How to prepare campfire cuisine | Australian Traveller

Seasoned camp cook Rachel Bartholomeusz shares her tips on making light work of good meals in the great outdoors.

I have never understood why camping is synonymous with bad food.Growing up, my favourite meal was the one my family always ate on the first night of our annual camping trip. A few days before we set off, Mum would prepare the smore.

Not s’more, the North American marshmallow dessert, but the Sri Lankan slow-cooked beef variety, which is equally at home around a campfire. A local take on the European beef pot roast, this pickled and curried hunk of meat is perfect for taking on long trips. The marinade acts as a preservative, and the dish improves with a few days’ rest.

After setting up our tent we would warm the smore, the smell of spices wafting over the other campers. The ubiquitous campground kids on BMX bikes would turn up their noses at its pungency while our mouths watered in anticipation of the fall-apart meat, of mopping up that gravy with fresh bread bought from a small town bakery. Needless to say, no one eats trail mix for dinner on my watch.

Holidays usually revolve around eating good food, and camping doesn’t have to be an exception. I like to approach a camping meal like a MasterChef mystery box challenge, but instead of a ticking clock and George Calombaris breathing down your neck, there’s a quickly setting sun.

Necessity forces creativity; new flavours come together simply because they’re swimming in the bottom of your esky. And the break from a kitchen full of gadgets is a reminder of just how little you need to cook a great dinner. Here are my tips for being a better camp cook.

Bring the basics

You don’t need a whole lot of equipment, but if you’re camping with a car then an esky, a portable gas cooker, a saucepan, a frying pan, a sharp knife, a wooden spoon, a chopping board and a can opener are a good place to start. A steamer basket that doubles as a strainer is really useful, and a stovetop coffee pot is a wonderful luxury. Ziplock bags are also incredibly handy for bringing small amounts of ingredients, and storing leftovers.

The pantry

Olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh garlic and ginger, dried chilli flakes, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and a small selection of dried spices are my essentials. Beyond that, consider what you like to cook and pack ingredients that can be used in multiple ways, across cuisines, and are hardy – carrots, for instance. Space is usually at a premium, so think smart – buy a fresh chilli, rather than carrying a bottle of chilli sauce. Wraps can be eaten for lunch, used as tortillas, to substitute naan and mop up curry sauce, or used as pita for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes.

Look to other cultures

Every culture has its own camping foods, so if you’re stuck for inspiration, look beyond your own backyard. Korean campers take over public barbecues to grill meats they then dip in sauces and wrap in lettuce leaves with kimchi. Middle Eastern families will often arrive with a container filled with marinated meat to cook over coals and eat with salad and flatbreads. Taiwanese friends take sticky rice parcels wrapped in lotus leaves on hikes, and we have Americans to thank for ‘cooler corn’ – cobs of corn cooked in an esky by pouring boiling water over the top, and closing the lid for half an hour.

Plan ahead (if you can be bothered)

Sauces, stews or curries made ahead of time and frozen in ziplock bags can double as ice bricks, and make excellent reheats. If that all sounds too ‘soccer mum’ for your liking, a simple curry paste or a pesto, a spice mix or a pickle made at home can have multiple uses and will make light work of impressive camping meals.

Pack a salami

A salami and a large wedge of hard cheese such as parmesan are indispensable. Both keep well, and can be eaten as a snack, sliced on sandwiches, or added to pastas, sauces or any dish that needs a savoury boost. The salami can also be fried and rendered for its fat.

Keep it simple

With limited burners at your disposal, one-pot dishes will often form the bulk of your camping repertoire – a pot of spicy mussels, for instance, is no harder to make indoors or out. Pasta is another camping classic, but getting it al dente can be hard on a camping stove. Opt for short pastas such as penne that are easier to cook in a smaller saucepan of water.

Get inspired by local produce

The secret to good, simple food, whether camping or otherwise, is to use good produce. Find the regional speciality, and eat it. If you’re driving through a wine region, you’re obliged to drink good wine from a tin mug and eat cheese for dinner. Buy roadside fruit for breakfast, or learn how to shuck fresh oysters.

A tinnie a day

Cooking with a drink in hand is a crucial element of camping, and a tinnie will prove your best friend: add a splash of beer whenever you’d normally use wine in a dish, such as deglazing a pan for a stir-fry, or in a pasta sauce. And there’s no reason you should feel limited to a tinnie: bring the makings of a negroni cocktail or a bottle of whisky if you really want to up the ante.

Love camping with the family? Check out Top 6 ‘camping with children’ commandments

Located just an hour north-west of Melbourne, the largely undiscovered Macedon Ranges quietly pours some of Australia’s finest cool-climate wines and serves up some of Victoria’s best food.

Mention the Macedon Ranges and most people will think of day spas and mineral springs around Daylesford, cosy weekends away in the countryside or the famous Hanging Rock (of enigmatic picnic fame). Or they won’t have heard of the Macedon Ranges at all.

But this cool-climate destination has been inconspicuously building a profile as a high-quality food and wine region and is beginning to draw serious attention from oenophiles and epicureans alike.

The rise of Macedon Ranges wine

liquid gold barrels at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — Barrels of liquid gold at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

With elevations ranging from 300 to 800 metres, Macedon Ranges vineyards are among the highest in the country. This altitude, combined with significant day/night temperature swings, makes for a slow ripening season, in turn nurturing wines that embody elegance and structure. Think crisp chardonnays, subtle yet complex pinot noirs and delicate sparkling wines, along with niche varietals, such as gamay and nebbiolo.

Despite the region’s natural advantages – which vary from estate to estate, as each site embodies unique terroir depending on its position in relation to the Great Dividing Range, soil make-up and altitude – the Macedon Ranges has remained something of an insider’s secret. Unlike Victoria’s Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula, you won’t find large tour buses here and there’s no mass marketing drawing crowds.

Many of the 40-odd wineries are family-run operations with modest yields, meaning the wineries maintain a personal touch (if you visit a cellar door, you’ll likely chat to the owner or winemaker themselves) and a tight sales circle that often doesn’t go far beyond said cellar door. And that’s part of the charm.

Though wines from the Macedon Ranges are just starting to gain more widespread recognition in Australia, the first vines were planted in the 1860s, with a handful of operators then setting up business in the 1970s and ’80s. The industry surged again in the 1990s and early 2000s with the entry of wineries, such as Mount Towrong, which has an Italian slant in both its wine and food offering, and Curly Flat , now one of the largest estates.

Meet the new generation of local winemakers

the Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. — The Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Then, within the last 15 years, a new crop of vignerons like Andrew Wood at Kyneton Ridge Estate , whose vineyard in 2024 was the first in the Macedon Ranges to be certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia; Geoff Plahn and Samantha Reid at Paramoor , who have an impressive cellar door with a roaring fire and studded leather couches in an old Clydesdale barn; and Ollie Rapson and Renata Morello at Lyons Will , who rapidly expanded a small vineyard to focus on top-shelf riesling, gamay, pinot noir and chardonnay, have taken ownership of local estates.

Going back to the early days, Llew Knight’s family was one of the pioneers of the 1970s, replacing sheep with vines at Granite Hills when the wool industry dwindled. Knight is proud of the fact that all their wines are made with grapes from their estate, including a light, peppery shiraz (some Macedon wineries purchase fruit from nearby warmer areas, such as Heathcote, particularly to make shiraz) and a European-style grüner veltliner. And, as many other wineries in the region do, he relies on natural acid for balance, rather than an additive, which is often required in warmer regions. “It’s all about understanding and respecting your climate to get the best out of your wines,” he says.

farm animals atKyneton Ridge Estate — Curious residents at Kyneton Ridge Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Throughout the Macedon Ranges, there’s a growing focus on sustainability and natural and low-intervention wines, with producers, such as Brian Martin at Hunter Gatherer making waves in regenerative viticulture. Martin previously worked in senior roles at Australia’s largest sparkling winemaking facility, and now applies that expertise and his own nous to natural, hands‑off, wild-fermented wines, including pét‑nat, riesling and pinot noir. “Wild fermentation brings more complexity,” he says. “Instead of introducing one species of yeast, you can have thousands and they add different characteristics to the wine.”

the vineyard at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The estate’s vineyard, where cool-climate grapes are grown. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Most producers also focus on nurturing their grapes in-field and prune and pick by hand, thus avoiding the introduction of impurities and the need to meddle too much in the winery. “The better the quality of the fruit, the less you have to interfere with the natural winemaking process,” says Wood.

Given the small yields, there’s also little room for error, meaning producers place immense focus on quality. “You’re never going to compete in the middle [in a small region] – you’ve got to aim for the top,” says Curly Flat owner Jeni Kolkka. “Big wineries try to do things as fast as possible, but we’re in no rush,” adds Troy Walsh, owner and winemaker at Attwoods . “We don’t use commercial yeasts; everything is hand-harvested and everything is bottled here, so we bottle only when we’re ready, not when a big truck arrives.” That’s why, when you do see a Macedon Ranges product on a restaurant wine list, it’s usually towards the pointy end.

Come for the wine, stay for the food

pouring sauce onto a dish at Lake HouseDaylesford — Dining at Lake House Daylesford is a treat. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

If wine is the quiet achiever of the Macedon Ranges, then food is its not-so-secret weapon. In fact, the area has more hatted restaurants than any other region in Victoria. A pioneer of the area’s gourmet food movement is region cheerleader Alla Wolf-Tasker, culinary icon and founder of Daylesford’s Lake House.

For more than three decades, Wolf-Tasker has championed local producers and helped define what regional fine dining can look like in Australia. Her influence is palpable, not just in the two-hatted Lake House kitchen, but in the broader ethos of the region’s dining scene, as a wave of high-quality restaurants have followed her lead to become true destination diners.

the Midnight Starling restaurant in Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The hatted Midnight Starling restaurant is located in Kyneton. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

It’s easy to eat well, whether at other hatted restaurants, such as Midnight Starling in the quaint town of Kyneton, or at the wineries themselves, like Le Bouchon at Attwoods, where Walsh is inspired by his time working in France in both his food offering and winemaking.

The beauty of dining and wine touring in the Macedon Ranges is that it feels intimate and unhurried. You’re likely to meet the winemaker, hear about the trials of the latest vintage firsthand, and taste wines that never make it to city shelves. And that’s worth getting out of the city for – even if it is just an hour down the road.

Delicate dishes on the menu at Midnight Starling. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

the accommodation at Cleveland Estate, Macedon Ranges — Stay at the Cleveland Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Soak up vineyard views from Cleveland Estate near Lancefield , embrace retro charm at Kyneton Springs Motel or indulge in lakeside luxury at the Lake House .

Eating there

Enjoy a four-course menu at the one-hatted Surly Goat in Hepburn Springs, Japanese-inspired fare at Kuzu in Woodend or unpretentious fine dining at Mount Monument , which also has a sculpture park.

Drinking there

wine tasting at PassingClouds Winery, Macedon Ranges — A tasting at Passing Clouds Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Settle in for a tasting at Boomtown in Castlemaine, sample local drops at the cosy Woodend Cellar & Bar or wine-hop around the many cellar doors, such as Passing Clouds .

the Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar signage — Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Playing there

a scenic river in Castlemaine — Idyllic scenes at Castlemaine. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Wander through the seasonal splendour of Forest Glade Gardens , hike to the summit of Hanging Rock, or stroll around the tranquil Sanatorium Lake.

purple flowers hanging from a tree — Purple flowers hanging from a tree. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

How to be a better campfire cook