Pastry chef Jessinta Fantauzzo is the peninsula’s Pied Piper of Sicilian cannoli and other traditional Italian desserts. People come from all over to eat her delicious fresh-made pastries. Jess is a stickler for perfection, just as her Nonno (grandfather), Lino, taught her.
Onda, the new coastal Mediterranean dining room built on pylons over Port Phillip Bay inside the brand-new Sorrento Ferry Terminal, is the kind of place that seems almost too good to be true with floor-to-ceiling windows, uninterrupted water views, and a pizza oven crackling at the heart of the kitchen.
Ric de Vries has spent a lifetime around the water. It started when an 18-year-old Ric moved to Cape Paterson and landed a job with Fisheries. That was the beginning of a love affair with the water that eventually led him to Mornington and his true passion: abalone diving.
Black figs carry deep meaning in Aboriginal ways of knowing. They’re associated with birthing, nourishment, and community gathering, so it seemed the right name for a café built to do exactly that.
Mornington Peninsula chef Andrew Ballard took centre stage at the Good Food & Wine Show in Melbourne last month curating the Singapore Airlines VIP Lounge menu and unveiling an exclusive Japanese-inspired lamington.
Lolly shop purveyor Glenn William Bourke at Packing House Sweets in Tyabb reminds us why we love sweets. He doesn’t just stock products, he curates confections and creates gorgeous displays that delight the senses. This is no run-of-the-mill sweet shop. Glenn searches the world over to find the most mouth-watering treats.
Bec Winters was simply trying to impress a boy named Jed when she accidentally launched Horribly Healthy, now a peninsula food revolution. Today, her Horribly Healthy treats are stocked across Victoria, bringing joy to kids and adults alike, especially those with allergies.
Ashleigh Paterson isn’t trying to be the perfect mum. She’s not plating up Instagram-worthy dinners every night or pretending her five-year-old eats kale chips for breakfast. What she is doing, through her wildly relatable Instagram account @ashleigh.cooks, is showing thousands of parents that feeding a family doesn’t have to be a source of stress.
Mornington author Anna Matilda, aka The Urban Nanna, is keen to share her wealth of knowledge about simple ways to live a more sustainable, efficient and economical life.