For Watts, cooking begins long before the kitchen. It starts in the soil of Barragunda Estate’s market garden and along the quiet, rugged coastline of the Mornington Peninsula, where she spends her time tending greenhouses, gathering herbs and foraging along the beautiful shores.
Her career began 20 years ago under acclaimed chefs Greg Malouf at MoMo and Adam D’Sylva at Pearl before she ventured on a journey across the globe to cook in Canada and Asia. Once she returned to Australia, she took on the role of head chef at the Melbourne institution Coda. After more than a decade in fast-paced inner-city kitchens, she realised that the city no longer reflected where her heart lay, and that's where her new food journey began.
Over the next four years, Watts travelled throughout Australia and overseas, working hands-on across regenerative farms and social-impact hospitality projects. This experience shaped her commitment to deeply local cooking and thoughtful use of native ingredients, which she then brought to her role as executive chef at the Daintree Ecolodge in Far North Queensland.
In 2020, Watts returned to the Mornington Peninsula to focus on building her dream restaurant: a 40-seat greenhouse dining space hosted on Barragunda Estate. While preparations for this boutique restaurant began, she immersed herself further in developing her horticultural skills and aligning closely with the farm’s seasons and produce, bringing her vision for ethical and sustainable produce to life.
Today, Barragunda is an ode to the place on which it stands. Every plate pays homage to the rhythm of the land and to what it provides when nurtured. Through her seasonal menus, Watts has become a storyteller: each dish forms part of a rich narrative that celebrates the farmers and artisans who share her dedication to exceptional produce, grown with the greatest respect for the land from which it springs.
