Restaurateur and chef Romano Rotelli has travelled the world to bring fine food to Western Australia.

His philosophy is simple. “Make sure the food takes centre stage. Begin by using the best quality produce possible.

Once you do that, you have to do very little else to achieve great tasting dishes.
Nature has already done half of the job for you.”

Romano and partner Alison Jennings are probably best known to Margaret River wine region locals and visitors for their Pensiero restaurant, a small, cozy restaurant at Witchcliffe, about five minutes south of Margaret River.

At Pensiero, the accent was on personalised and attentive service, and the highest quality food. No short cuts to achieve a higher profit, a philosophy that has accompanied Romano throughout his career.

In December last year, Romano and Alison decided on a move and established Fine Food of Margaret River and the Margaret River Jam Company, producing high quality jams, pestos, pickles, sauces and a range of other specialty items such as pickled octopus.

However, they could not completely shake the cooking side of things, so now also cater for special events, such as weddings and private functions.

Tasmanian salmon on sweet corn and avocado salsa, with chilli dressing and sugared cherry tomatoes.

Besides some food industry consulting work, the dynamic duo are planning a series of cooking classes, a lifetime of culinary experiences for people with a passion for good food and entertaining.

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Fine Food - Margaret River

To this end, they have just purchased a lovely property south of Witchcliffe and installed a commercial kitchen, which they plan to use for their cooking schools, pending shire approval.

Romano was born in Italy in 1964, started cooking school at the age of 14 then learned his trade in various parts of Italy, Switzerland and France, before migrating to Australia in 1987.

His first port of call was Townsville in far north Queensland where he was shocked to find a beautiful coral trout on the menu, matched with a spicy mango and coriander salsa. Eighteen years earlier in Italy, using tropical fruit to accompany seafood, was simply not done. “Tropical fruit on its own was still a novelty.”

Then followed a job on exclusive Lizard Island, on the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast, where he spent just over four years cooking for the likes of the Duchess of York, Tom Cruise, Paul Hogan, Elle Macpherson, the Prince of Thailand and countless other high profile celebrities.

After this, Romano spent 18 months at the Coconut Beach Rainforest Resort, Cape Tribulation, north of Cairns, where as the executive chef he had the dual role as resort manager.

Five years ago Romano was lured to the Margaret River region by Flutes at Brookland Valley.

See Romano's recipe on the previous page.