Four Chefs, Four Seasons, One Table with Moonacres, Luke Mangan & Mark Best - Saturday 28 November

Saturday 28 November

At Moonacres, we see every day how the seasons shape the land, the people who grow our food, and the way communities come together around a table. 

Four Chefs, Four Seasons, One Table is our way of honouring that rhythm — celebrating sustainable farming, regional producers, and the chefs who respect where real flavour begins. These lunches show what happens when food is grown responsibly, harvested at its peak, and cooked with an understanding of the land it comes from. This is the kind of agriculture, food culture, and community connection we believe Australia needs for the future.

Every lunch will be co-hosted with Luke Mangan, one of Australia's most recognisable chefs, and will begin with a welcome from Phil Lavers from Moonacres Farm, sharing the story of the farm — the soil, the season, and what’s growing in this season. Guests will understand not just what they’re eating, but where it comes from — how the soil has been nurtured, what the weather has brought, and why this moment in the paddock matters.

The produce for each menu will come directly from Moonacres Farm and our community of growers across the Southern Highlands — the friends and producers we’ve worked with for years who share our values of regenerative, organic, native, and seasonal farming. Our guest chefs will select from this line-up of ingredients to create a truly local expression of their style and the season.

Our Sumer Chef

Mark Best from Infinity

Few chefs have shaped Australian food quite like Mark Best.

In 1990, South Australian-born, Mark’s path to the kitchen began with an apprenticeship at Sydney’s iconic McLeay Street Bistro, where he was introduced to the techniques and flavours that would inspire a remarkable culinary career.

His talent and determination quickly saw him rise through the ranks of Australian cooking. In 1995, Mark was awarded the prestigious Josephine Pignolet Award for Sydney’s Young Chef of the Year, before heading to France and the United Kingdom to work in some of the world’s finest kitchens, including the Michelin-starred L’Arpège and Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.

Returning home, Mark opened his seminal restaurant, Marque, in 1999. Over the next decade, Marque became one of Australia’s most influential restaurants, earning countless accolades and securing a place in the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. It changed the way many of us thought about Australian food and established Mark as one of our country’s leading culinary voices.

Today, Mark is the culinary force behind Infinity at Sydney Tower, a restaurant built on a simple but powerful idea: every ingredient should celebrate the extraordinary diversity of Australian produce and the people who grow, catch and create it. 

From farmers and fishers to growers and artisans, Mark’s cooking has always honoured the hands behind our food.

Beyond the kitchen, he has become a respected author, photographer, television personality and mentor, sharing his knowledge and passion with chefs and home cooks alike. But perhaps what defines Mark most is his endless curiosity—his willingness to keep asking questions about where flavour begins, how food can connect us and what our responsibility is to the landscapes that nourish us.

At Moonacres, we believe the best meals begin long before they reach the table. They begin in healthy soil, with thoughtful producers and in conversations that bring people together. Few chefs embody this more beautifully than Mark Best.

For this special Four Chefs, Four Seasons, One Table lunch, Mark brings not only his extraordinary skill and imagination, but a lifetime spent exploring the remarkable possibilities of Australian food and the stories that connect us all through a shared meal.

We look forward to seeing you at 12pm for a beautiful long lunch with Mark, Luke, Phil Lavers and the Moonacres school team.