About us

The Olive Branch Café and Catering is an Adelaide Hills’s based family owned business located in the beautiful village of Balhannah, in the picturesque Onkaparinga Valley.

Established in December 2008, we’re a local Café and Catering business with a focus on servicing visitors to and the communities of the Adelaide Hills.

While our catering services have grown over time to see us travel far and wide (and we’re very happy for it!), the focus of our café remains our beautiful village of Balhannah, the Adelaide Hills and of course, our local community.

We started our little business with a very simple philosophy, captured in a simple tagline – “Our passion, your taste” – one that still holds as true today as it did the day we opened our doors.

At The Olive Branch we remain just as passionate about providing our customers with great tasting, healthy and nutritious food – at a reasonable price.

 

 

Our story red-spoon-and-spatula

With over 20 years’ experience in the Hospitality industry, Chef & owner Nicole McIntosh brings an impressive pedigree to The Olive Branch.

Nicole has always had flair for food and is one of those “annoying” people who knew exactly what she wanted to be for as long as she can remember -“Fine food and cooking have been my passion for many years.”

Nicole honed her skills as a young Chef at some of Melbourne’s finest and most demanding kitchens, including “Kayes on King” under renowned Chef Annie Smithers , the highly regarded Chef’s hat winning “Onions” in South Yarra and as Sous Chef at Melbourne’s Radisson international Hotel.

Nicole then went on to establish her first business, “Eden Café, located in the iconic Maling Road Canterbury shopping and food precinct in Melbourne’s trendy and hipster-heavy inner east.

 

The family relocated from Melbourne to the Adelaide Hills in 2001 following the birth of their first child. Both Nicole and her husband Brent were raised in country towns and the idea of raising kids in the ‘burbs of a big city did not appeal.

After settling in to Hills’ life, Nicole was quick to appreciate the abundance and quality of the local produce and a few years after the birth of their second child the idea of opening another Café, with the opportunity to work with all the great quality produce the Hills had to offer was too tempting to resist and so it came to pass that, after some sustained twisting of Brent’s arm, The Olive Branch was born in December 2008.