Review: Noosa Food & Wine Festival 2010

Last weekend I attended the annual Noosa Food & Wine Festival, a first for me. This three day festival, which is in its seventh year, is considered Australia’s leading regional food and wine festival.  And as Noosa Heads is my new place of residence, I feel very fortunate that this amazing event takes place just around the corner from where I live. The beautiful Noosa River backdrop coupled with perfect weather brought the crowds, which came from all over Australia, out in full force.

The festival comprises cooking demonstrations, food and wine tastings and lectures as well as lunches and dinners, tours and live entertainment. The who’s who of Aussie Food was there, including Matt Preston of Masterchef fame and Matt Moran of Aria Restaurant, Sydney.

The animated Matt Preston

I was lucky enough to have tickets for the Asian Food Trail Tour on the Friday, which was one of the festival highlights for me. The tour entailed a visit to the Garnisha Spice Farm at Boreen Point, about 20 minutes drive from Noosa Heads. Upon arrival we were greeted with cocktails and a selection of mouth-watering canapés. Own Tim Warren, who grows an impressive variety of spices, took us on a tour of the farm which was fascinating.

Garnisha Spice Farm

 Then we sat down for lunch and were treated to a banquet prepared by Martin Boetz (Longrain Restaurant, Sydney) and Lien Yeomans (Green Papaya, Brisbane).  And what a feast it was!  The meal was accompanied by wines by Hungerford Hill, and it’s fair to say that a lot of eating, drinking and making merry was enjoyed by all. On the way back to Noosa, we stopped at local Gourmet Store and Fresh Food Market Belmondos, where we indulged in coffee and afternoon tea. I’m not sure how any of us managed to squeeze any more food in!

Martin Boetz preparing lunch

During the festival, I attended a number of cooking demonstrations, including “Top Queensland Produce” (Shane Bailey, Berardo’s Noosa and David Pugh, Restaurant Two, Brisbane) and “Two Master Chefs (Matt Moran and two staff of George Columbaris’ restaurant the Press Club, who were replacing George who was unable to attend the festival due to the volcano disrupting airline shedules).  It is always inspiring to learn new tips and cooking secrets from chefs of this calibre. 

Matt Moran cooking up a storm

I also attended a lively discussion “Masterchef Phenomenon…Food, Magazines and Cookbooks” featuring Matt Preston, Matt Moran and Trudi Jenkins. Some interesting little titbits were revealed about this season’s Masterchef, and general discussion around what constituted its resounding success.

There were plenty of food and wine tasting on offer, including an exciting assortment of Queensland produce and wineries from all parts of Australia. I was surprised at the quality of some of the Queensland wines I tasted, and the cheeses were really excellent.

The wine tastings were a popular activity

There were many more activities and events that I did not attend – after all you can only eat and drink so much, right? Next year I will definitely be joining the “Seafood Afloat” Trail and one of the degustation dinners. I can highly recommend this festival which takes place late April / early May – so mark your 2011 calendar now!

A good time was had by all!