December 20, 2011
Hi everyone,
Merry Christmas to you all and – as it’s most likely that the Silly Season will pass us all by quickly enough – Happy New Year!
So that was 2011! It’s almost over – and what a year it was. Floods, fires, disasters but also triumphs and joys too.
How was it for you? For us it was fast and furious. But this is no time for look ing back. We’re hoping that 2012 sees fit to restore a full calendar of twelve months and 366 days. Our private conspiracy theory has it that someone has been at 2011 and hacked away all the best bits! At least those parts where we got to sit down and take off our shoes and relax.
Without any further ado, let’s dig into this Christmas stocking of a newsletter, as always packed full of information and offers. There’s more chance than ever before to win some great prizes, a bit of fun and some useful info. PLUS something about the new direction we are taking which could be of great use to you.
We want to wish you all the best, the happiest, the kindest and safest Christmas and New Year ever, and when we resurface in January, let’s discuss the plans and thrills we have for you next year. We’re already dubbing it Year of the Regions!
See you again in 2012!
END OF AN ERA
 Of special interest for those in NSW, on December 31 we will have completed the three-year project with the NSW Department of Trade & Industry which has seen many subsidised Gold Premier listings added to this website. It has been highly successful and the project’s monthly newsletter turned out to be an effective way of putting key producers out there more prominently in front of top NSW chefs, provedores and other potential customers.
Eligible NSW producers - if you are very quick – you still have just two weeks to take advantage of this offer! Download the application form here.
As an added incentive – see this note from Near River Produce on the NSW Mid-north Coast: ‘We have just received confirmation that one of Sydney’s leading restaurants will be using our garlic this season in their kitchens. In short, we’ve just sold our whole crop’. This could be you! The newsletter reaches around 1000 prominent chefs, provedores and other users in Sydney and the rest of NSW.
OTHER STATES please feel free to
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to see how it was done and maybe your state could benefit from a similar program. We’re happy to talk to anyone who is interested in partnering us.
REGIONAL RESOURCES
As always we have new plans, and we’d like to share them with you.
Over the years Gordon and I have pulled together quite a grab-bag of skills and experience and we can’t see why we can’t use them to be useful to the people we know and like and respect. That’s especially you, in regional Australia, in case you’re wondering!
 We can offer:
• Editorial
• Photography
• Videos
• Restaurant consultancy
• Brochures
• Website development and design
• iPhone applications development
• …and much more
If you’d like us to supply high-quality resources such as these, to use in your own marketing and development, please
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for fuller details of how it works, or we can tailor a package for your individual needs.
WE’RE GETTING SOCIAL
 There has been a (largely dormant) Australian Regional Food Guide Facebook page for some time, but things are about to change! Please visit it, add your comments and we’d really love it if you ‘Like us’! And we promise to bring it alive with more news and views.
SYDNEY CAFÉ CULTURE
 We can’t help ourselves – regionality is in our blood so despite the name, our Sydney Café Culture iPhone and iPad app has now included a few cafes from surrounding areas, Wollongong, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Southern Highlands.
You can download it for $4.49 from the iTunes App Store.
CHRISTMAS TRIVIA (no prizes for these)
- How do you say Merry Christmas in the Philippines?
- How many Santas does Iceland have?
- Which country serves chocolates in the shape of your first initial at Christmas?
- Why do robins feature on Christmas cards?
- On what date do Russians celebrate Christmas?
(answers below)
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PRIZE TIME!
Last newsletter we offered two videos from SBS: Maeve O’Meara’s French Food Safari co-presented with charismatic French-born chef Guillaume Brahimi and Lyndey and Blair Milan’s Taste of Greece. The winners were Katrine Juleff and Melissa Branagh
THIS NEWSLETTER we have more videos, FIVE of each, also from SBS and Madman.
 Gourmet Farmer, Series 2, Matthew Evans, SBS, $29.95. (M)
When chef and food critic, Matthew Evans, upped stakes from Sydney and headed far south to the wilds of Tasmania, some wondered how soon he’d be back.
However, instead of dipping his toe in the chilly waters of the island state, he has put down roots, quite literally, and taken up farming.
There’s plenty to keep even the most restless viewer interested here: locavore dining, a few idyllic quiet moments, and lots of hard work, which may or not tempt you to go and try to do something similar. Most will simply choose to sit back and laugh or shudder at what’s involved in such a life-change. Oh, and there is a delicious side-trip to Italy and France. All in the name of research, you understand.
 The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, Madman, $29.95 (MA)*
Fans of this comedic pair will be delighted to see them teamed up in a one-week road-trip that focuses on food. Well, sort of.
Given their penchant for impersonations, many meals seem to pass with scant regard for the five-star food in front of them as Coogan (aka Alan Partridge) and Brydon attempt to outdo each other trying on the voices of various film stars and actors – Michael Caine, Sean Connery et al – correcting and attempting to out-mimic each other. The miles between destinations go much the same way.
Perhaps the main star of this production is the footage of Cumbria’s Lake District, Lancashire and the Yorkshire dales shown at their moody, misty, sun-splashed best. This, like the food, is the real deal. The six restaurants, the chefs, kitchens and maitre-d’s also. It’s only the assumed voices that are fake.
SPECIAL OFFER: There are five copies of each of these DVDs to give away. Just be one of the first Australian residents to
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the number of stories SBS says it has (hint it’s on their website). Please say which DVD you want and include correct mailing address. Only one per person. (*To be a winner of The Trip you must be aged 15+)
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE:
Here’s a lovely prize for cooks and food-lovers! A one-of-a-kind gift box of Chef'n Freshforce items worth over $100, for one lucky person.
New Chef’n Freshforce gadgets offer so much more to covet for the kitchen! For the last year the designers and inventors at Chef’n have been looking closely at those basic everyday kitchen gadgets – like the ones we’ve had in our drawers for years – to see how they can be improved.
The result is the new Freshforce range which applies the Chef’n signature quirky but practical twist to produce TEN new ‘standards’ that get the job done so much better.
Look in stores for freshforce™ potato masher, freshforce™ pizza wheel,
freshforce™ basting brush – silicone basting brush, freshforce™ collapsible skimmer - collapsible silicone colander/skimmer, freshforce™ popout™ peeler - retractable fruit and vegetable peeler, freshforce™ avocado masher - versatile avocado tool, freshforce™ silicone whisks - short and tall whisks and freshforce™ scoop turners - large and small.
Available in David Jones, General Trader and Robin’s Kitchen, or phone McPherson’s Consumer Products on 1800 65 11 46 for your nearest stockist.
TO WIN:
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about the Christmas dish in which you would plan to use one of these new tools. You must be an Australian reader who has not won a prize from this newsletter in 2011.
COUNTRY BLOGGERS UNITE
There are so many blogs! But it’s great to see country people sharing their life with the world. Here is one we like: http://talkingfairleigh.blogspot.com/p/farming-blogs.html
Do you have a favourite? Let us know and we’ll mention it in the next newsletter.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Public relations agency Weber Shandwick’s inaugural ‘Food Forward 2012’ Food Forward 2012 reveals the sentiment about Australian food culture of more than 1,000 consumers and leading taste-makers from around the country including food editors, chefs, food bloggers and nutritionists.
The report revealed trend clusters – commonalities between individual trends. Two major ones of interest to us are:
• Farm to fork: Australian consumers want to understand the journey food has taken, from the farm to their forks. Whether it is a bunch of bananas or a hamburger, it is more important than ever to understand where food comes from, how it is made and whether the flavour is natural or manufactured.
• Culinary crusading:
From sustainable products to good purpose brand initiatives, food purchases are now based on more than just good taste. Activism is now expressed through food choices, and with this comes an expectation that brands or retailers are doing the most they can for the community.
NOT JUST THE COUNTRY AREAS!
Strips of land alongside urban footpaths are becoming fruit and vegetable patches flourishing with fresh food as budding gardeners grow veggies in verges under a new City of Sydney program.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said in our increasingly urban lives, people need opportunities to connect with nature and get to know their neighbours. The City’s community gardens policy supports community groups that self-manage gardens and verges, offering grants of up to $10,000. All proposals are carefully considered to make sure they fit in with their surroundings.
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