Ms Jeffery will be a keynote speaker at the Australasian Regional Food Cultures and Networks Conference on November 29 and 30 at Kingscliff’s Peppers Resort, which is organised by Southern Cross University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.

She is a passionate advocate of using fresh ingredients in all her recipes, but she says consumers and the hospitality industry should change attitudes towards seasonality of foods.

“I am lucky where I live that there is a wide variety of local produce but there are certain times when things are limited due to the season,” Ms Jeffery said.

“Maybe all the producers have grown the same thing at the same time. Personally, I love that because it pushes you as a cook to think outside the box and to use ingredients differently. But there is an expectation in Australia at the moment that anything is available all year round despite the season.

“When you start seeing snow peas flown in from China when they are out of season in Australia, it is ludicrous. Think of the distance they have come including the flight and then the transport by road to the destination. For me that just doesn’t make sense, especially if you wait a little while and can buy it within one day of the farmer picking it.”

Ms Jeffery is practising what she preaches and buys the majority of her food either from farmers markets or directly from the farm gate. She has also been involved in the Northern Rivers Foodlinks project which aims to make a sustainable food future for the region.

She is one of a number of prominent keynote speakers at the conference which includes Kate Carnell, the chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council; Robin Shaw, of the Winemakers Federation of Australia; Professor Elspeth Probyn, a Professor in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney; Robert Heazlewood, the executive director of Brand Tasmania Council, and Joanna Savill, a director with The Crave Sydney International Food Festival.

The conference will focus on how food moves from the paddock to the plate. Some of the themes addressed will include how food is produced and by whom, its impact on our lives and environment, and the impact on our culture as well as food security.

The conference is unique in that it brings academics and industry together across a number of areas including food production, distribution, marketing, tourism and hospitality to explore the key issues and opportunities for regional food.

There is a pre-conference tour on Monday, November 28, exploring the region’s dairy industry, and a post-conference session on Thursday, December 1, on culinary tourism and agritourism.

There are places still available and interested parties can register through the website at
www.regionalfoodconference.com.au

“We were thrilled with the crowd,” said festival organiser Remy Tancred. “There were of course locals from across the Northern Rivers and I also met many visitors down from the Gold Coast and Brisbane throughout the day.”

Hundreds of children enjoyed entertainment from Cupcake the Clown, Lenny the Lion, Byron Bay Kidz Club, the Macadamia Castle and others. Non-stop entertainment from Kurtis, Kato and Wolf, Eliza McLeod, Ilona Harker and Tres Hombres had the crowd kicking back on the grass, enjoying the restaurant offerings.

Nearly all of the 22 restaurant marquees sold out of their $5 and $10 tasting plates, some before they could even offer the Sample Judges a taste.

Belinda Jeffrey, Joanna Savill, Barbara Sweeney and Steve Snow judged the best of the plates over the course of the day, presenting the Golden Fork Awards at the Sample Gala Dinner on Saturday night at The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa.

The sell-out dinner was attended by 150 guests, who enjoyed four courses with matching wines prepared by eight of the region’s top Chefs – Monique Gutteres-Harrison, Gavin Hughes, Adam Smith, Perry Hill, Katrina Kanetani, Scott Frost, Peter Busara and Joe Griffin.

The $5 plate winner was Satiate for their lemon myrtle and lime meringue cupcakes, with Harvest achieving the runner-up place for their Harvest brioche roll with John Singh’s braised shredded pork, onion jam and Coopers Shoot Tomatoes.

The $10 plate winner was Fleurs Restaurant in Ballina for their saffron infused mussels with chorizo. The Beautiful Feast achieved the runner-up place for their Ploughman’s plate with marmalade glazed Bangalow ham.

Seaweed Cuisine and The Boardwalk were awarded People’s Choice Awards for their record number of plates sold on the day.

“I was so pleased the exhibitors had a successful day and really appreciated the support of my sponsors who made the festival happen” said Remy Tancred.

www.samplennsw.com

PICTURES (from top): Judge Steve Snow with Byron Mayor Jan Barham; Katarina from Satiate; Rory Twoomey and Chi Desmond-Weller; Kurtis performing for the crowd; there was plenty to entertain the children.

Member for Ballina Don Page congratulated Satiate, saying it was a tremendous achievement to be recognised by Australian Gourmet Traveller, one of Australia’s premier travel, food and dining magazines.

“Satiate has an outstanding reputation locally. The restaurant is also a valuable drawcard for visitors to our region, and being named in these awards adds further prestige to their already outstanding reputation,” Mr Page said.

Minister for Tourism, Hospitality, and Racing and the Arts, George Souris, said 46 of the top 100 restaurants in this year’s awards were won by NSW restaurants.

“I want to congratulate all the winners of this year’s awards, and especially our local restaurants who did NSW proud,” Mr Souris said.

“NSW features unique dining experiences with stunning restaurant locations, diverse cultural styles and leading chefs and Destination NSW has aggressively sought to position the State as Australia’s premier dining destination.

“The NSW Government has supported these efforts with an ambitious promotional campaign called Destination Dining, which involves our State’s leading chefs actively promoting NSW’s dining credentials to an international audience.”

Leading regional restaurants in NSW for 2012 named by the Australian Gourmet Traveller:

• Vulcans – Blackheath
• Biota Dining – Bowral
• Lochiel House – Kurrajong Heights
• Bacchus – Newcastle
• Bells at Killcare – Killcare Heights
• Satiate – Bangalow
• Racine Restaurant at la Colline – Orange
• Restaurant Como – Blaxland
• Rick Stein at Bannisters – Mollymook
• Margan – Broke, Upper Hunter

For more information on the 2012 Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Awards and a full list of winners, go to www.gourmettraveller.com.au

For information on Destination Dining go to www.visitnsw.com

Joanna spoke of the contradictions between our food-mad society and the growth in childhood obesity, the world-wide trends toward more environmentally and socially aware cooking and the growing use of indigenous and native ingredients.

She also discussed the leading chefs from the US, Sweden, France and South America who will be heading to Sydney for the World Chef Showcase, the Food Festival launch event on October 1-2 (including culinary hero Gaston Acurio from Peru, who has taken modern Peruvian cooking worldwide).

93 guests dined on Gavin Hughes’ lightly cured local flathead with bush spices, heirloom vegetables, new season blood orange, pocket micro herbs and potato bread followed by John Singhs Porky Piggy – Braised pork neck, brioche crumbed cheek, hickory smoked tenderloin, pork scratchings, celeriac puree, native greens with pork jus and quince sauce.

“It was a great evening and lovely to see so many Byron food faces in the crowd,” says Joanna.

“It was also fun to talk about new culinary destinations such as Peru – where I will be taking a food tour in November this year. And the Byron at Byron team did a great job. Gavin Hughes ‘nose-to-tail’, local-ingredient-inspired menu was right on trend!”

Joanna also spoke about the processes involved in reviewing restaurants for the Good Food Guide. The next edition comes out on September 6.

For information on Crave Sydney International Food Festival, see cravesydney.com. And for more details on Joanna’s Peruvian culinary tour see worldexpeditions.com.au.

PICTURES: Joanne Savill and James Lancaster; Wendy Taylor and Maree Randerson; Victoria Cosford and Kelly Taylor.

The line-up of performers for the festival has just been released. Non-stop live entertainment will fill the air at the Bangalow Showground with Kurtis, Kato and Wolf, Eliza McLeod, Ilona Harker and Tres Hombres gracing the entertainment ring.

The festival, which will become an annual spring event, aims to “celebrate and share the food, restaurants and creativity of the Northern Rivers”.

Food produce, health and lifestyle stalls will fill the Bangalow Showgrounds from 9:00am. Twenty-two restaurant marquees will serve $5.00 and $10.00 tasting plates between 9:00am and 3:00pm, with the best of these greeting the Sample judges – Joanna Savill, Barbara Sweeny, Belinda Jeffery and Steven Snow – for the test of who will win the prestigious Golden Fork Award.

For only $5.00 festival goers can tuck into coconut pannacotta with vanilla, pineapple compote and local wild fingerlimes from Katrina Kanetani at Satiate in Bangalow; salt cod fritters from Adam Smith at Fleurs in Ballina; or a Harvest brioche roll with John Singh’s braised shredded pork, onion jam and Coopers Shoot Tomatoes from Harvest in Newrybar.

“We’re really excited about the day,” said Harvest chef Joe Griffin.

“We want to celebrate local produce by showing it in its integrity and by not destroying it any more than it already has been by transport and overhandling. This is a great opportunity.”

Cooking and lifestyle demonstrations will be held throughout the day, including Simon Grigalius from My Restaurant Rules, Gavin Hughes from The Byron at Byron Resort, Monique Guterres-Harrison from Seaweed Cuisine, Scott Frost from Seven Mile Restaurant and Phil Dudman and Julie Ray showing us garden to kitchen tips.

Leah Roland from the Bangalow Cooking School will be joined by Perry Hill from Palate in Lismore, Phil Dudman and Julie Ray to deliver cooking classes for young cooks and adults. A class for 9–16 years will be held at 10:30am ($50), with the adults class commencing at 12:30pm ($90).

The winners of the Golden Fork Award will be announced at the Sample Gala Dinner, being held at The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa. A meeting of the Gala Dinner chefs was held at the resort recently to fine tune the menu (see photo).

Sample Food Festival, Saturday 10th September, 9:00am – 3:00pm Bangalow Showground. Entry is free. For festival enquiries including cooking class bookings contact Remy Tancred on 0414 925 811 or info@samplennsw.com

PICTURE: The Sample Gala Dinner chefs: Back row – Scott Frost from Seven Mile Restaurant, Joe Griffin from Harvest, Gavin Hughes from The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa; Front row – Peter Flemming from 561 Alphadale, Adam Smith from Fleurs in Ballina, Monique Gutteres-Harrison from Seaweed Cuisine and Perry Hill from Palate in Lismore.

Much-loved food authority Joanna Savill will visit Byron Bay next month to deliver a talk Food Trends From Around the World, drawing on her wide experience as a food journalist, broadcaster and Director of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival. Joanna follows Victoria Cosford, Bettina Arndt and David Clark in the sell-out Byron at Byron Presents series.

Co-editor of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and respected authority on Australia’s cultural and culinary diversity, Joanna is one of Australia’s most widely respected food personalities.

She has been writing about food since the early 1990s and has contributed to most major food publications in Australia, including The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living section, Australian Gourmet Traveller¸ Vogue Entertaining + Travel, Travel + Leisure, Australian Good Taste as well as, internationally, The Financial Times Weekend and The Asian Wall Street Journal magazines.

In her many years with SBS Television she co-authored 10 SBS Eating Guides to eating out and food shopping in 50 different nationalities, and co-created and presented the highly-acclaimed TV show The Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia, still showing in more than 20 countries.

She is also the Sydney correspondent for New Zealand’s award-winning Cuisine magazine.

“We live in interesting times,” says Joanna, “where on one hand we are fiercely interested in local and seasonal produce but on the other, people are spending less time cooking at home, despite MasterChef!

“And although we seem concerned about using local produce, how much of it is actually truly Australian? Wild and indigenous ingredients are huge at restaurants such as Noma in Copenhagen, ranked No. 1 on this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, but we hardly see them used in Australia’s top restaurants.”

Joanna will discuss food trends from around the world, traditional versus creative approaches and the move toward original, native ingredients. This will be the final Byron at Byron Presents dinner for 2011. The 2012 series will be announced later this year.

• Food Trends from Around the World – Dinner and talk with Joanna Savill
• 7:00pm Thursday August 18, The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa
• $65 for two courses, a glass of wine and Joanna
• Stay the night from $285.
• Bookings essential. 6639 2111 or restaurant@thebyronatbyron.com.au

“The response has been heartwarming,” said Remy Tancred, festival organiser.

“We had a minor setback with a change of venue, but now it’s all systems go.”

Organisers have relocated the festival to Bangalow Showgrounds. The Gala Dinner will be held at the Byron at Byron Resort.

The Festival, which is being held on Saturday 10th September and will become an annual Spring event, aims to “celebrate and share the exquisite food produce, restaurants and people of the NSW Northern Rivers region”.

Farmers markets and a range of food produce, health and lifestyle stalls will fill the Bangalow Showgrounds from 9:00am.
Twenty restaurant marquees will serve $5.00 and $10.00 tasting plates between 9:00am and 3:00pm, with the best of these greeting the four Sample judges – Joanna Savill, Barbara Sweeny, Belinda Jeffery and Steven Snow – for the test of who will win the prestigious Golden Fork Award.

Cooking and lifestyle demonstrations will be held throughout the day, including Simon Grigalius from My Restaurant Rules, Gavin Hughes from The Byron at Byron Resort, Phil Dudman and Julie Ray showing us garden to kitchen tips and Leah Roland, Principal of the Bangalow Cooking School, giving cooking classes for both adults and kids.

Eight of the region’s top chefs will gather at The Byron at Byron Resort to prepare the Sample Gala Dinner for 150 guests.

Chefs involved in the dinner are Katrina Kanetani from Satiate in Bangalow, Gavin Hughes from The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa, Joseph Griffin from Harvest in Newrybar, Perry Hill, Monique Guterres-Harrison from Seaweed Cuisine Byron Bay, Peter Flemming from 561 Alphadale, Scott Frost from Seven Mile Restaurant in Lennox Head and Adam Smith from Fleurs in Ballina.
The winners of the Golden Fork Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner.

“There are still some produce, health and lifestyle stalls available, however, there are no remaining restaurant marquees,” said Remy Tancred.

Sample Food Festival, Saturday 10th September, 9:00am – 3:00pm Bangalow Showground. Entry is free. Sample Gala Dinner 6:30pm 10th September, Byron at Byron Resort. $160 per head including canapés, four courses and matching wines. Bookings essential.

For festival enquiries including Gala Dinner bookings contact Remy on 0414 925 811 or info@samplennsw

PICTURE: Chefs Monique Guterres-Harrison and Gavin Hughes with Remy Tancred.

Eight of the region’s top Chefs gathered at North Byron Events at North Beach, where the festival will be held on September 10 this year.

After several hours the creative group had devised their initial plan for the gala dinner to be held as a part of the festival – a four-course dinner featuring local seasonal ingredients, accompanied by matching wines and live entertainment.

“Nine chefs, four courses, many surprises,” is how Leah Roland, who is co-ordinating the chefs, describes the event.

“It’s incredibly exciting to work with such a vibrant and talented group. There was no ego today, just a heap of good ideas.”

The gala dinner is already a quarter sold, according to festival organiser Remy Tancred.

“I encourage anybody who wishes to attend to book soon. It will be a very special evening indeed,” she said.

Chefs preparing the dinner include new owners at ate and Satiate Katrina and Karl Kanetani, Gavin Hughes from The Byron at Byron, Joseph Griffen from Harvest, Perry Hill, Monique Guterres-Harrison from Seaweed Cuisine, Peter Flemming from 561 Alphadale, Scott Frost from Seven Mile Restaurant and Adam Smith from Fleurs.

The festival will commence at 9am with farmers markets and a range of food produce, health and lifestyle stalls.

Twenty restaurant marquees will operate from 9am–3pm, serving $5 and $10 tasting plates. The best of these will greet the four Sample judges – Joanna Savill, Barbara Sweeny, Belinda Jeffery and Steven Snow, for the test of who will win the Golden Fork Award, to be announced at the Gala Dinner.

Cooking and lifestyle demonstrations will be held throughout the day, including Simon Grigalius from My Restaurant Rules, Leah Roland, Principal of the Bangalow Cooking School teaching both adult and kids cooking classes, and Phil Dudman and Julie Ray showing us garden to kitchen tips.
 
“Restaurant marquees have all been filled, however, a number of other stalls are still available, including farmers market, producer and lifestyle stalls,” said Remy Tancred.

Tickets for the Sample Gala Dinner are $160 and include canapés plus four courses with matching wines. For festival enquiries, including gala dinner bookings, contact Remy on 0414 925 811 or email info@samplennsw.com

PICTURED: Chefs (back) Jo Griffen, Karl Kanetani, Scott Frost, Adam Smith; (front) Peter Flemming, Gavin Hughes, Monique Guterres-Harrison, Katrina Kanetani.

Known as “The New Generation Hunter Valley”, the fellas, who are said to represent the new breed of wine maker, are surfing their way up the east coast and stopping off to demonstrate the sexiness of Hunter Valley Wines, semillon and shiraz in particular.

Besides getting in as much surfing as they can, the young guns will preside over tastings and dinners in nine select locations from Melbourne to Noosa.

“Not Your Usual Caravan of Courage” is the name given to the expedition, which involves David Hook (David Hook Wines), Andrew Thomas (Thomas Wines), Rhys Eather (Meerea Park), Nick Paterson (Mistletoe Wines), Mike De Iuliis (De Iuliis Wines) and Andrew Margan (Margan Family Wines).

Kicking off in Melbourne on May 4th 2011, they’ll be travelling north and stopping off at Sydney, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Brisbane and finally culminating at the Audi Noosa Food and Wine Festival on May 13th-May 15th.

On Tuesday May 10 The Byron at Byron will host a five-course degustation dinner matched with New Generation Hunter Valley Wines.

Gavin Hughes, Head Chef at The Byron at Byron, has designed a tantalising menu profiling the best of local produce to match the wines. 

Hughes’ offerings include a Warm farms market mushroom tart with local oyster and swiss brown mushrooms, garlic purée, parsnip chips and parsley oil and as well as Roasted Bangalow free-range duck with parsnip puree, roasted baby beets and a port and blood orange jus.

The cost is $145 a head and bookings can be made on 6639 2111 or restaurant@thebyronatbyron.com.au

Current Chef of the Year (SMH Good Food Guide) and one of Australia’s finest three-hatted chefs, Mark Best of Sydney’s Marque Restaurant, brought his culinary genius to the Northern Rivers. Mark’s exquisite five-course meal was matched with five of the world’s finest champagnes from the Champagne region in France.

Ninety guests were in attendance, including Gerry Harvey, Katie Page, David Clark, Editor of Vogue Living and Shannon Debreceny of Bangalow’s hatted restaurant Satiate.

Highlights of the meal were the Port Stephens oysters with sake and grilled sea foam and the local spanner crab with almond gazpacho, almond jelly, sweet corn and avruga.

PICTURES: Caroline Walsh from Vogue Living, Mark Best and Lyn and John Parche.

David Clark, editor of Vogue Living, with Katie Page and Gerry Harvey.

Mark Best (left) and Byron at Byron head chef Gavin Hughes.