Good Food and Wine Show Perth 2011 – A True Perth Food and Wine Delight!

Posted by angie on Jul 22, 2011 in perth | 5 comments

With the Good Food and Wine Show in Perth sadly over for 2011, I thought I’d do a re-cap of this wonderful event that took place over the weekend at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was the first time that I had been, mainly because I have been living overseas for a few years so you can imagine my excitement of being able to go for the first time.

Although my friends and I arrived early, we were surprised to find that a long queue had already formed, waiting for the doors to open – sort of like the morning a Boxing Day sale, except more orderly! Luckily we managed to jump the queue as they had temporarily opened one of the doors at the back that was closest to the Celebrity Theatre Box Office and they were giving away tickets to watch Chef Matthew Moran of Aria Restaurant who gained fame through TV shows like the Chopping Block and MasterChef Australia.

As a natural entertainer, Matt Moran made jokes throughout the show (especially towards vegetarians) whilst showing us what you can do with a whole salmon – including giving away more than half of it to the audience!

Are the stalls at the Good Food and Wine Show Perth 2011 Worth the Visit?

Browsing through the stalls, it was amazing how the stall keepers weren’t stingy and kept offering samples to people to try even if they weren’t going to buy anything. Some of the stalls were not local, and had especially come over from the east coast of Australia just to be here. Out of all of the companies who had stalls, there were 2 stalls that I loved:

1) Ford
You’re probably thinking, “What on earth is a car manufacturer like Ford doing at a good food and wine show?” Well didn’t you know that Ford is going green? One day, we actually will drive cars made out of natural ingredients like chilli, tomatoes, capsicum, nuts, and so on. After all, with ALP’s/Julia Gillard’s Carbon Emissions Tax Scheme, businesses really have to do something different so they avoid this tax in the future.

To please the Australian Labor Party and its embattled leader, Julia Gillard, the Marketing team at Ford have come up with this brand new eco-friendly car featuring sexy wheels made out of the best cheese and licorice:

A powerful engine under the hot chilli and capsicum hood:

To create this stunning vehicle any vegetarian (and possibly carnivore) would be happy to drive:

Well done to the lady who created this piece of food art – you score an A+ for your awesome effort from us at the Wandering Gourmet!

As a side note, did you know that Henry Ford had a vision that one day we would be driving cars made out of soy bean products?

2) Barilla
Like many people, I am a fan of pasta and love making it at home. Normally I stick with other dried pasta and pasta sauces in the supermarket and started making pasta sauce from scratch about 5 years ago as I just wasn’t satisified with the store-bought sauces. However, I must say that I really enjoyed their delicious pasta, sauces, and dips that they brought to the table at the Good Food and Wine Show. My favourites were the basil pesto dip and the sun-dried tomato dip.

Barilla’s Executive Chef, Luca Ciano, was also present at the Perth Good Food and Wine Show and he gave the audience some great tips on how to really make a great pasta dish:

1. Never put oil into the water you are boiling the pasta in
2. Some people are confused as to how much salt you should put into the pot of water with the pasta in it – the answer is it should be to taste
3. When the pasta becomes al dente, pour most of the water out but keep just a little bit in there to help with the cooking process
4. Mix the pasta sauce and the pasta together in the pot together – don’t divide the pasta into bowls or plates and then pour the sauce on top

And for those who know me well, it comes as no surprise that I also enjoyed the Malaysian Kitchen stall. The Malaysian Kitchen stall is actually a Malaysian Government funded tourism-related project to allow other countries discover what Malaysian cuisine is all about. As part of this project, they brought a few local and interestate Malaysian cooks and chefs to the Good Food and Wine Show Perth such as Allen Woo from Melbourne’s Laksa Me and Alvin Quah who was a former contestant from MasterChef Australia.

I especially loved sampling all the goodies – beef rendang, fish balls with a peanut sauce – oh my! The very thought of real Malaysian cuisine makes me salivate!

There were also other delicious things to taste at more than 100 stalls at the Good Food and Wine Show Perth such as salmon, dips, cheese, olives, wine, cider, tea, and many different kinds of coffee including Vietnamese coffee and coffee cream.

The Good Food and Wine Show’s Celebrity Theatre

Other than watching Matt Moran at the Good Food and Wine Show, I did manage to also watch Manu Feildel of Dancing with the Stars fame, who has also appeared on My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef Australia. Driving the crowd wild with his opening video complete with pole dancers, he continued on wowing the crowd with his crowd pleasing jokes and juggling. Having recently won Dancing with the Stars 2011, Manu simply couldn’t resist the temptation of showing off his dancing skills on the overhead projector. Although I’m not sure whether he heard Matt Moran joke about Manu Feidel being gay in the morning – “because no straight man could ever win a dancing contest”…

However, there could be another reason why he is a culinary genius, dances like a modern Fred Astaire, and wins over the ladies (and the men too). According to Wikipedia, Manu Feildel is simply not human – he is actually… a cyborg!

Another crowd pleaser at the Good Food and Wine Show’s Celebrity Theatre was the MasterChef Australia combo of George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan which was not only educational, but a laugh-a-minute show. Unfortunately I was unable to watch Western Australia’s own Anna Gare although I was a fan of hers from ‘The Best in Australia’.

My Thoughts on the Good Food and Wine Show Perth 2011

Overall, I would recommend anyone who loves discovering food and wine to go to the Good Food and Wine Show Perth 2012. If you didn’t go this year, you have to go next year! Going to the Good Food and Wine Show was really the perfect way to spend a cold winters’ day indoors – from the time the doors open, to literally when the doors shut.

If you went to the Good Food and Wine Show Perth 2011 – what did you think of this event? Who would you choose as a guest Celebrity Chef for the next Good Food and Wine Show?