The Michelin Australian Food and Wine Writers' Festival
. . . part of Tasting Australia
Adelaide, 3-10 October 1999
Report by Jennifer Hillier
I couldn't believe my luck, no sooner had I returned from Hobart and The Eleventh Symposium of Australian Gastronomy than it was off to a whole week of the Michelin Australian Food and Wine Writers' Festival.
While other cities may be feeling festivaled out Adelaide manages to get it right. In between Arts' Festivals we can stock up on intellectual capital at the Festival of Ideas and now the Food and Wine Writers Festival emulates the success of Writers' Week, proof that good things come in three.
For its second time around the festival moved from the more isolated Botanic Park to the Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens, central to the arts hub of Adelaide – behind Government House, close to the Festival Centre, Museum, Art Gallery, University of Adelaide and the River Torrens.
Between sessions we were able to purchase books from the book tent, toast the many titles being launched or just chew over the day's issues before returning to the big top for more talk. Cath Kerry catered for lunches, wine, and coffee breaks. Tables were arranged in the idyllic central area shaded from the warm spring sun by enormous plane trees.
The charge for admission was the $5 purchase price of the festival's program, which featured forty five high calibre national and international food and wine writers. A diverse audience was rapt when Margaret Fulton, Charmaine Solomon and Stephanie Alexander provided three characteristic recipes for lamb shanks. A lanky Nick Nairn, dressed in tartan trousers and Prada ripple soles, charmed everyone with his frank opinions on TV chefing and his passion for honest ingredients.
The panel discussion entitled 'Murder in the Kitchen' provided an experience of catharsis when Cheong Lieu quietly explained the imperative of slaughtering pigeons out the back of Neddy's restaurant in the old days. Mietta O'Donnell took the opportunity to expose an unacceptable degree of chef bullying in the higher echelons of the restaurant industry. In my opinion Cath Kerry deserves the 'Ophra Winfrey' award for excellence in chairing this session.
Foodie guru Harold McGee from the US showed a subtle appreciation of both the poetry and science of cooking. Harvey Levenstein from Canada demonstrated how historic research illustrates the way food choice is determined by the institutionalised pressures of nutritionists and big business.
Celebrities blew in from Tasting Australia's promotional whirl to sell their latest food fashions. Marion Halligan shared her literary memories of a certain boef en daube. Don Anderson read Les Murray's virtuoso 'Vindaloo at Merthyr Tydfel' and Gay Bilson Pablo Neruda's 'The Great Table Cloth'. Barbara Santich revealed in conversation with Margaret Fulton that she had served a sort of gastronomic cadetship on Women's Day. Anita Stewart from Canada was impressed with the sophisticated level of debate in Australia. Michael Symons invoked the memory of Don Dunstan for the cause of the politics and ethics of food. The audience was galvanised by John Newton's call for a special ministry of food. If you were fortunate enough to last till the end, the Festival Director, Penelope Curtin shouted everyone a celebratory drink. We'd been seriously entertained at this very convivial event.
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