February 20th, 2010 nola
This is something that all restaurants should consider…
Dimmi, Australia’s first real-time online restaurant reservations service has proven to be a big hit amongst Aussie diners with over 50,000 diners using its service to make their restaurant reservations online, since it was launched late last year. Dimmi allows diners to make an instantly confirmed reservation at almost 1,000 of the country’s leading restaurants across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Diners can book via one of Dimmi’s booking partners or a restaurant’s own website. More details can be found at www.dimmi.com.au
Research conducted amongst Australian consumers in December 2009 found that while three million** people in Australia search for restaurants online every month, only 24 percent* have ever tried to make a restaurant reservation online. By contrast, in San Francisco, 43% of restaurant bookings are made online every day. The research also found that 62%* of Australian consumers had become frustrated when trying to book restaurants by phone because they don’t answer or are often engaged.
For more information dimmis-on-line-restaurant-reservation
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February 15th, 2010 nola
Since its launch in 2004, the prestigious Vogue Entertaining + Travel Produce Awards has been uncovering and celebrating Australia’s finest producers and suppliers.
The awards acknowledge those who are committed to quality and consistency in what they grow and create, and food lovers who promote small producers through restaurants, providores and markets. Now bigger than ever, the 2010 Vogue Entertaining + Travel Produce Awards are open for nominations.
Nominate your favourite Australian producer and win a prize worth over $5,000
Nominate your favourite producers for the 2010 Vogue Entertaining + Travel Produce Awards and win a two-night package for two, worth over $5,000, at luxury Queensland resort Qualia. For more information and to nominate, see categories below, simply email produce@vogueentertaining.com.au
http://www.taste.com.au/news+features/articles/1288/2010+vogue+entertaining+travel+produce+awards
Award categories
The regional award
Food heritage/ sustainability award
Best new product
Consistently excellent product
From the earth
From the dairy
From the paddock
From the sea
Producer of the year
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February 6th, 2010 nola
New Cookbook
Radish Ravioli is one of the recipes in the Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal of the famous Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, UK. The images are as spectacular as Heston’s culinary imagination and were created by Dominique Davies
Check out the series from the Big Fat Duck Cookbook at http://www.dominicdavies.com/fat_duck_cookbook.htm
http://www.fatduck.co.uk/
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February 6th, 2010 nola
16 chefs from some of the best restaurants in Tropical North Queensland ventured out in search of local food products when they join the Chef’s Tour of the Cassowary Coast this week.
The chef’s tour was organised by Australian Tropical Foods and is part of a project initiated by Advance Cairns, and funded by the Queensland Government Department of Education Economic Development & Innovation, to raise awareness of the diversity of the TNQ region’s food in an effort to get more local produce onto the menus in restaurants in Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas.
During the full-day tour of the Cassowary Coast, the group travelled from Cairns to Silkwood visiting an organic vanilla plantation, bio-dynamic poultry farm, exotic fruit orchard, tea plantation, pepper and tumeric farm, eco banana plantation, winery and various other properties.
Tour guide and Advance Cairns Food Project Officer Nola Craig, said the tour was the second of its kind, with a Chefs Tour of the Tablelands last December proving highly successful. “The response from both the chefs and the producers were very positive, with the first tour being the catalyst for two additional tours,” Ms Craig said.
For more photographs of the tour go to Chefs Tour of the Cassowary Coast
If you are interested in participating in the next Chef’s Tour as a producer or a chef, contact Nola Craig
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January 28th, 2010 nola
El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world’s best, will temporarily close in 2012 and 2013, its famed avant-garde chef Ferran Adria announced on Tuesday.
“No meals will be served in El Bulli in 2012 and 2013,” he told a news conference at Madrid Fusion, the annual international culinary conference focussing on the cutting-edge in haute cuisine.
“But El Bulli is not closing down. These are not two years on sabbatical. I need time to decide how 2014 is going to be… I know that when I return it will not be the same,” said the father of so-called molecular gastronomy.
El Bulli, on Spain’s northeastern Catalan coast, was last year named the world’s best for the fourth year in a row by Britain’s Restaurant magazine. Other publications have similarly raved about Adria and his food.
But Adria said he found working 15 hours a day “difficult.”
“It’s like telling (British designer) John Galliano to go work in a factory,” he said.
Adria and Heston Blumenthal in England have since the late 1990s rocked world cuisine by using science to “deconstruct” and rebuild food.
Taste-bud treats on the menu of Adria’s three-star restaurant have included oyster meringue, hot ice cream, frothy truffle cappuccino and liquid ravioli, while vegetables are turned into lollipops or whipped foams.
He has had to respond to critics who say the chemicals used in his “molecular gastronomy” make it unhealthy.
“Homemade ice-creams, those which are excellent, must have a stabilising substance to avoid crystallisation. Sugar goes through a chemical and physical transformation. Chocolate contains lecithin. Agar is a thick substance that has been used in Japan for centuries,” he said once in response to criticism from another top Spanish chef, Santi Santamaria.
“The tomato also has a chemical composition,” he said.
Source: The Guardian
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January 11th, 2010 nola
Due to the popularity of the recent Chef’s Tour of the Tablelands, , another tour will be conducted on the 2nd February 2010.
This tour will take in the southern coastal wet tropics corridor and visiting a bio-dynamic poultry farm, exotic fruit farm, vanilla plantation, tea plantation, pepper & spice farm, fruit winery, pasta producer, eco-banana plantation and meet the chilli man at the historic Garradunga Pub.
Any chef interested in participating can contact Nola at info@australiantropicalfoods.com
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January 11th, 2010 nola
As part of the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation’s Gourmet Food Project, the current Queensland Chef, David Pugh, is blogging to showcase the best of Queensland produce including tropical foods. The blog includes information and recipes on key, seasonal ingredients.
The role of the Queensland Chef is to work with Primary Industries and Fisheries to profile Queensland produce, industries and primary producers. This blog is aimed at consumers, especially those more innovative food followers, however, on a broader level the Gourmet Food Project has opportunities for chefs, growers and producers to network and get involved in promoting quality regional produce to a wider market.
For more information, contact:
Kaye Nunan
Principal Food Industry Development Officer
Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries
Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation
Telephone: 07 3239 3254 Facsimile: 07 3239 3504
Email: kaye.nunan@deedi.qld.gov.au
Website: www.dpi.qld.gov.au Information Centre: 13 25 23
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December 7th, 2009 nola
Local Chefs Discover the Regions Produce
On Thursday 3rd December 25 chefs from Tropical North Queensland’s best restaurants embarked on a tour of the tablelands. Visiting 13 sites and 5 producers that included fruit, vegetable and herb growers, meat producers, native food producers, cheese maker, nuts, coffee, a distillery and an ice-creamery, they were astounded at the quality of products available regionally.
The tour was organised by Australian Tropical Foods as part of a Food Industry project, initiated by Advance Cairns and funded through Queensland Government Department of Education, Economic Development and Innovation. It bought together chefs and farmers face-to-face in an effort to source local food for the regions restaurant menus.
Just-picked ultra fresh zucchini’s with beautiful flowers were like a magnet for chefs who would prefer their produce comes directly to them from the Tablelands instead of the road trip to Brisbane and back.
The meat producers who care with a passion about their animals and the quality of the meat will surely receive some orders, and for many chefs, they were unaware of the beautiful local cheese on offer.
The day was long and action packed and dropping into Mt Uncle Distillery in the late afternoon for a Mojito (or two) made of their new Platinum Rum just hit the right spot. That was followed by the final visit of the day at Emerald Creek Ice-Creamery where a feeding frenzy of around 15 great tropical flavours was eagerly consumed.
The day was a great success and set the plans for another tour in the early part of 2010 to include the Cassowary Coast .
For more images go to Chefs Tour of the Tablelands
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October 12th, 2009 nola
Available Now until the end of January
“NATURES NATURAL CHOCOLATE”
Other names: Diospyros digyna
, Chocolate Pudding Fruit, BlackPersimmon.
Intro: Not a fresh fruit to be eaten off the tree.
History: Native to Mexico
Shape: The fruit is about the size of a very large apple and tomato-shaped.
Weight/size: Typically weighing 700g to 900g and ranging between 60 -120mm in diameter.
Colour: The fruit has a bright green and shiny skin when unripe. When it ripens, the skin turns dark brown. The flesh is black when ripe.
Taste: The flesh tastes like chocolate, but only when perfectly ripe. The taste is otherwise slightly bitter.
Buying/storage: The crown on top of the fruit should be raised, which indicates the fruit is mature. During ripening, changes of the fruit are dramatic: overnight it turns dark green and later brown-black, and goes from rock hard to soft and mushy. Do not refrigerate until ripe. Ripe fruit or pulp may be refrigerated for a few days, however, freezing is better. Frozen whole fruit or pulp retains its subtle flavour for more than six months, and frozen pulp is suitable for use in any recipe.
Preparing/serving: Only eaten when very soft. Simply cut the fruit in half around the centre and scoop out the flesh and remove the seeds. Very soft fruit has a delicate skin, which may disintegrate when cut. Flavour is enhanced by the addition of a little rum, vanilla, cream or coffee liqueur (Kahlua or Tia Maria). It makes a delicious ice cream and is also great in mousses, cakes, cheesecakes, muffins, bread and preserves.
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October 12th, 2009 nola
NSW has a way to deal with restaurants and food outlets who don’t abide by the Food Safe rules. Food outlets are added to the NSW Name and Shame list, with a total number of premises on the list at 813. For a full list of premises on the Food Authority Name and Shame list is at www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices
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