Tastes of the Tablelands

The rotary Club of Atherton holds a festival in October each year titled "Tastes of Tablelands".  It is held in the beautiful Chinese Temple grounds and it is a veritable foodie fest.  There are almost a 100 stalls selling everything from food to beverages to health food to plants to.....you name it. The highlight of the festival is the Chef's cooking competition.  There are four competition cook-off's. I missed the first one but I sat and watched the other three.  The first one I watched was two teams of two from the Atherton High School.   Considering their age they were certainly skilled and produced both a main and dessert in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The four students preparing their meal

The mains and desserts presented to the judges.

The next competition was between qualified chefs, Liam Flynn from Flynns Restaurant, Bradley Jenkins from Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat and Naomi Cameron and Suneerat Yuda from Pullman Cairns International.  The chefs were given a mystery box and could use whatever ingredients they liked from the box.  Included in the box were Red Claw Yabbies, Pork Cutlet, Beef Cutlet, Chicken as well as many herbs and vegetables.  The chefs were given time to think about the dish that they wanted to create and then the countdown began.

I really want one of these machines......a potato "string" maker.  The chef wrapped the potato strings around the red claw and then deep fried until crisp and golden.

Liam Flynn - Pork Cutlet with Yabbie Salad and quennelles of carrot, onion and rice.

Suneerat Yuda - Chicken stuffed with Macadamia

Naomi Cameron - Rib Eye with Cheesey Pastry Straws

Bradley Jenkins - Pork Medallion on top of shredded salad and topped with potato wrapped yabbie and crackling

The judges had a very hard task in front of them to judge the best dish.

The next and final competition was between Martyn Jung from Tropic Spirit Catering and Dylan Zeylmans from Vivo Bar and Grill.

Martyn Jung - Chicken on Garlic Mash with capsicum and parsley jus

Dylan Seylmans - Rib Eye cooked to perfection!

All the chefs were a joy to watch and I am always amazed by their techniques and knife skills.  It's the little things like blending parsley, olive oil and seasoning then passing through a fine sieve to create a splash of colour and taste to a dish and the continual tasting of their creation, albiet not always with a clean spoon!

I am most definitely a foodie and proud to be so.  This day, was for me, pure heaven!