The couple have put their business on the market and will move their family to South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

Kaniva-born Miss Peterson said her partner had had a ‘lifetime love affair’ with fishing and wanted to turn his passion into a career.

“I’m John’s second love – we joke about that,” she said.

“As good as John is at cooking, he’s pretty good at fishing.”

Miss Peterson said Mr Consadine wanted to become a professional fisherman and continue a boat chartering business they had already established on the Yorke Peninsula.

She said they hoped to sell their Kaniva business to somebody who was looking for a lifestyle change.

Miss Peterson said she and her partner had worked in hospitality for 25 years.

“It’s all we’ve ever done; we have slowly built up the business to what we have now,” she said.

“It helps that John is a qualified chef; he’s brought to the table lots of new flavours and dishes.

“We revamped the menu as soon as we got here; there was a lot of frozen stuff.

“It’s all about fresh food now.”

Miss Peterson said the Club Hotel served more than just traditional pub food.

She said their bistro-quality meals were more upmarket.

Miss Peterson said they regularly changed the menu to feature new dishes and keep old favourites.

She said their most popular dish at the moment was the ‘reef and beef ’, which featured a scotch fillet and prawn skewers.

Miss Peterson said another popular dish was their ‘summer chicken’, a stuffed chicken breast.

She said 90 per cent of customers were locals and the rest were travellers, and many commented on the quality of their food.

Miss Peterson said Melbourne visitors told them their food was like what they would find in a Melbourne restaurant.

“They say your cook’s wonderful,” she said.

“That’s a wonderful pat on the back, isn’t it?”

Miss Peterson said market research, including magazines and websites, inspired their menu.

She said the couple visited Adelaide pubs to keep up with big city trends.