In the luxury club

Sitting harmoniously in its environment, the new Eastern Golf Club clubhouse is a judiciously designed facility providing panoramic views across the golf course and into Southern Victoria’s beautiful Yarra Valley. Inside, the dining matches the scenery thanks to an investment in superior kitchen tech.

As well as offering a spectacular, 18-hole Par 7 1 course designed by Greg Norman, the Eastern Golf Club includes a range of recreational and practice golf facilities, luxury cottage accommodation and a sophisticated $11 million clubhouse that’s available for use by members and their guests.

Open since July, the new clubhouse has a north-facing flowing design with an open layout that can cater for up to 400 guests at any time. Including a members’ lounge, a members’ dining room and a function room, the clubhouse is open for lunch seven days a week, and offers breakfast on weekends. The facility also caters for weddings, corporate golf events, private functions and conferences.

Ben Telley, the Club’s General Manager, says that opening in Yering was a $70 million tourism investment into the Yarra Valley. He is confident the course will help establish the area as a premier golf destination domestically and internationally. Already there is a two to three year wait for top tier membership of the club.

Ben’s promotion of the club goes beyond its premium golfing facilities however, and he hopes guests enjoy the Yarra Valley as a place in which to enjoy superb food and wine as well as golf.

The tools available in the kitchen determine a big part of this enjoyment. While it’s still early days for the new clubhouse they are already happy with the overall performance of their kitchen. “So far, in terms of the design and operation of the equipment, it’s been great. It’s really stood up to the high volumes, which can be up to 360 meals a day,” says Ben.

With a huge number of visitors to the clubhouse demand on the new kitchen was always going to be high. Also, located in the Yarra Valley, an area renowned for its fantastic food and wine, the clubhouse needed to deliver to a premium standard.

For this reason Eastern Golf Club took the recommendation of their design consultancy, MTD, and installed high-end equipment in the new kitchen.

Ben Telley says he has experience with the technology, and has always held it in high regard. “Waldorf have a great level of quality and a very strong reputation. I’ve used it (the equipment) previously and found it to be very reliable, especially for high volume use,” he says.

The clubhouse kitchen has been outfitted with a full suite of cooking equipment. Along with Rieber plate dispensers a range of Waldorf products have been configured. The extensive list includes the versatile Waldorf pasta cooker, target top, salamander, twin pan fryer, chargrill, griddle oven, oven range and bratt pan. They also have a Convotherm combi oven – an essential piece in any modern busy kitchen.

“We really have the full complement,” Ben says. He also has faith in a solid future performance, saying, “Both in terms of design and function, early indicators are that the equipment will continue to meet our needs long term”.