The Good Food and Wine Show Melbourne - Part I

On Sunday, 3rd June, I went to the Good Food and Wine Show in Melbourne. At the show, it was impossible to have lunch because I was constantly putting food in my mouth from  so many different traders. But I had lunch anyway (I was there from 10am to 5pm). I liked how you could try many different foods, flavours and cuisines. They also had cookware there as well as food. Some stalls they had were: Turban Chopsticks, Chefs Toolbox, Luv-a-Duck, Tasmanian Honey, Tasmanian Salmon, Love-my-Salad, South Korea Tourism, Irish Wine, Jazz Apples, Sovereign Hill, Smoothie Cubes, Africafe (I’ll write about Africafe in part ii) and more. There were also a number of cheese and smoked meat stalls. There were so many stalls that I couldn’t recall them all from memory and I count up to ten in 19 different languages. I tried liver-cleansing muesli, smoked salmon, hibiscus tea, ginger wine, kimchi and other delicious foods and drinks.

I've tried the liver-cleansing
 muesli, it does work.

Turban Chopsticks

Africafe, 

Sovereign Hill

'The Tree of Life' at its early stage

George's Mum and his Head Chef

The main event for me was watching George Calombaris (from MasterChef Australia) talk about his life story with a recipe inspired from certain events in his life. The theme of it was ‘The Tree of Life’.  He talked about how flavour is an illusion and the best tasters are visually impaired which makes sense. He made a chocolate mousse using warm chocolate and olive oil. A member of the audience who tried it said it was really good and surprisingly tasted better after George added a sprinkle of salt. In the next section, he talked about how his Mum used to make him Greek sesame bars for soccer practice then George showed us how to make a savoury sesame bar you would eat at a restaurant. He put liquorice, seaweed, rice and a few other ingredients on top of the bar. On top of our chairs were packets of liquorice powder which tasted like liquorice but didn’t have any in it, demonstrating flavour is the taste of the food, not the ingredients. In the next section, he talked about becoming a Dad and made a ‘feminine dish’ using pig’s nipples, potato, apple sauce, edible flowers and a few other ingredients. Then, George talked about how his Dad went to hospital with cancer lost a lot of his sense of taste. After that, George’s Mum and the Head Chef of his restaurant made some Greek shortbread which I forgot the name of but it did look very appetising. In the end, he made a ‘tree of life’ with chocolate soil, mushrooms, snails or “Little Manu’s” and so on.  Manu did make a dashing appearance on stage and stole a little Manu for himself.

To cap the day off, I had the pleasure of meeting the great man himself when he signed my personal copy of 'The Press Club' - Modern Greek Cookery  book. Thanks George. 

The completed 'Tree of Life'

The Tree of Life

We noticed, Manu

Notice the snails, leaves, logs
and dog droppings

My copy of 'The Press Club'

Overall, it was an interesting and exciting experience going to the Good Food and Wine Show 2012. I look forward to going next year and hope you can see as well. Next adventure for me is to visit George's restaurants and to try some of the cuisines on menu, which of course I will pen onto my blog. 

Links:
http://www.goodfoodshow.com.au/cityhub/melbourne/
http://www.thepressclub.com.au/
http://www.facebook.com/ThePressClubRestaurant
http://www.masterchef.com.au/home.htm