From the beginning, Gary Cooper and his partner Tim Sawyer have tried to do things the way they would like them done at a dinner party at home. The restaurant is open for breakfast & lunch Wednesday to Sunday from 8:30am & dinner on Friday & Saturday. The breakfast menu changes once a month & the lunch menu changes every day with around four starter items, 8 to 10 mains which are all created on the day & cooked to order & around 6 to 12 dessert items are cooked & displayed on the kitchen window ledge.

Gary Cooper & Bella Vedere have become convinced that the best-tasting food is organically grown and harvested in ways that are ecologically sound, by people who are taking care of the land for future generations. The quest for such ingredients has largely determined the restaurants cuisine.

Bella Vedere is trying hard to make diners partake of the immediacy and excitement of vegetables just out of the garden, fruit right off the branch, and bread straight out of the oven.. In doing so, Bella Vedere is also supporting such small artisan farmers as Witchy Proof pheasant & pigeon, Daylesford Partridge, Murramonog Lamb (over the back fence) local apple yard ducks, local road island rooster (for the traditional Coq au Vin). Like Bella Vedere, these farmers are concerned about environmental harmony and how it gives optimal flavour.

There is a profound disconnection between the kind of human experience that our society values, and the way we actually live our lives. Most people submit unthinkingly to dehumanising experiences of food-in work place cafeterias, food courts, and fast food chains. How can one marvel at the world and then feed oneself in a completely unmarvelous way? Is it's because we don't learn thevital relationship of food to agriculture and of food to culture, and how food affects the quality of our everyday lives.

Bella Vedere realises that food is the one central thing about human experience which can open up both our senses and our consciences to our place in the world. Eating is something we all have in common. It's something we all have to do every day and it's something we can all share.Food and nourishment are right at the point where human rights and the environment intersect. Everyone should have the right to wholesome, affordable food.

Reviews

Gary Cooper (founding chef at Eleanore's) appears rusted onto the Yarra Valley. Here at Badger's Brook he's opened a rustic winery cafe that uses his skills and homegrown and local produce.... Simple and snacky food during the day, more elaborate at night for his $65 degustaion menu...
The Age, John Lethlean, 15-5-2007

"We take in the restaurant, its simple, pleasant country cottage interiors - timber floors and chunky furniture, oodles of natural light (with idyllic requisite vineyard views) and muted colours - largely unchanged since a visit several years ago for lunch. At night you get a GT stripe of linen down the table's centre. And then, around 8.15pm, we are called to attention by the maitre d' (owner) who announces the day's events rather theatrically before introducing Cooper's sous chef, who in turn introduces her team, and then the day's menu. If you were driving down the road and stumbled upon the restaurant at that moment, you may well have thought it a mild-mannered 40th birthday party."
The Age Good Food Guide, 2006

"Folk are flocking to try Gary Cooper's degustation dinners, served in a quaint country house with olive-green walls, timber floorboards, and views to Badger's Brook vineyards. The creative dishes all hang on what's in the kitchen gardens"
Gourmet Traveller 2006, restaurant guide

"If the smell of baking bread doesn't alert you, then the kitchen counter stacked with cakes, tables piled with vegetables and chefs ducking out the back door to pull herbs from the garden will. Taking its cues from Alice Waters' iconic Californian restaurant Chez Panisse, Bella Vedere is fanatical about fresh seasonal and regional produce."
The Age Epicure score 26/7/05

"But is Bella Vedere doing something there is a strong demand for, well? Yes. And would I return for a bite with my family at lunch, or dinner at night? Without a doubt. The place reeks of honesty and quality simple food, and it's a nice smell."
Herald Sun, 2/4/05 Bob Hart

"You enter. And there, before you, is an array of seasonal, regional food that takes your breath away, lifts your spirits and obliterates your hunger. ... Now it would be hard to imagine a more welcoming place than this with its displays of produce and warm wares from the bakery that fires through the night."
The Age Cheap Eats, 2005

"IT'S early days at Bella Vedere. The olive-green walls are barely dry and vegie garden yet to sprout. But Gary Cooper's already comfy in the open kitchen, devising dishes dependant on season and stocks"
The Age, Five country getaways 26/12/04

"This new little pocket of culinary heaven at Badger's Brook winery includes a cafe where Gary Cooper cooks a simple, seasonal menu at breakfast and lunch"
The Age, five country getaway 2004