These three ways to pre-order your Christmas feasts will surely lighten your mental load in the lead-up to the holidays. We chat with chef Michelle Robinson from Old Salt Distillery about their chef-made menu, plus what’s available from the Jervis Bay Shellfish Market (including sushi!) and Martins Ridge Farm. Order now to avoid disappointment! Or why not along to the Huskisson Artisans Markets this Sunday 30 November to meet all three providores, and you can order from them on the spot.
Cheesecake is the new tradition from Old Salt Distillery
Chef couple Michelle and Terry Robinson, who run the open distillery, restaurant and bar in South Nowra that is Old Salt Distillery, have been offering a take-home Christmas feast since their very first summer in business in 2022.
While Michelle’s cheesecake is definitely the hot item, the entire menu is designed to take the home cook out of the kitchen and back into circulation on Christmas Day.
“Christmas means there’s a lot of family there you want to spend time with but some people get stuck in the kitchen because everyone needs to eat,” Michelle says of the practicalities of the seasonal get-together.
This downplays the spectacular qualities of the Old Salt Christmas menu – 18-hour slow braised lamb, a jus that takes three whole days to create, a porchetta that is lovingly and expertly created, the rillettes and dips and duck fat potatoes – this is truly a chef-created feast that’s as simple as heat-and-eat.
Michelle says, “We invested a lot in the take home style, everything’s put in little containers or jars. There’s also sauces, people love our house made tomato sauce, they love the chimichurri that goes on the carrots.”
Everything is made from scratch in small batches, from quality Australian produce.
For the prep on the big day, Michelle says, “The instructions are for an oven, that’s the typical scenario. But a lot of people have said, we’re going camping and we’re going to do it on a barbecue. Other people have said they didn’t want to use the oven and they had a barbecue going, so they just threw everything in there and got that smoky flavour, because they know that’s what you get here [in the restaurant] as well, a big smoke flavour.”
Any order from the Christmas menu – whether it’s one dip or the full shebang – will earn you a 10% discount on all beverages as well, “as our way of saying thank you, for making us part of your home tradition,” says Michelle.
And speaking of tradition, her famous cheesecake – entrenched now for some families as the must-have centrepiece of the Christmas feast – will be joined this year by a Pav Roll but only in limited numbers as these beauties are lovingly had-crafted.
Most items on the menu will serve 4-6 people and you can mix and match as tastes and numbers require.
Orders close Saturday 13 December and collection dates will be 22, 23 and 24 December. There will be one more special pick-up on New Year’s Eve for anyone needing a feast to ring in 2026.
Get in touch with Michelle to place your order, info@oldsaltdistillery.com
Prawns are the Aussie Way at Jervis Bay Shellfish Market
Forget the crowds at the metro fish markets, or even here in the relatively peaceful Huskisson industrial precinct. Pre-order your delicious seafood now from our very own Jervis Bay Shellfish Market on Bolton Road.
Choose from mussels and oysters, prawns and scallops and even some fish, to be expertly prepared and pre-packaged for you to collect on Christmas Eve, 24 December between 8am and 3pm.
Orders can be made and paid for in-store or via phone 0400 426 746.
News Flash: the BlueNami sushi van will be right outside the shellfish market on Christmas Eve, from 10am-1pm. Chef Egi is taking pre-orders, 0450 616 615 or bluenami.japanese@gmail.com
Martins Ridge Farm Pasture-Raised Pork
Chef and farmer Ian Martin from Martins Ridge Farm in Conjola has almost sold out of the last items prepared for the Christmas table, from their free range, heritage breed pork.
Very limited stocks are left of the small porchetta and shoulder ham, that would make sensational centrepieces of any feast.
The porchetta are pasture-raised belly and loin rolled and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, fennel and orange zest, weighing in around 2-2.5k, while the easy-carve shoulder hams are coming in around 4-4.5kg.
Ian offers a variety of collection points at local markets up and down the South Coast and Canberra as well as at the farm itself.
