Event details
Date: Thursday 29 April 2010
Time: 7:00pm
Cost: $75.00 per person, includes five-course menu
Venue: Pacific Dining Room, Bay Street, Byron Bay
Bookings: reservations essential – contact Rebecca Villanti T 02 6685 5402 or email

New South Wales / Saddleback convivium / 05 Apr 2009
Grow Italian, eat with gusto

SUMMER daylight saving on Australia’s eastern seaboard ended on 5 April, but all of our guests for our Grow Italian, eat with gusto Slow Food lunch had put their clocks back. The day was sunny and bright. The Gerringong town hall, a favourite haunt, was once again provided by the Kiama Council for another memorable event. The council also yielded another gem: the indefatiguable Julie Errey. As team leader in council’s health and environment department  – and as a guest of honour – Julie went above and beyond the call of duty as she opened the venue, washed every dish and glass (a considerable number of the latter, and over and over) before, during and after lunch, set up tables and helped serve lunch. We were ready to host Geoff Hudson, ‘the Italian vegetable man’, the Australian supplier of Franchi Italian heirloom vegetable seeds. Franchi is based in Bergamo, founded in 1783, and carries seed derived from Puglia to Piedmont. Geoff filled the kitchen bench with an assortment of vegetables grown from Franchi seed – the sweetest tomatoes from cuore di bue ox hearts  to cherries, purple eggplant, radicchios, peppers sweet to hot, pumpkin, artichokes like castanets, and lime green chicory. Geoff told us about the heritage of the vegetables, their growth habits and how, by chance and sea change, he came to be selling Franchi seeds. Rayner and Gabriella Zuch were on hand to help with local Italian knowledge. Geoff prepared and presented antipasto platters bursting with fine examples of his vegetables prepared to their most flavoursome advantage: zucchini and mint, tomato and bocconcini, prosciutto, melanzana prosperosa – eggplant fried in a light beer batter, and – from The Silver Spoon [Phaidon Publishing] – a caponata, all of which disappeared from the serving platters before the kitchen helpers sat down! There followed risotto alla zucca, from Truly Italian, by Ursula Ferrigno, a pumpkin risotto using pumpkin grown from heirloom seed and formed, or creased, in a monkey’s arse shape, little deterring our hungry guests. (Though tasty, the risotto showed signs that one of the chef’s assistants was too heavy handed with the wine stock.) The risotto was well complemented by salads straight out of Kirsten McHugh’s vegetable garden – cucumber and radish, and green leaf and herb. The lunch was well and warmly lubricated by Jeff and Margaret Lester’s Roselea 2004 and 2006 chardonnay, a 2004 Chambourcin regional special and an 2005 ruby cabernet which Jeff told us about…grown just down the road. The Lesters also supplied their garden roses for the table – a long and convivial one. The food and wine passed muster with Elise Pascoe’s (not uncritical, informed and very sensitive) palate and the rest of us followed in her wake with some confidence. For those with room, the lunch ended with some home cooked dolce and locally roasted coffee  from John and Somprom Svinos’ Daily Grind. Our sincere thanks to Geoff, to Jeff and Margaret and to Julie for making the event a memorable one.

Information E saddleback@slowfoodaustralia.com.au

Link theitaliangardener.com.au for information and recipes