Most people couldn't point to Abruzzo on a map, and the Abruzzese would tell you that's fine by them. Wedged between the Apennines and the Adriatic, it's rugged and unhurried, a region of shepherds and hilltop villages, of food shaped by landscape and necessity rather than fashion. It's not the Italy of postcards. It's better than that.

I'm calling it now: the Yarra Valley is Australia's answer to Abruzzo. Rolling hills, greenery everywhere, great wine and food worth travelling for. But the similarities don't end there. What you'll find in both places, if you know where to look, is arrosticini.

Small skewers of lamb, sometimes mutton, cooked fast over charcoal in a long narrow brazier called a furnacella. The meat is layered with fat that renders quickly over the coals, giving it that rich, melt-in-your-mouth quality that makes you understand immediately why nobody has bothered changing the recipe. Shepherds made them because they were practical. Families made them on Sundays because there wasn't much else around and they were so, so good. Italians are brilliant at this, by the way, at knowing when something is already exactly right and leaving it alone. Sometimes a recipe is so good they just make it heritage approved. I love that.

In the postwar decades, waves of Italian families made their way to Australia, many from exactly these kinds of regions: the rural south, the mountain communities, places where recipes weren't written down because nobody needed to write them down. Families arrived in Melbourne with what they knew, their Sunday rituals, their particular knowledge of what a meal is supposed to feel like. That's the foundation our food culture is built on. We take real pride in eating well in this country, and we should, because it was a gift. Dish by dish, family by family.

Head Chef David Petrilli grew up with Abruzzo in his blood. His father was born there, and as David tells it, the place has never really let him go.

"Abruzzo is a place where my father was born, so you know, it holds a very special place in my heart."

That connection is what brought arrosticini to the Zoncello menu. Not a recipe handed down over a stove, but something that was ingrained in Chef David. And while the dish is fiercely traditional, David isn't precious about every detail.

"Traditionally in Abruzzo it would be lamb because that's what they had, but we have access to a lot more now."

"The traditionalists, they hate that we do it over the hibachi."

The fact that arrosticini is finding its feet in Melbourne makes a lot of sense to David too.

"In Melbourne it works kind of well and you probably see them a little bit more often now, because you've got these third generation children of immigrants doing this style of food and they're more readily available."

At Zoncello in Healesville, David makes arrosticini the way they should be made, but with the particular care the restaurant is known for. They use aromatic eucalyptus charcoal, and the skewers come off the grill finished with the restaurant's own herb salt and a wedge of lemon. They arrive at the table still sizzling and they're gone almost immediately. Order more. My hot take: just order more from the start.

While you're there, please get the mortadella grigliata. Thinly sliced, grilled over the same charcoal, served with a pear mostarda that is one of the best things I've eaten in a while.

Zoncello is just 7 months old now  and the kitchen is having a very good time, and it shows.

While you're at it, make a day of it. The Yarra Valley is forty minutes from the city, and the drive alone is worth it. These are the spots worth seeking out.

David didn't invent this dish. It's older than he is, older than his restaurant, older than most things on the menu by about five centuries. But every time he makes it, he's keeping something alive that his father loved, a very long way from Abruzzo. 

This piece was created in collaboration with Zoncello, as part of an ongoing conversation around food, culture and the way we gather.

Zoncello
316-334 Maroondah Hwy, Healesville VIC 3777
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