The seventh annual Noosa Food and Wine Festival was simply the best with live entertainment and a trip down memory lane - the Australian Bee Gees opened the festival and the incredible Rebecca O'Connor as Tina Turner to close. The whos who of food from around Australia mixed and mingled.

www.noosafoodandwine.com.au

When festival organisers Jim Berardo and Greg O'Brien aren't busy organising the Noosa Food and Wine event they are overseeing 2 of Noosa's iconic restaurants: Berardo's On The Beach and Berardo's www.berardos.com.au

Beautiful Noosa

Australian Bee Gees

Aromas Noosa - great place to have coffee and people watch

Queensland Produce

Its always great to see our beautiful produce from the Sunshine Coast on show along with many Queensland wines.

Barambah Organics - marinated feta and yoghurt are simply the best www.barambahorganics.com.au

Maleny Cheese www.malenycheese.com.au

Sarah from Maleny Cheese and me

Kingaroy Cheese www.kingaroycheese.com.au

Midyim Eco www.midyimeco.com.au

Richard Mohan produces these fantastic Peppers of Padron.

Pimientos de Padrón might be small but they have a load of flavour, with an incomparable sweet taste and delicate flesh. Further, the nutritional value of these seemingly unassuming peppers is extraordinary. They contain vitamins A, B1, B2, C, P, proteins, calcium, iron and virtually no calories. Pimientos de Padrón also have many other special properties; approximately one in ten is hot and that is why they are sometimes known as the culinary “Russian Roulette” Pepper.

The Hot Pepper also has many medicinal properties. It aids the digestive system, quickens scar tissue healing and helps to maintain good blood circulation as well as reducing high blood pressure and lowering cholesterol. But, maybe the most interesting property associated with the Hot Peppers is the fact that they are well known as an aphrodisiac!

Spanner Crabs Noosa www.sunshinecoastregionalfood.com/localharvest/producer-profiles/88.html

Run by Alison Reed and Jason Sgro, Spanner Crabs Noosa are specialists in live, fresh, and frozen seafood for retail and the hospitality industry, supplying the best of Queensland restaurants and yes, some goes to Sydney.

Noosa Lime Co. www.noosalimeco.com.au

OlivFresh www.olivfresh.com.au

Other regions on show...

Regional New South Wales

Mirrool Creek Lamb www.mirroolcreek.com.au 

Pananui Open Range Eggs

Regional Victoria

Warialda Belted Galloway Beef - pastrami, bresaola, beef sticks and Italian salami all worthy of tasting

Boer Goats 

Yarra Valley Dairy www.yvd.com.au

Shaw River Buffalo Cheeses www.shawriverbuffalo.com

Seven Hills Tallarook www.sevenhillstallarook.com.au

Tasmania

Leatherwood Honey www.tasmanianhoney.com

Woodbridge Smokehouse www.woodbridgesmokehouse.com.au

Pyengana Dairy Company

Joseph Oils www.primoestate.com.au

Celebrity chef cooking demos were also on offer: Top Queensland Produce with Shane Bailey and David Pugh, Two Master Chefs with George Calombaris and Matt Moran, Easy French with Justin North and Jacques Reymond, Stress-free delicious. Dinner Party with Valli Little, Victoria Fresh with Alla Wolf-Tasker and Matt Wilkinson, All Things Burgundy with Leonie Palmer-Fisher, Simple Asian Delights with Annette Fear and Shinichi Maeda, Something Tricky for Home with Meyjitte Boughenout and Ryan Squires, Poultry to Please with Brad Jolly and Pablo Tordesillas, Easy but Sophisticated with Peter Doyle and Andrew McConnell, Simple Puddings with Philip Johnson and Geoff Lindsay and Green Papaya with Lien Yeomans and many more...

One of my favourite presentations was Economical Cuts with Martin Boetz (executive chef of Sydney and Melbourne restaurants Longrain) and Matt McConnell (chef and co-owner of Bar Lourinha in Melbourne. Matt lived in Noosa for 3 years working as head chef at Berardo's on the Beach and Berardo's). They both present really well together and engage the audience with much fun and laughter.

Matt also did another class with Pablo Tordesillas from Brisbane's fabulous Ortiga

Ryan Squires formerly from the Buffalo Club (chef of the year, Courier Mail Queensland Food and Wine Guide) and Meyjitte Boughenout executive chef and owner of Absynthe demonstrated something tricky for home

Shinichi Maeda award winning chef from Wasabi in Noosa demonstrated simple Asian delights

The Masterchef Phenomenon A fantastic discussion with the panel on the highest rating TV show in Australia other than the Olympic games and some Rugby games. Masterchef captivated 5.1 million viewers with their show of ordinary people chasing their dreams. On the panel were Matt Moran (chef and co-owner of Aria restaurants in Brisbane and Sydney and TV shows My Restaurant Rules and Chopping Block), Ben Liebman (from Fremantle Media), Trudi Jenkins (editor-in-chief of Delicious and the new Masterchef magazine) and Matt Preston (logie winner for Best New Talent and writer for Delicious and Masterchef magazines). The great thing about this show is that it has got the general public interested in food and where it comes from. It has also had such a huge impact on kids.

Some other fantastic forums were Sustainable Produce and the Economic Outlook for Restaurants. Gail Donovan from Melbourne's fantastic restaurant Donovans had some great input. Another notable session was the Food Critics Review with Jane Frawley, Lizzie Loel, Bob Hart, Tony Love, Simon Thomsen, David Dale and Necia Wilden.

Bob Hart (writes for Melbournes The Herald Sun) said a column should be entertaining and food critics should lock their ego away and sum up about the restaurant, not just the view of the critic.

Simon Thomsen (restaurant critic for Taste, The Daily Telegraphs Tuesday food and wine section) said the review should read fairly with correct facts as it is ultimately a guide for customers and entertainment for readers. Simon is one of the good guys as he doesn't go in the 5 first days of a restaurant opening like most other food critics, he goes in after 4 weeks.

Necia Wilden (co-editor of the Weekend Australian) agreed with the others but seems to wear more of a journalists hat and insists on a good piece of writing with the first responsibility to the reader, not just to support the industry.

Lizzie Loel (writes for the Courier Mail) agreed with most of the other critics comments however won my vote as she felt there was some responsibility to restaurants otherwise there would be no restaurants to review. But at the end of the day she was employed by a newspaper and has a duty to her readers.

Tony Love (restaurant reviewer and wine writer for the Advertiser in Adelaide) stated that he is a food reviewer not a food ambassador and lets his readers know where to go, the context and background, humanity and story of a restaurant. He believes that food critics are reporters who must analyse, criticise and have some understanding, being able to feel and see the consequences of a review. A high profile restaurant does incur pressure from editors for a story...

David Dale (writes and talks about ideas, journeys, fads, foods and media) said while there is a responsibility to the reader with food critics, whatever happened to anonymity and why must they all be superstars.   

It was said during discussion that bloggers are emotive and don't have a code of ethics.

A couple of my favourite hecklers from the audience were Alla Wolf-Tasker (the helm of the multi-award winning Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria) gave the food critics curry saying that they have to have respect, understand the industry, not bullshit or go out of their way to prove a point. She also suggested that food critics go to restaurants on a whole on the busier nights when the restaurant is under the pump as we all know the biggest the mistakes happen on the quieter nights. Giovanni Pilu (chef and owner of Sydney's Pilu) asked if food critics actually research the cuisine if it is unknown to them ie Italy has many regions of different food. Armando Percuoco (chef and owner of Buon Ricordo) was quite vocal and very entertaining.