Australia holidays that encompass Tasmania tend to capture a way of life that’s “more intimate, connected and wholesome”.

This is according to the Brisbane Times’ Julietta Jameson, who after spending time in Hobart, Tasmania’s state capital, wrote that the island state is able to offer a way of life that other destinations in Australia cannot.

Nowhere, she explained, is this more obvious than its food scene – with Tasmania using its island status to exploit “authentic and seasonal” recipes using ancient ingredients and plants.

“It all makes for a long, delicious holiday of exploration and degustation,” Ms Jameson wrote in the newspaper.

During her time in Hobart, the journalist sampled roasted cauliflower with a side of pomegranate in a 19th century stable courtyard, tried organic cider at the city’s Henry Jones Art Hotel and spent time with food critic and chef Rodney Dunn in Tasmania’s New Norfolk region.

Located approximately 35 km north-west of Hobart, here Mr Dunn has established the Agrarian Kitchen, a foodie destination that features on many Australia holidays itineraries.

Located in a schoolhouse dating back to the 1800s, the kitchen – founded on the philosophy of people reconnecting with the sources of their food – offers dishes that the chef explained are “available to us, this place, this day [at] this set time”.

According to Tourism Tasmania, 360,000 people travelled on holidays to Tasmania in 2011, a decline of seven per cent from the figure recorded in 2010. More than eight in 10 visitors travelled to the island state by air.