"The best day of my life"- Tasting Australia 2012

As a TAFE student, I was lucky enough to be involved in the biennial "Tasting Australia" event. Basically, it's a weekish long event in which a host of amazing chefs visit Adelaide to run different classes and cooking demonstrations. For the first two days, I got to weigh out and prepare the ingredients for a few different classes that would be held at the Regency campus. I have to say, the real highlight of this mise en place week was the day that I juiced 74 passionfruit. What a ridiculous exercise.

My personal reward for completing this torture task was attending the event at Elder Park on Saturday. The festivities started by watching the end of Miguel Maestre's paella demonstration. This provided the perfect opportunity to become accustomed to his accent, as I would be helping out at his class on Tuesday. Next up came some wandering around the Torrens visiting the various food stalls and stalking some chefs. 

Just a bit excited to be touching Matt Moran

Matty P 

Mr Grossi

A group of babes

I remember at the end of this day I was pretty much beside myself with excitement. And I definitely proclaimed to the world, "That was the best day of my life!" Some might say easily entertained, I prefer to say inspired. 

The next Tuesday, I trundled off to the Miele showroom to help out at Miguel's class and prep for Simon Bryant. It turns out that I spent most of the time preparing the ingredients for Simon's dinner session, which included finishing off a confit lamb leg. I have to say, as someone who is not a massive fan of lamb, this one was delish. The whole experience was really good- Simon was very encouraging and patient with our little group, and despite the rain, it was a great day. (And as an added bonus, we got to keep the Miele aprons we were given. Woo! Bonus apron!)

 The crew

Miguel was pretty excited to meet me, obviously. 

The most important lesson I learnt from the Tasting Australia experience was that celebrity chefs have it made! When they rock up to an event, all they have to do is assemble the ingredients that some poor little student has spent hours meticulously preparing for them. New life goal- become so famous that I never have to weigh out various quantities butter again. 

Get pumped for next week- a week in the TAFE restaurant, and a Heston adventure. xx