Category Archives: food festivals

Jun11

Combining the best with the best!

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Combining the best with the best!

Oh yes it was a sensational 3 whole days.  The Good Food & Wine Show Melbourne… everything Melbourne has to offer from chefs to the best fresh produce and hands on classes.

KitchenAid we featured with a freshest most abundant partner there is  … The Melbourne Market Authority – Yes as Melbourne sleeps the markets at Footscray are in full action!  Hundreds of growers and beautiful fresh produce – pallet after pallet.

The Melbourne Markets stand at the Good Food & Wine Show with KitchenAid appliances was a perfect marriage. Simply put combining the best with the best!

What’s in season? Read the rest of this entry →

May21

The buzz word is Quinoa

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The buzz word is Quinoa

Last week I was part of an exciting food show in Brisbane. Not only was it fabulous to be up in that glorious warm temperature but part of the first Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show 2010. The line up included an incredible line up of Chefs, Nutrionists, Dieticians and of course a fabulous Home Economist – me!

As you might know I follow a gluten free diet, I am gluten intolerant. The official name if you are formally diagnosed is Coeliac disease. Many people now follow a gluten free diet for various health reasons not necessarily because they are formally diagnosed medically. Read the rest of this entry →

Apr17

Shake It up Baby!

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Shake It up Baby!

The KitchenAid blender and team were going to be part of the Sydney Easter Show !

As a child I was so excited to go every year to the Sydney Easter Show… it was big, loud and so much fun for ‘city’ kids.  All the cows, horses, dog shows, displays, rides and yes the show bags! But I had not been for 10 years or so and not at the ‘new’ location at Homebush Bay.

Dairy Farmers, a long time gold sponsor of the Sydney RAS was creating fabulous, fun-filled, interactive ‘hands on’ classes for kids (7- 12 years). The message ‘3 serves of dairy’ made and served in a really creamy delicious SMOOthie! The dairy was also reduced fat yet still had a delicious creamy flavour and texture.

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Jan12

KitchenAid Down Under podcast – Episode Three

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KitchenAid Down Under podcast – Episode Three

It’s time to kick off the year with another podcast, and this time we have our very special guest Simone Gordon.

Simone is not only a fabulous foodie, but she hosts the most amazing festivals and events!

You might have visited Chocolate Rush, Holy Goat or the Spud Hunters exhibit at last year’s Royal Melbourne show. She is also planning a fascinating event in March called “Plan Bee” – it’s all about bees and honey!

We hope you enjoy our conversation with KitchenAid fan Simone – we had such a great time we talked a little bit longer that in previous shows.

And while you are listening, have a look at this fascinating wall chart on Australian potatoes that Simone sent us after we talked about all the different varieties of potatoes we can buy in Australia.

Let us know what you think of the show and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast at the iTunes Music Store — just click on the link on the right hand side of the blog.

KitchenAid Down Under podcast with guest Simone Gordon – Ep 3

Sep27

A Grand show in the Grand Pavillion:

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A Grand show in the Grand Pavillion:

It has been a little while since I last posted…. But what a 10 days I have had!

The 2009 Royal Melbourne show has been my home for the last week or so . You could spend the entire visit to the show just in the Grand Pavillion  – with over  120 wonderful foods to sample and learn about, beer & wine sampling and great gadgets for your home  exhibitors… I have purchased so many great things for my test kitchen!

The stage has been a flurry of fabulous non stop activity. I  cooked myself into a frenzy and as always the robust, calm and reliable KitchenAid  appliances  performed and performed.  Everychef and presentor has loved using them. And to those wonderful fellow foodies who stayed back and chatted with me - I loved your  and questions and the joyful expresssions.  Several of you were also lucky enough to take home a very special KitchenAid or Profiline gift too.

Vanilla Snow Pavlova

Vanilla Snow Pavlova

Favourite KitchenAid recipes were definitely the brown sugar meringues with many ooohs from guest chefs and the audience. The mixer does many great things but the quality of the meringue produced is spectacular. The chocolate beetroot  cake was also a winner.  The other favouties…..potato au gratin, Mexican meatballs,   French apple muffins and petite coconut cup cakes  to name but a few.

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Sep14

The love for Chocolate continues

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The love for Chocolate continues

At Chocolate Rush this year ( held on the 8th & 9th August at the Melbourne Show Grounds) I was  delighted and privileged to meet a sensational pastry chef and chocolatier Pierrick Boyer. Pierrick is the executive pastry chef at le petite gateau in Little Collins Street Melbourne.  Oh, how wonderful is this superb little patisserie. It’s in a swish little section on little Collins Street (just up the road from Vue du Monde).…. A wonder around this section of the city always reminds me ‘just why’ I love living in Melbourne.IMG_1822

Chatting with Pierrick, I soon heard the passion he has always felt for KitchenAid and I was very impressed when he told me  he has visited the factory (yes where these beautiful machines are actually made) in Ohio. The mixers are still hand made which is a remarkable thing in it self in this throw away plastic era of appliances.

Here is  Pierrick and some of his team with him holding his new mixer ( if looks little different it because its from the commercial range. A large mixer with a special thermal cut off – so if the motor gets too warm it will stop – excellent for pastry chef’s as they push the mixer hard). Read the rest of this entry →

Aug13

For the love of chocolate

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For the love of chocolate

Oh what a weekend it was. The Chocolate Rush festival was held last weekend here in Melbourne – 8th & 9th August.   It was a glorious weekend celebration of all things chocolate (dark, milk and white)!

Chocolate is a comforting best friend or a tempting mistress! It has the power to make a bad day a good one! It is definitely one of life’s luxuries. Chocolate Rush featured world famous chocolatiers, pastry chefs, food writers, and teachers from abroad and locally.  Oh and a few speakers discussing the importance of  chocolate fair trade ( a topic I will write more about later).

From rolling up your sleaves and participating in a ‘hands on class’ to sitting back and watching the masters show their skill – it was a luscious weekend.

I was lucky enough to be part of the Masters at Work series amongst other greats like Maureen McKeon, Nici Wickes, Andy Van Zen Broek, Alan Campion, Pierrick Boyer and the ultimate chocolatiers from Australia, France and Japan – Kirsten Tibballs & Paul Kennedy, Christian Caprini and Koji Fujita. Have a look at a few favourite snaps.

My recipes for chocolate brownies inspired and delighted as I worked my way through a lite version, a cheeky beetroot spiked batch and finished with a luscious gooey nut studded gluten free batch. Each brownie recipe also has a different method or technique for preparing, which gives each one a totally different mouth feel and end texture. Here’s the recipe.

KitchenAid was the hero of the festival Read the rest of this entry →