Sassafras Creek Food and Design at Kurrajong in the Hawkesbury area, a comfortable hour's drive from Sydney had come well-recommended and we were not to be disappointed.

Arriving for a Sunday lunch recently, we were seated overlooking a sweeping view of this lovely area, green and lush from recent much-needed rains.

As we waited for the meal to arrive, the owner Natalie Smith talked us through the concept which is deceptively simple. Local produce features as much as possible in dishes on the menu, and equally superb ingredients from elsewhere are used when suitable regional options are not available.

All this comes together in a light and airy cottage with a brick paved courtyard at the front and a deck at the back where tables are shaded by white market umbrellas.

There are more tables inside, of course, under soaring white-painted rafters and track lighting, and here the walls are filled with artwork, glassware and other exhibits because this place is a gallery as well.

A gift shop crammed with wonderful things faces the street. I sneaked a peek in there and was thoroughly tempted by the luscious cookbooks, some pottery and glassware and a cabinet of silver jewellery.

The open kitchen turns out excellent meals, we discovered. I ordered a goats curd tart and a roasted pumpkin salad with tomatoes and feta cheese and Gordon got into the country spirit of it all with the day's special pie: Guinness and beef.

If we could have stayed for dinner, there were more wonderful things on the menu: fig with prosciutto and goats curd, would have been my entree, I decided, followed I would say by lamb shanks braised in autumn vegetables. But that will have to wait for another occasion.

This time we even sadly shook our heads at the blackboard menu of decadent desserts and headed off to see what else this lovely region, a true food-lovers' paradise complete with active Food Trail, had to offer.

Sassafras Creek Food and Design, 83 Old Bells Line of Road, Kurrajong Village, NSW, 2758, 02 4573 0988, www.sassafrascreek.com.au

See also: www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au