There are hundreds of stands on display, by well-known as well as boutique exhibitors, showcasing their gourmet food, wine, micro brewery products and kitchen utensils.
Love wine? If you like me like wine and hope to get a couple of bottles from the show, it may be worth your while to head first to the merchandise store just as you enter the exhibition hall and purchase a wine glass.
Take the glass with you as you check out each wine exhibits and there are quite a number of them from the Yarra Valley, Victoria to the Barossa Valley, South Australia. There are even a couple of stores with wine varieties from New Zealand, France and China. So if you like what's on display, ask and you'll get to sample their wine varieties on offer. You not only get to keep the glass as a souvenir, but you'll help reduce the number of small plastic cups that are used to serve the wines.
Beside wine, there are many other exhibits. One of the favourite exhibits is cheese, from mozzarella to cheddar to brie. You might just discover a new favourite from one of these stands. Fancy some sweets or candy? There is a stand from the Sovereign Hill Candy Store, served by ladies in period costumes. Jams! Ask the girls in their Frenchy uniform from St. Dalfour.
OzHarvest Melbourne is the official charity partner for the show and it has a store to share their story about what they do. Basically, OzHarvest rescues surplus food every day and delivers it to local charities for hungry people, in need of quality food and nourishment. Did you know $8-10 billion worth of food goes to waste each year?
Apart from the food and the wine exhibits, there is also a line up of renowned local and international chefs cooking shows where they get to share their gastronomic creations at the Good Food Theatre.
The two international chefs cooking shows we attended for the day was the popular British TV star Ainsley Harriott and Spanish chef Miguel Maestre. The local chef/cook is the Australian TV chef Silvia Colloca, from the cooking series ‘Made in Italy’ in 2014 on SBS.
You might just be inspired by them, just enough to consider or even attempt to make restaurant like quality dishes at home. If you do, you might even impress your friends and family. Now how did Silvia prepared that sausage pizza?
After the show, we visited the Bookworld Stand for the opportunity to meet with Silva Colloca, to take a couple of photos and have a copy of her cookbook signed!
Yeap, it's another great day at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show!
