The Bickley-Carmel region is a surprisingly dense slice of food and wine, conveniently close the city. The Bickley festival offers a good excuse to head up there with over 20 producers, restaurants, accommodation and wineries all working together for the event. Wine tastings, local produce, live music, special food events, tables long and short, and activities for kids
A great weekend to check out an excellent local food community.

Full details available at the Bickley & Carmel Valleys Tourism Association website

Posted by anthony at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Boxt Gift Services are inviting Spice readers to enter the draw for an indulgent “Wild Botanica Kitchen Pamper” pack for their Mum this Mother’s Day.

Your Mum will enjoy (and hopefully share) a bottle of Trilogy Champagne, Wild Botanica Fig Hand Cream and Fig Vegetable Soap, a Maxwell Williams Platter, Fox Run Mini Whisk, Mini Wooden Scoop and Mini Rolling Pin, Angel Aromatics Vanilla Scented Rose, Pink Hand Towel, Tease Tea Sachets, Choc Coated Macadamias, Chocolate Truffles and Chocolatier Baubles.

Boxt offers delivery to anywhere in Australia and will be sending the pack directly to your Mums doorstep in time for Mother’s Day. 

To enter, just send an email to mothersday with your name, address and contact details, together with the name of the Chef featured on the front cover of the latest issue of Spice. Don’t delay, as entries will close on Monday May 3rd. 1st out of the hat wins - drawn May 4th. Entries for Australian residences only, sorry

Posted by anthony at 9:47 AM | Permalink

Big congratulations to Perth Artisan Pastry Chefs, Trevor Sims and Rob Howard and their team for their win at the Internationally renowned Sigep Cup in Italy this year. The Sigep cup exists to promote artisan work and recognise the craft involved in working with pastry and bread.

Rob (Grainaissance Artisan Bakers) and Trevor from (The Cake and Cookie Company) were featured in our Spring 09 issue after their success at Melbourne's Australian Artisan Baking Cup. They can now add first place in the Showcase Centerpiece segment and third place in the overall in the Sigep Cup to their list of achievements. The win was an immense achievement for both the team and the Western Australian baking industry.

Posted by anthony at 9:43 AM | Permalink

Got cake skills? Then perhaps you need to step up to a Bake Off.

Enter your cake creation as part of the nearly a dozen categories as part of the second Gay and Lesbian Community Services fundraising SWEET Bake Off. Very inclusive, even to cake duffers, and promises to be lots of fun with SPICE as a proud sponsor and judge contributor.

May16th 1:30 PM at the Court Hotel
Details and Registration at www.sweetbakeoff.com

Posted by anthony at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Just a quick opportunity to note that we're extremely happy to have our current seasonal chef-cover star Helen Pratt join our regular team of writers at SPICE.
She'll be debuting in our Winter edition but in the mean time Helen's doing a scallop/ crab lamb/ox cheek/ and buffalo milk labneh menu this Wednesday 21st for a 5 course dinner (with a bay leaf sorbet snuck in there) matched with Primo wines.

Menu here, Bistro Felix contact here and it's $120 per person.

Posted by anthony at 8:44 PM | Permalink

Having moved from December to the beautifully mild autumn weather of April, the Great Southern Food and Wine Festival also teams up with the Harboursound Music Festival this weekend. Over two dozen world-class local wineries from a region with 5 sub-regions Albany, Denmark, Frankland River, Mount Barker and the Porongorups expect an eclectic array of wines to enjoy with a festival that’s hosted an eclectic mix of local, national and international artists. Great opportunity also to sample the food of this produce-rich region.

www.greatsouthernwines.com.au/events.html
Great Southern Food and Wine Festival, 16-18 April 2010, Grassy Knoll, Albany

Posted by anthony at 8:58 AM | Permalink

This recipe for Inguti (Easter bread baked on Good Friday) was published in an article about Natalina Cherubino by Dr Felicity Newman that appeared in the Autumn 09 issue of Spice. The recipe was provided by Natalina Cerubino's cousin Rosa Lamberto

1 kg plain flour
4 tsp dried yeast
600 ml warm milk
120 ml oil
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
soft boiled eggs for decoration, unpeeled

Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Dissolve the yeast in a little warm milk and add to the flour along with the remaining milk, oil, sugar and beaten eggs. Knead the mixture until it is smooth. Take a piece of the dough and form it into a ring or other shape. Any shape can be made – birds, rabbits, chickens with the egg placed in it. Natalina lets her grandchildren paint the eggs first.

Place an egg in the dough shape and repeat the process till all the dough is used.

Place on a clean cloth, cover and leave in a warm place to prove. The dough should
roughly double in size. Bake in a moderate oven till golden brown. Happy Easter

Posted by kate at 10:13 PM | Permalink