Well, I said I’d report back on my findings after attending the 2010 Good Food and Wine Show. So here goes…
We arrived at 11.15 on Friday morning, and I have to admit I was expecting my interest to flag within a couple of hours at most. Outside a generous sample of rum by 11.20am, I started to feel optimistic about the day ahead. As things transpired, we were still there at 4pm when the day session finished, and could have put in another few hours quite cheerfully – without sampling all the Show had to offer!
We didn’t even attend a celebrity cooking demo, entry to which was free with the promo tickets. There was just too much else to see, sample, sip (all at no charge other than the entry price). In fact, there was so much food to sample that I didn’t bother with lunch – no need. It was a day of constant grazing, broken up for us by two excellent free hosted wine tastings in the ‘Reidel Wine Theatre’, in which the winemakers gave their perspectives on their drops (briefly, and without going into great technical detail – just how you want a wine tasting to be).
In addition to the organised tastings, there were many local and interstate winery and brewery stalls. You could have spent the day sampling their wares – which, apparently, a fair proportion of the weekend crowds do. We were told that Friday is the quieter, ‘foodie’ day, the weekend generally being a more packed, messier affair with the noise levels ratcheted up by exhuberent ‘tasters’.
Anyway, I would assess the $25 entry price as good value indeed. There were even free truffle samplings (and I have to say, I can’t see what the fuss is about…but each to their own). For those with a bit extra in their wallets there were bargains aplenty on offer at many of the stalls. Savvy attendees came well prepared, carting their bounty around in shopping trolleys.
My suspicions (expressed in my previous post) that the event would be a gathering of painful, pretentious yuppie food wankers, were unfounded. O the danger of uninformed assumption and preconception! Rather, as one of the organisers pointed out in their response to my negative sentiments in the previous post, the Show caters for a diverse crowd, and indeed, a diverse crowd attended.
The Perth leg will be over by the time this review is published to the web, but I can highly recommend this event to readers in other states who have an interest in food and wine. If, like me, you haven’t been before, leave any negative preconceptions at home and go along. If you are not a Good Food and Wine Show virgin, I’m told the food part of this year’s show is bigger and better than before (apparently the wine tasting was the dominant aspect of previous shows). Certainly, there was more than enough of everything to keep me masticating happily all day.