The Story Of Lake House Began In The 1970s, When The Owner And Executive Chef: Tourism Strategy Analysis Case Study, TUD, Ireland

The story of Lake House began in the 1970s, when the owner and Executive Chef, Alla Wolf-Tasker, was working and traveling in France became inspired by the prolific “sense of place, regionality and the produce” of top-end rural destination restaurants. On returning to Victoria, she and her husband, Allan, purchased a property in the small ‘down at heel’ country town of Daylesford with the dream of developing a destination restaurant of their own. “It was a bit of madness”, says Alla, as she describes how the locals watched on bemusedly whilst “that foreign woman down on the swamp” – as the lake was then referred to – first clearing the site of car wrecks and blackberry and then, proceeded hammer-in-hand, to build the restaurant from scratch. Those early years were tough, commuting from Melbourne at the weekends for three and half years while building the restaurant and spending the next four years traveling to the Melbourne wholesale food markets for produce.

You see there were two things Alla had forgotten when she came back to Australia to open her country restaurant. No one traveled to the country for good food in those days. One “had to manage to create one’s clientele”. Furthermore, local food producers, the few that existed, were hardly falling over each other to supply her with the specialty produce she needed.

In her indomitable style, she persevered and today Lake House has become a hugely popular destination in its own right and it is credited with putting Daylesford on the tourist map. Two decades on, Lake House is now supplied with an amazing array of fresh produce from a growers’ collective, in part founded by Alla: Daylesford Macedon Produce.

The Lake House story is not one of overnight success. It has taken 22-years to get the business to where it is today. Its growth and development have considerable relevance for New Zealand’s food and wine tourism operators. The keys to Lake House’s success are presented in this case study. They demonstrate a clear understanding of the true meaning of hospitality, a commitment to staff well-being and development, an innate ability to know one’s market, a willingness to fully engage with the tourism industry, dedication to involvement in the local community, and, perhaps most importantly, an overwhelming passion for excellence in food, wine, and customer service.