SWEETFEST 2015 - SYDNEY CBD

Sweetfest 2015

Do you haver a sweet tooth - or two? We do - so we dropped in to Sweetfest 2015 - and we're glad we did. It was understandably busy - cause people love sweet things.

The concept was straight forward. They had stalls there selling their sugary sweet wares, and they had a series of masterclasses from some of the best in the sweet business. Tick and tick!

It was very busy there, both inside at the Masterclasses and outside at the stalls. It was all running so smoothly though. At the stalls, the food was moving quickly so people didn't need to queue, or when they did, not for long at all. It was great food too. 

Inside the masterclasses the crowds were being entertained, educated and impressed by some of the best around. We dropped by the masterclass with Andy Bowden which was being expertly compered by the dynamic Myffy Rigby. The crowd loved it. He was making sort serve desserts - sampled by an impromptu dance-off winner. The big screen up behind them meant everyone in the audience could see what was going on. 

We also had a chat with the next "sweet act", the lively  Alistair Wise who had come all the way from Sweet Envy in North Hobart.

Now we wished we'd been able to stay for his session as we've been to Sweet Envy in North Hobart. We therefore have some sort of connection.

Alistair is a real character - he literally bounces - he's a ball of energy.

His session was "salted caramel, pecan sticky bun and the expanded theory of everything".

In a weird way it summed him up perfectly.

Next to us was a cake made earlier by Katherine Sabbath - adorned with lollypops and dazzling everyone with its bright colours.

It certainly lived up to its name of "Water Coloured lollypop cake".

Katherine was arriving just as we left and this was another missed opportunity for us to hear from a sweet legend.

This was the first year for Sweetfest. It was popular, it had great food available and great demonstrations from some of the best around, all expertly kept together.

We left with plenty of goodies from a number of the tasty stalls there. We'll be back next year!

OMNIVORE - SYDNEY

Omnivore
Sydney

How good was Omnivore Sydney - from 2 - 5 October at the Maritime Museum?

If you went you'll know - and you'll be back.

If you didn't then you should have. You missed something quite spectacular.
The worldwide festival of "La jeune cuisine" - young chefs, new ideas. They brought together some of the most talented rising young chefs in Sydney with some amazing guest chefs from overseas as well. They each set out to showcase and share their skills in a series of Masterclasses.

They made it look easy too - and thoroughly inspired their audiences.

The whole day was superbly hosted by the dynamic and entertaining Simon Thomsen who is so well known in food circles.

First up on day 2 of Omnivore Sydney was the charming and entertaining Carla Jones of 4Fourteen in Surry Hills Sydney.

She made an amazing hock, tail, ear, head and blood terrine - all the less popular and unfashionable porky bits.

OMG - we got to try this and it was simply amazing! It's a skill to get the layers so even but we now keen to give this a go ourselves some time.

Second talent of the day was the Josh Niland of Fish Face in Double Bay Sydney - ably assisted by his wife Julie.

His impressive repertoire includes studying at The Fat Duck in Bray under Heston Blumenthal and we heard stories about this experience.

Josh, an exponent of fin to tail cooking, made a lovely dish from whole yellow fin tuna with radicchio and crisp bulgur "crackling".

Then Gita Seaton took the stage - or the kitchen stage! Gita is best known as the talent behind Nouveau Palais in Montreal.

She made hush puppies - a type of corn donut or fritter - which is a classic southern dish.

She served them with a spicy home made ketchup. She then prepared a delicate sake cured kingfish served with kaffir lime on a celery and lime leaf soup.

We then heard from the lively Patrick Friesen from Papi Chulo in Manly in Sydney's north.

Hearing his background and journey was just as entertaining as watching him create. He has a great sense of humour as well!

He made a beautiful dish of lightly fried calamari strips with crispy bacon pieces on a bed of dill sauce with scattered crisp potatoes and microherb garnish.

Then Paul Farag of Four in Hand in Paddington Sydney engrossingly educated us all on how to fillet a yellow belly flounder and how to use it all to minimise wastage. This was another beautiful dish that was served with a delicate sorrel and apple emulsion.

The finale for the day - and in fact the two days of Masterclasses - was Nathan Sasi from Nomad in Surry Hills Sydney. He was charming and entertaining as he made mortadella from scratch - we saw it all from go to whoa! He showcased skills from bygone days with flair!

Again it looked easy - or easyish - and tasted amazing as he kindly took around a tray of this delicious sliced meat. We both agreed though that we'd prefer to just go to Nomad and eat it there!

Omnivore Sydney was so good. Apart from the great Masterclasses we experienced we also had mountains of great food from Coup De Pates which included pastries, macarons, petit fours, cakes and other tasty treats which just kept being replenished. The water from both Badoit and Evian was also continuous! Talk about being spoiled.

We can't wait for Omnivore to come back to Sydney next year!