Interview: Paul Iskov

Tell us about Fervour, what sparked the idea?

Growing up, I was very fortunate to have parents who took us on adventurous outings whenever possible, and from there, my love and appreciation for nature sprung. After staging in places like NOMA, which utilises so much local produce and native ingredients, I was very inspired to come home to Australia and learn about ingredients in our backyard. I decided to bring my two passions for nature and food together in the form of a pop-up restaurant, serving up a 14-course degustation meal consisting of native Australian ingredients in the most unique and picturesque locations.

How does the planning of a dinner work?

With so many spectacular places all over Western Australia, we are most certainly are spoiled for choice when it comes to outdoor locations. We travel with the seasons and try to visit locations or regions that have an abundance of ingredients that are ripe at the time we visit.

When possible, we try to organise a guide to show us around and help us with gathering ingredients – it also teaches us more about the cultural background of the region. Everything is constantly changing – when the location changes, the ingredient, menu, table, kitchen and how we host the overall experience differs every time.

Tell us about the food you cook out in the wild. How do you come up with the inspiration for your dishes?

We use seasonal produce native to where we are. It's not only the great ingredients or spending time in nature that inspires me, but also the people we meet on our travels, our friends, family, music and special locations we visit. We spend a lot of time on the road in rural, regional Western Australia, and this is where the ideas are mostly born for our dishes.

We do a lot of cooking over fire and charcoal, so there's always the element of barbecue and smoke in our dishes. Kangaroo's usually on the menu because it's abundant and one of the healthiest meats in the world. We also always use damper [a traditional Australian soda bread] made from biodynamic flour from Eden Valley Organics in Dumbleyung, and we serve that with redgum smoked butter. You might also get to try our wattle seed, honey, seaweed, bee pollen smoked ice cream dessert.

Tell us about your events at the Gourmet Escape.

We'll be running two – our first on November 20 is held in an iconic location on the coast. This will be a 14-course long table dinner focusing on local native ingredients – we'll cook in view of the guests and talk about why we think it's so important to use native ingredients like marron, youlk, kangaroo, saltbush, abalone, emu, and more.

The second event will be held at Cullens [a winery in the Margaret River region] on Nov 21 with Matt Stone and Joost Baker. We'll be focusing on sustainability and cook a waste-free dinner while also incorporating native ingredients.

Trips out to the Margaret River wine-making region – a 3hr drive south of Perth – are a common feature on many a travel itinerary, but November is shaping up to be the yummiest time to visit