If a chef is only as good as their ingredients, getting to know the producers is essential. In these successful partnerships, the proof is in the eating.

If you happen to catch chef Paul Farag off duty, it’s entirely possible he’ll be wearing a Rio Vista Olives sweatshirt. Although he now creates his own personal blend with the brand’s co-owner Sarah Asciutto, he has no formal endorsement deal with the family-run South Australian olive oil producer – he’s just a big fan.

The pair first met when Farag was on the cusp of opening his Middle Eastern restaurant, Aalia, and Asciutto flew to Sydney (Warrane) to give him a detailed tasting. He was particularly impressed with the barnea oil – from a Middle Eastern olive – and the kalamata and koroneiki. Since then, the two have become so invested in finding the perfect flavour matches for the chef’s punchy and exacting dishes that they message each other often about the minutia of olive oil. Farag might want to tweak a blend to have a touch more bitterness or perhaps add 10 per cent less grassiness. “Sarah and I get along like siblings,” he says. “We argue, we tell each other to get stuffed sometimes. It’s a great working relationship.”

And the feeling is mutual. “Working with chefs who appreciate the quality of what we do is important,” says Asciutto. “Their feedback, their excitement, the way they work our product into their dishes is what keeps us going.” 

At The Agrarian Kitchen in New Norfolk, Tasmania (Lutruwita), Rodney Dunn grows at least 90 per cent of what ends up on plates in the half-hectare garden on the restaurant’s doorstep so it takes a pretty special outsider ingredient to find its way onto the menu. One of the very few to make the grade is Tasmanian White Asparagus, grown in nearby Brighton by Richard and Belinda Weston, which is presented simply with herbs such as chervil and French tarragon during its short spring season. “Richard put about 10 years into developing this ingredient so there’s no way I’d ever try to compete with it,” says Dunn of the flinty, minerally spears that are also served at high-profile Hobart (nipaluna) eateries Omotenashi, Ogee and Institut Polaire.

The real winner when chefs and producers form close bonds? The diner. When you try Aalia’s smoky cuttlefish with ummak haryya couscous, you can’t taste Farag and Asciutto’s late-night conversations about the oil but without them, the dish would never be as delicious. “It’s one thing to know you’re going to a restaurant that’s careful with its sourcing,” says Asciutto. “But few people know how much difference these interactions can make to the food they’re eating. All to get that one dish that makes you go, ‘That is amazing. That changed my life.’”

Here's some more tasty collaborations to try...