Alessandro Pavoni from Spiedo Restaurant and Bar teaches me the language of love. Spice up your life with Zaatar from Sami’s Kitchen and become an Optimiste with some very, very good wine. The latest FoodinFocus radio show was all about quality. I love Alessandro, his food is honest, his produce excellent and for value you can’t beat it. No matter if you are going rustic and real at Spiedo on Level 6 Westfield in the City (Sydney) or a little more modern at Ormeggio at the Spit (Spit Bridge) you can’t go wrong. Plus the Chef brought in the sexiest cheese I have ever eaten. Aromatic deeply delicious. We then went from Italy to Lebanon and sampled some of the fantastic spice blends from Sami’s Kitchen, Hayssam Bejjan cooked up some of his mothers favourite recipes and left us wanting more. The team Sharlene and Steve Dadd from Optimiste Wines are warm and wonderful, when you want a boutique, restaurant quality wine you need to pop onto their website and have a look. I loved all three wines including the often maligned semillon, the Optimiste 2011 “Paris in Spring” rose is deep in colour and easy to drink and the 2008 petit verdot was smooth and lovely. I will hopefully be working with all three of these great brands during my Limited Table exclusive food adventures.
On Saturday I welcomed the boys from Selah a lovely restaurant situated in Loftus Street, Circular Quay. The ever self depreciating Chef Gavin Foster and Restaurateur Sam Pask added some fun to the studio. Their new look venue and Gavin’s great food make for a winning combination. My little great find Redbelly Blood Oranges were a highlight. Delicious fruit and Oh that blood orange marmalade, Len Mancini delighted us with his fruitful stories. And the always wonderful Justin Walters who brought three fantastic wines from Yealands Estate. The Pinot Gris 2010 the Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (Which I loved, loved, loved) , and the Pinot Noir 2009.
Giveaway
One lucky person will receive a bottle of Yealands Estate Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2009 to enter click here
Watch the fun video of last weeks show and answer the questions for a chance to receive fantastic prizes. Tip some of the answers are in the credits at the end!
Jet Bar & Caffe
To be the lucky one to receive a $100 voucher from Jet Bar and Caffe click here
McIntosh & Bowman and the Beer Diva
To be one of the lucky two to receive a voucher for a beer and cheese tasting from McIntosh & Bowman and Beer Diva click here
Next week: we interview the team behind the newly refurbed Selah restaurant and we get into some home grown blood orange produce all celebrated with some beautiful wines from Justin Walters.
Published on September 15, 2011 in General. Closed
What happens when I am lucky enough to have a few of my favourite friends in the studio and each one is a total foodie. Fun and laughter is possibly the answer. Chef Danny Russo from Jet Bar & Caffe at the QVB entertained us with true Italian humour and passion. Claudia Bowman from McIntosh & Bowman is a cheesemonger on a mission, a mission to share her cheese love with everyone. And Kirrily Waldhorn is the Beer Diva, a woman who knows her beer and loves to challenge our age old perceptions. Between them we learnt how to match beer to cheese and then how to use it in mamma’s Italian cooking.
As with last week our fabulous video partner vitalsigns.com.au has captured the fun and the food and now all you have to do is sit back and watch the highlights. Our prizes this week are all linked in to the food story unfolding in the video.
How exciting hosting the 89.7FM FoodinFocus Radio show on Saturday as it’s now on film. Lazy me decided that the best way to share our wonderful guests, food, wine and products with everyone is to just capture the fun visually. So here we have a stellar cast.
James Hird and Todd Garratt from Buzo and the Wine Library, Rebecca Varidel from Inside Cuisine and Colin Holt and Jeff Winfield from Hudson Meats. We had great fun talking about Paddock to Plate produce and biodynamic, preservative free wines with the boys. And Rebecca and I got to recount our fabulous Hunter Valley Amazing Race which took place last weekend. So here we share some of the fun snippets with you.
