any stay, with most of the produce coming from the property’s 16ha farm a few kilometres away — everything from heritage pumpkins to a windfall of quinces turned into an essence for a seasonal spritz. A bake house and vineyard supply pastries and wines and hives cascade with honey.

Wolf-Tasker says that she took inspiration from her own travels to the famous Michelin-noted regional restaurants and lodgings of 1970s France.

“They were thoroughly immersed in their region, where the provision of beautiful, carefully-sourced and much thought-through food, was seen as an uncompromising component of the best hospitality,” Wolf-Tasker tells ROAM.

If you can, book the separate guesthouse on Dairy Flat Farm itself, where you might be served middle-eastern family-style platters of Jersey milk halloumi with pomegranate, sumac and Dairy Flat Farm herbs, or fragrant lamb shoulder with baharat and dates.

In Sonoma County California, Singlethread firmly describes itself as a “restaurant with rooms”. The main restaurant, whose team will arrive in Sydney for a month-long residency at Bathers’ Pavilion on July 28, is known for its 10-course, kaiseki-inspired tasting menu, but the food side of things stretches far beyond the dining room. “When you only have five rooms and 35 in your culinary team, you have a lot of (food) firepower,” says co-owner Kyle Connaughton, whose wife Katina manages the property’s farm.

There are the elaborate breakfasts — one choice is packed with local meats and cheeses, while the other is Japanese style, with fish and rice cooked in a donabe. And like at Sara Dining and Lake House, there are little gastronomic touches everywhere such as a welcome onigiri, or fresh-churned ice cream in the in-room freezer.

Importantly, says Connaughton, all the food and beverage is included in the price, underscoring its role as the backbone of the experience.

“We didn’t want guests to see that we’d done, say, a beer collaboration with Russian River Brewing Co, but then not be sure if they wanted to pay $14 for it. We want you to try it. We want you to feel like a guest in our home.”

The Connaughtons also plan to open a 10-room inn, Selvedge, later this year, aiming to bring a taste of British pub culture (Sunday roasts, afternoon tea) to Californian wine country.

It’s impossible to open a hotel in 2026 without a strong food offering, but many big hospitality groups focus on the accommodation first, add the food later. Big label champagnes in the mini bar, next to a packet of supermarket-brand chips. A huge buffet breakfast, and far too many egg preparations on the a la carte. A restaurant with a marquee chef, who might FIFO in to dip a spoon into the demi-glace every now and then but that’s it.

There’s nothing wrong with these places, but odds are you’ll find yourself eating elsewhere for most of your stay. “Being restaurateurs and chefs who think about a hotel, rather than hoteliers thinking about restaurants, is a very different perspective,” says Connaughton. Adds Wolf-Tasker: “Our guests enjoy the storytelling and the dedication to sustainability and the goodness that drives our restaurant. It’s the beating heart of our place.”