The key to tackling a food festival, and managing to sample plenty of dishes, is to sit down and plan everything you want to try before wandering around and becoming overwhelmed with the selections—your eyes are always bigger than your stomach so it’s good to prioritise. After thorough and careful assessment, we began.

Our first dish was Ortiga‘s chicken and lemon croquettas. These had a rich, creamy filling, cut with a hit of zingy lemon, and a delightfully crunchy deep-fried breadcrumb shell. The ultimate comfort food, and still being a bit crisp in the late morning, it made for a good start.

In search of wine, we happened upon the next on our food tasting list—Moda, which was serving a tapas plate of marinated Hervey Bay scallop with lemongrass and grapefruit; Gold Coast prawn ceviche with orange and vanilla; and piquilla pepper and fish salad. The chef, Javier Codina, is quite simply a genius. His food is so enticingly full of flavour. It sounds simple but has a complexity that leaves you wanting more and more.

After a quick sip of 2011 Stonier Chardonnay, it was off to Brents for crispy confit duck with eureka lemon and liquorice. Delicious! The duck was so soft it just melted in your mouth and the liquorice crisp was a brilliant textural change that held its flavour in the mouth and cut through the richness of the duck. Loved it!

Next stop 1889 Enoteca. We’ve tried to visit this popular restaurant three times (always booked out), so it was great to finally try their food. On the menu, potato gnocchi with pork and fennel sausage, black truffle tapenade and, parmesan cream. Great dish, you could really pick out the aniseed flavour of the fennel in the pork sausage and the gnocchi was light and fluffy, but I fear the sauce was just too rich for such a hot day. About half way through this dish we were full, but assisted to the finish by a glass of 2010 Stefano Lubiana Primavera Chardonnay.

In dire need of something lighter and fresh, it was off to Armstrongs for crisp fried Toowoomba range pork cheek, caramelised onions and apple puree. OK, so that doesn’t sound lighter, but it came with a refreshing salad of lettuce and apple with a vinaigrette. The pork was like one of Nana’s slow-cooked Sunday roasts—soft, salty and wonderfully intense. There’s no room for the health conscious at a food festival, you just have to embrace it.

The last of the savoury dishes was Aria Brisbane‘s daube of Darling Downs beef pie with Paris mash and a glass of 2010 St Hallett Faith Shiraz. Talk about died and gone to foodie heaven…buttery pastry around a thick meaty filling, topped off with creamy mashed potato, it really doesn’t get any better.

I have to admit, we both needed to sit and relax (with a glass of 2010 Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz) for quite some time before even considering dessert, of which there were plenty on offer. In summary:

• Custard tart with fresh local Red Hill raspberries from Confit
• Macaroons (caramel, chocolate and strawberry) from Boucher French Bistro—light and luscious
• Meringue with mascarpone cream, Babinda banana and salted butterscotch sauce, also from Boucher French Bistro—game over, this dessert was amazing!
• Chocolate sour cream cup cake with real Red Hill raspberry butter cream, again from Boucher French Bistro—gorgeous and just the right amount of sweetness.

You could not ask for a better day, venue and setup for the Delectable Food Bowl, it was perfect. A great showcase not only of Brisbane’s favourites, but of well known local restaurants and cafes as well. The organisers had arranged plenty of tables and chairs, and the chosen area in Botanic Gardens offered both shaded and sunny grassed areas for lounging around. And with three stages for live music, visitors to the festival could experience a different vibe from each of the three different precincts.

The only down side—massive queues for “delectable dollars” (I’m sure some people waited for well over 30 minutes to purchase the only currency accepted at the festival) and then currency sellers ran low later in the afternoon. This would certainly have affected sales at the food and drink outlets, but it did seem to sort itself out after the mad lunch-time rush.

All in all I think the event was a success…and judging by the crowd, an event that Brisbane-based foodies have been crying out for. Looking forward to 2013!

The live show was great. I was intrigued by hearing Heston tell the story of how he got into cooking in the first place, and where all his weird and wonderful ideas for dishes come from. From a memorable family dinner in France—beautiful food and surroundings punctuated by the natural smells and sounds of the location—his life changed and he decided he wanted to become a chef. He spent years reading, learning and perfecting his cooking techniques and absorbing everything he could about gastronomy. The turning point for him was reading On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which taught him to challenge some of the culinary ideas being touted as absolutes or ‘the rules’ of good cooking.

Heston Blumenthal is part mad scientist (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), part genius, yet listening to him explain, it all seems to make perfect sense. He did go off on tangents from time to time during the evening but even that was a fascinating insight into how his very creative mind works.

Some may have been disappointed that Heston himself didn’t cook, but being realistic, a two-and-a-half hour live show isn’t really conducive to his style of cooking. Having said that, he did still demonstrate how to cook the perfect steak (turn every 15 seconds until cooked to your liking then rest). He also talked about the importance not only of taste but sight, sound and smell and how they affect the way we enjoy eating food.

I give you the Tim-Tam example to demonstrate the importance of smell, and this is definitely something to try at home. Everyone in the audience was given a Tim-Tam and during the show Heston told us to close our eyes, hold our noses and take a bite. He then asked us to think about the taste of that mouthful—to be honest, it was sweet but not as chocolaty as normal; a bit ‘ho hum’ really. Heston then asked us to take bite as we normally would, eyes open and noses unblocked. The difference was amazing. In the case of the Tim-Tam, you don’t taste the chocolate so much as you actually smell it.

Sight is more obvious—if the food doesn’t look appetising; people are less likely to want to eat it. Interestingly, if it’s not visually appealing, then this affects the way people perceive the taste too—they will most likely be disappointed—giving new meaning to the expression ‘eating with our eyes’.

Heston’s numerous examples demonstrated the importance of the different senses to eating and I definitely get it—enjoying the taste of a meal is only part of the whole experience. It is the sight, sound, feel and smell, together with taste, that prompt associations and memories to be created, making the overall experience more pleasurable.

All in all it was a wonderful evening listening to highly successful yet incredibly down-to-earth guy. I feel like I learned a lot about food and thoroughly enjoyed Heston Blumenthal’s passion for his work. If he ever comes back, I would happily see him again. And oh how I would love to eat at The Fat Duck!

We spent several very enjoyable hours checking out wines, cheeses, dips, smallgoods, coffee—you name it, it was there for the sampling. The show merchandise was very clever too. Upon entry, if you wanted to sample wine, you had to buy a glass. We bought the wine glasses with neck straps—an excellent idea for keeping the hands free for picking up food samples and carrying purchases. After about an hour we’d bought so much that we then had to buy a trolley so we could wheel our purchases around instead of lugging them. If only they had cooler bags…

Going on Friday instead of over the weekend also meant that the crowds weren’t too bad and we never had to wait too long to be served.

A couple of downsides though…

Firstly the convention centre in Brisbane lacks any kind of style, which detracts from the overall atmosphere of the event. It’s rather soulless and very much likely wandering around a huge tin shed.

The second issue was that while there were ample food stalls to sample, the eating area serving lunch was expensive. Whatever happened to the gourmet sandwich or pizza, or what about a meze platter? We’re not particularly interested in paying $20+ a plate for lunch just because some ex-MasterChef contestant developed the dish…a real chef, maybe…

Overall, it is certainly a great way to try lots of different wines without having to commit to buying a whole bottle. I just think that the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Festival lacked the breezy vibe of Taste of Sydney (which we’ve just booked to attend again in 2012). Mind you, they are quite different events—the Sydney one focuses on restaurants serving samples from their menus, whereas this one focuses on food and wine producers showing off their wares.

Taste of Sydney is a great place to try signature dishes from some of Sydney’s best cafes and restaurants, not to mention Australian wines. There were also demonstration classes and chef’s tables where you could experience firsthand how these signature dishes are created, which is absolutely fascinating for motivated home cooks like us.

We only managed to squeeze in sample plates from five restaurants, but the offerings were incredible. If only we could have eaten more!

Here’s what we had…

Etch Dining

• Seared scallops with cauliflower puree, bhaji and curry

This was without a doubt our favourite of the day. The scallops were seared perfectly so that they were sweet and tender. The cauliflower puree was deliciously creamy, contrasting beautifully with the crunchy bhaji. The curry sauce was flavoursome but not overpowering—a tasty mix of sweet and savoury with just a hint of heat.

Restaurant Balzac

• Saddle of suckling pig with baby garden peas

The pork had obviously been slow-cooked for a very long time and any trace of fat had melted away. It literally fell apart in the mouth, so juicy and tender. The peas were sweet and minty, a refreshing cleanser after the richness of the meat. Fantastic!

Four in Hand

• 12-hour braised lamb shoulder with pea and feta salad

Minty peas seemed to be a common theme with the meat dishes. These peas were really yummy with feta melted through to make a sort of dressing. The lamb itself was amazing. So full of flavour, it reminded me of nana’s lamb roast—the one she’d cook slowly and lovingly for hours in her wood-fired oven. Divine!

Assiette & District Dining

• District Dining spicy free-range Lilydale chicken with lime aioli and coleslaw

So tasty! This dish was large pieces of tender chicken breast in a spicy, crispy batter. The coleslaw had lots of crunchy vegetables and a really light and zingy dressing. All served with lime aioli, which was creamy, with just the right amount of tang, and oh so more-ish. Think of it as a grown-up version of KFC’s crispy chicken strips…District Dining’s strips satisfy the kid within but are actually fresh and healthy.

Bilson’s & Number One Wine Bar

• Apple tarte tatin with calvados crème anglaise

You just don’t see enough calvados (a pear and/or apple brandy) on menus. So when we saw this dish on the tasting menu, we knew we had to have it. Soft, sweet apple, crisp pastry and rich cream—really, does it get any better than that? This was a lovely way to finish off the afternoon.

Taste of Sydney was a brilliant afternoon out. Being around others who love food and wine as much as we do, and chatting together about our experiences, it really heightened our excitement about food.

We’ll definitely be keeping 8–11 March 2012 free for the next festival.