Barossa

Culinary hotshots reunite at Harvest Kitchen

By Kelly Noble

Posted on April 21, 2021

After first working at Appellation and The Louise together ten years ago, Pete Little, Jamie Wall and Charanjit ‘Sunny’ Chawla have reunited to form the new Harvest Kitchen team.

Pete Little, Jamie Wall and Charanjit ‘Sunny’ Chawla first worked together in 2011 at Barossa Valley’s esteemed Appellation and The Louise. Ten years later, after all moving establishments, gaining extensive experience and climbing the ranks, the dream team are back together at Harvest Kitchen.

Pete worked at Appellation as the Director of Food and Beverage, Jamie was Sous Chef and Sunny was Chef De Partie.

Fast-forward ten years and Pete is the founding director of Harvest Kitchen, and is now joined by Jamie as the Head Chef and Sunny as the Sous Chef.

“I feel that the stars aligned and we have been able to bring the band back together,” Pete said. “We connected all those years ago while working at one of Barossa’s finest restaurants, and working together again has been seamless – it’s as if no time passed at all!”

After spending years working under Mark McNamara’s watchful eye at Appellation, it came as no surprise that both Jamie and Sunny share a similar vision in the kitchen together.

Both were grinning ear to ear when talking about their time working with the culinary mastermind. “We can confidently attribute a lot of our confidence in the kitchen to Mark, the man who’s use of spice was paramount and who’s most frequent saying was ‘it needs more salt!” Jamie laughed.

“Sunny is like a brother from another mother and working together isn’t only fun, we also push each other to be better and to create better food.”

In the years following their time together at Appellation, the pair remained in contact, as Jamie went off to work as the manager at Barossa Fine Foods and Sunny had a stint back in India before returning to the Barossa to work at St Hugo, again with Mark McNamara.

Jamie joined Pete at Harvest Kitchen as a chef in 2019. And when the opportunity arose to seek out a new Sous Chef, the pair said that “going after Sunny for the job was a nobrainer.”

And while it’s only been 10 weeks that the team have been back together, it’s clear to see that this dynamic trio are destined for great things!

“I’m continually amazed at the ease at which the menu and meals come together and there is a natural flow to how things happen in this kitchen,” Pete said. “I couldn’t be happier with the team. This is how I feel it was always meant to be and how Harvest Kitchen was meant to operate.”

Harvest Kitchen’s menu is Mediterranean focused, delivering generous, honest and flavoursome food that is driven by the seasons and providing an experience that is both friendly and relaxed.

Located at 284 Magnolia Road, Tanunda, Harvest Kitchen operates for lunch 7 days a week from 11:30 am and for dinner on Saturday nights from 6:00pm.