“I didn’t grow up with a foodie family,” he says of his childhood in the outer Sydney blue-collar suburb of Revesby. All his mates went on to become tradies: “But that was not my thing.”

Suddenly, at the restaurant, he was confronted with a list of ingredients that instead of licorice root were described as Glycyrrhiza glabra, or Carissa spinarum (Natal plum) and Armoracia rusticana (horseradish) – all of which feature in his current menu. All up he had a choice of more than 60 ingredients, in Latin, for his kitchen.

Botanic Gardens Restaurant chef Paul Baker. Photo: Tony Lewis

“I spent a lot of time on my iPhone working out what was edible and what was not,” says Baker, who has been the first chef at the restaurant to truly embrace and engage with the surrounding Adelaide Botanic Gardens. In fact, he insisted that this be the case: “Nothing else would drive me to be in here 16 hours a day.”

But like all the top chefs who’ve made their home in Adelaide in recent years, he brought with him a truckload of experience cooking in some very prestigious places.

He could have joined his mates and become a plumber, but he got a very minor job in a small one-hatted Italian restaurant in Sydney that very quickly went broke – Baker hopes not because of him. But then he hit gold as a first-year apprentice in one of Australia’s top restaurants, Aria, overlooking Circular Quay in Sydney, where star chef Matt Moran quickly brought his staff into line.

“You learnt fast,” Baker says. “With Moran shouting at you, every dish had to be perfect. It was a new restaurant doing 150 covers at lunch and 250 covers at dinner. You learnt the hard way.”

Salmon skin, fresh tuna and squid ink mayonnaise amuse bouche. Photo: Tony Lewis

He stayed the course for more than four years before following Aria’s sous chef to another Sydney restaurant, the two-hatted Pello, and then a stint on Lizard Island before returning to Pello as head chef. There was more resort work, spectacularly with the Anantara group in the Maldives, a six-star operation where every guest’s whim was Baker’s command: “They all had personal butlers; whatever they wanted, they got.”

After a spell back in Australia at Bedarra Island and now married to an Adelaide girl, Baker realised he was over the resort game. The desire for a more peaceful life, surrounded by great produce and wine, made Adelaide an attractive option.

A year at Grace the Establishment gave him a chance to feel his way into Adelaide until Botanic Gardens Restaurant operators Blanco Catering offered him the job of head chef.

“I asked them, ‘What’s the deal?’ I wouldn’t have taken the job if I couldn’t use the garden,” Baker says.

Blanco Catering, jointly run by a former chef, understands chefs and has the good sense to let them get on with the job. It agreed, and over the past 16 months Baker has emerged as one of Australia’s most interesting chefs.

Hiramasa kingfish crudo with compressed apple and sea parsely. Photo: Tony Lewis

His dishes are complex, with many flavours, textures and colours thoughtfully assembled on one plate, but never confusing and often enthralling as you assemble the perfect mouthful.

You’ll start with a complimentary appetiser, in this case a gorgeous little morsel of crisp, puffy salmon skin topped with chopped fresh tuna, a tiny dollop of squid ink mayonnaise and a shaving of pickled kohlrabi sitting on a lush assembly of rock samphire, iceplant and pigface. With this comes house-made sourdough, plain or squid-ink black, and house-churned butter.

Cured duck ham, witlof and natal plum. Photo: Tony Lewis

One entrée that seems to appear consistently on the menu involves shavings of ruby-colured duck ham served on pain d’epices – a crunchy waffle, with a couple of slices of richly-flavoured duck-leg confit, a quenelle of silky whipped chicken liver parfait, with red and green witlof, and a smear of tart Natal plum puree adding colour and spikes of flavour. It’s a terrific dish that you want to eat as slowly as you can.

A simpler, slightly more austere entrée involves cubes of fresh Hirasama kingfish sitting on avocado and wasabi puree, topped with a layer of wafer-thin slices of Pink Lady apple that’s been mixed with spices and aromatics and vacuum sealed to let the flavours permeate the fruit before slicing. Colour and crunch is added with a scattering of slightly charred puffed wild rice and sea parsley. Again, a dish to savour as you consider the balance of textures, fruit acid and spice.

Coorong Angus beef with smoked potato and caramelised garlic. Photo: Tony Lewis

One of the lighter main courses has two fillets of King George whiting sandwiched around a filling of a mousseline of prawns and snapper, then lightly panfried, sitting on a luminous warrigal greens sauce. A short tentacle of caramelised octopus adds colour and texture, as do two strands of chargrilled leek and a scatter of mildly-spicy centella leaves (Centella asiatica – popular in Asian cuisines, also a remedy for varicose veins) from the garden.

A richer, more substantial dish that demands a good red wine has two slices of medium-rare grilled flank steak, a bit chewy but with great flavour, with Coorong Angus beef brisket that’s been slow cooked with licorice root, pulled and reassembled pressed into a cube, then caramelised. Almost flavour overkill, but wonderful. Then more layers of flavour come with a scoop of very smoky mashed potato, a dab or two of beetroot emulsion and, somewhere under there but unmistakeable, caramelised garlic puree. A couple of charred shallots and a scrap of puffed beef tendon round out the dish.

Salad of grains and legumes with pickled fennel and cumin labne. Photo: Tony Lewis

Of the side dishes, a salad of mixed grains and legumes with a scoop of thick cumin-scented labne stood out. It was given a nice lift with shavings of pickled fennel and a scattering of sumac and parsley.

Of the three desserts on offer, by far the most intriguing had a crumbly mix of flax seed and toasted coconut sitting on a smear of orange gel, topped with quenelles of whipped coconut cream and avocado and lime mousse, with flavour spikes from tangy dehydrated lime chips. It was, as they say, interesting but had the virtues of being vegan as well as gluten and dairy-free, making it a very welcome if unusual dessert for many.

Coconut, avocado and lime crumble. Photo: Tony Lewis

What has become very apparent by this stage is that Baker has invested much time in educating his wait staff, explaining the complexity of his dishes so there’s no mystery or confusion for his diners, which also assists in choosing appropriate wines. When you’re putting unfamiliar ingredients in front of your customers, this attention to detail is essential and very well executed here. Not sure if they know all the Latin names, though.

All this in an idyllic setting overlooking a large pond filled with ducks and other waterbirds, approached from an avenue of giant Moreton Bay figs, with spreading lawns in all directions. The conservatory-style restaurant, housed in century-old tearooms, takes full advantage of its location with 270-degree views. A sea of white linen and paint inside, shaded and dappled shades of green outside.

Botanic Gardens Restaurant interior. Photo: Tony Lewis

Further afield are the foraging gardens. The rainforest garden provides macadamias and native violets; near North Terrace there’s Mallee and Flinders Ranges produce, wattle, cumquats, saltbush and warrigal greens; over by the RAH it’s loquats and banana leaf, Natal plums and a century-old fig tree; while the nearby sprawling, neatly manicured Economic Garden lives up to its name: “Everything in it has a purpose,” Baker says. “We’re out here every day for an hour and a half to pick everything fresh.”

Here are all the herbs, eight varieties of tomatoes, aubergines, lemon verbena and so it goes on, an enormous choice though none of them in large or even vaguely commercial quantities – “So we have to be clever how we use them,” Baker adds. It’s tempting to rhapsodise on how food miles have been eliminated, but the fact is the quantities are small and the demand is great, and much conventional produce still has to be bought in.

Just don’t look outside at the duck pond and its adorable inhabitants as you tuck into the cured duck ham with pressed confit duck leg – but Baker assures us the ducks on the pond are definitely off limits.

Botanic Gardens Restaurant
Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide, 8223 3526
Lunch Tuesday to Sunday and Dinner Friday and Saturday.