IGA Taste Great Southern Launch Party at The Terrace Hotel
Posted by Featured, Food and Wine Festivals, Great Southern, Perth | Categories:The IGA Taste Great Southern festival is held every year in February through to March in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It is a celebration of all the wonderful food culture from this beautiful part of our State with over 70 individual events being held across the region.
Taste Great Southern is a food and wine festival with something to suit all types of foodies ranging from elaborate degustation dinners, beach BBQs, cooking demonstrations by famous chefs and farmers markets. There is even an Oyster Festival. Yes, an entire festival dedicated to oysters.
I recently attended the Perth launch for Taste Great Southern held at The Terrace Hotel. I was approached prior to the event with the job offer of being the official photographer for the night. The whole concept of being a paid photographer surprised me as I consider myself anything but a pro.
I arrived at the Terrace Hotel as early as possible to enable me to set up some shots before the guest arrived and to get a feel for the venue. Unfortunately, thanks to the sun my debut as a paid photographer was not an easy task. Lighting can be a photographer’s best friend or it can be their worst enemy and in this case light was no means my friend. From the beginning to the very end of the event, the sun bore down at blinding angles making the job of taking beautiful photos much more difficult than I had anticipated.
When the guests arrived, the hotel staff began to bring out a number of exquisite bite sized morsels made using fresh Great Southern produce.
As everyone started to fill up on the canapes, Chefs Pete Manifis, Don Hancey and Kenny McHardy began to cook up a storm.
Whilst I enjoyed being a professional for one night, I have realised that I still have a lot to learn and by the end of the job I was thoroughly exhausted. Unlike all attending guests including the Boy, I didn’t have much of a chance to eat over as I was too busy running about trying to get the best shots.
The Boy suggested we go and sit inside in The Terrace’s restaurant and share something more substantial before heading home. Famished and weary it was an offer I could hardly refuse. The hotel staff were very accommodating with my dietary requirement guiding me through a number of options suitable off their menu. As I looked around the dimly lit restaurant I chuckled to myself, I had gone from one photography nightmare to another. First too much bright light, and now nearly none at all!
We haven’t eaten any oysters that can even remotely compare to the amazing ones we ate on our travels last month to Tasmania. In fact the last batch I bought hoe for us to eat were very close to being putrid. Nevertheless we decided to take a punt and order half a dozen. Thankfully, these were deliciously slurpalicious and fresh.
Neither of us felt like a full main course so we shared a plate of seared scallops served with blood orange and baby carrot purée and grapefruit beurre blanc.
We also ordered the Black Angus sashimi was served with pickled daikon radish, ponzu dressing, wasabi mayonnaise and kale crisps. The meat was slightly sweet and tender and melted on contact with my tongue.
For dessert we shared the passionfruit parfait with strawberries and meringue. The parfait was a bit icy in texture and lacked any of the creaminess that a parfait should have. Whilst I did enjoyed the tang of the passionfruit I would have preferred the parfait to have a smoother consistency.
The Taste Great Southern food and wine festival runs from the 19th of February until the 29th of March this year across the Great Southern Region. There is a comprehensive event list available on their website.
Disclaimer: Chompchomp was an invited guest of the Taste Great Southern launch and was paid to take the photographs for the night.
The Terrace Hotel
237 St Georges Tce, Perth WA 6000 | (08) 9214 4444 | www.terracehotelperth.com.au
For my previous posts on Chompchomp of The Terrace Hotel, head to the Pemberton Finger Limes tasting night, Billy Law’s photography workshop and my roving lunch at Eat Drink Perth last year.
IGA Taste Great Southern Perth Launch Party 2014
Posted by Attractions, Events, Featured, Food and Wine Festivals, Great Southern, Perth, Regional WA | Categories:Last night marked the launch of the 2014 IGA Taste Great Southern Food and Wine festival with the Perth Launch Party being held at the State Theatre Centre in Northbridge. I joined a group of invited guests from the food industry as we wined and dined on a wonderful selection of the amazing produce this region has to offer.
The Taste Great Southern festival runs over the next four weeks with over 45 events held across the Great Southern region ranging from farmers markets, pop up dinners, guest chef cooking demonstrations, degustation dinners, beach BBQ’s and picnics.
This year a few celebrity chefs will make an appearance at the festival including the legendary Stephanie Alexander, bright and bubbly Poh Ling Leow and WA’s own Anna Gare.
Anna Gare created an incredible work of art for the evening made entirely of fresh produce from the region.
IGA’s Taste Great Southern Food and Wine Festival runs from the 22nd of February to the 30th of March across the Great Southern region including Albany, Denmark, Mt Barker, Porongurup, Frankland and Kojonup. For more details on all the events head to their website or follow them on Twitter .