Saturday 29 May 2010

Savouring (and revering) Tasmania, and all her products

With more than my fair share of genes from my anti-social artist father in me, I reluctantly gave in to my genuine anti-social instincts last night and dragged my sorry arse along to Me Wah in Sandy Bay to meet bestie Steve Cumper and experience my first foray into the world of Savour Tasmania – at an 8 course degustation dinner, with matched wines, especially prepared by Hong Kong (and Savour Tasmania) guest chef Alvin Leung, from Bo Innovation restaurant (2 Michelin stars, so I’m told!) in Hong Kong.

The night was, to coin a much-used word in my reviewing vocabulary, interesting!

This type of function seems to attract many echelons of society and last night was no different. There was the usual sprinkling of pullers and wankers, but overall it appeared to be a crowd of people anxious to experience Alvin’s food, and enthusiastic to do so, as each successive course came out of the kitchen, introduced and explained each time by Alvin.

Cobber Steve had been Moderator at Drysdale yesterday for the Master Class sessions of both Alvin and Spanish chef Paco Roncero, so he arrived at Me Wah to meet me armed with insider info on all things Alvin/Paco/Savour Tas – a bonus for a minor player in the game of food like myself, a mere observer!

Glitterati of both the Tasmanian and mainland food world were in attendance, including such well known names as Lindy Milan (who MC’d last night’s event extremely professionally, as you’d expect) and Simon (ABC series ‘The Cook & the Chef’) Bryant.

I had a lovely chat with Graeme Phillips about blogging and reviewing, and was relieved he was still speaking to me following recent inflammatory comments on this blog about him!

I also coincidentally found myself seated next to Hilary, a mainland food (fish) blogger and food writer from The Age who proved to be an exceptionally knowledgeable and lively dinner companion and whose husband owns a Melbourne restaurant. She kept Steve and I entertained for ages with her conversation, especially given that we all had absolutely NOTHING in common!

So – what about the food, I can hear you asking! It was great. It wasn’t, as I commented to Hilary, the most fabulous meal I have ever had in all my born days, but it was (that word again) interesting. It was interesting to see what overseas chefs are currently doing and cooking. It was interesting to hear what both Lindy and Alvin had to say about food (and wine) in general. It was interesting to hear what everyone around me had to say on the subject of food.

Nothing earth-shattering came out of it, for me anyway. It was a great night. My undying gratitude to Steve for inviting me along as his guest to this dinner, and to Anne and Allen from Economic Development for organizing such an obviously well respected event as Savour Tasmania.
Posted on by Rita
8 comments

8 comments:

Anonomouse said...

Glad to have you (hopefully) back Rita! So jealous you got to go. Are you going to go to the Paco Roncero dinner tonight?

Rita said...

That would be a big fat 'NO' Anonomouse! Not sure if I AM back or not - just needed to talk to someone about last night!

Anonomouse said...

LOL! Well I am glad here was your first port of call. I'd be a bit worried if you started talking to yourself about it... I'd be even more worried if you got the wrong answers back!

Anonymous said...

Ah....no photos?

Rita said...

Not a pic at all, though it pained me not to photograph each dish as they looked so beautiful.

Lisa Taylor said...

we went to the Savour Tasmania dinner at Remi de Provence. had a fabulous night, but mainly because of the company. The food was nice, but nothing to write home about and the wine was downright ordinary. We ended ordering a really nice French wine to go with the french wine and forgoed the Tasmanian wine because it just didnt work. Actually sat opposite John Lethlean and we had a good chat about Tasmanian restaurants and particularly your blog Rita. He said he would take more notice of it in the future.

TJ

Anonymous said...

lisa i hope you enjoyed your french wine with your french wine.... It was a shame Steve chose to showcase his schwag wines instead of the reserve range. I think the food was great as it was good solid brasserie fare and do agree the wines were poor.. I wish i new someone there that could of hooked me up with some decent wine

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you back Rita.

Keep blogging :D