{"id":3565,"date":"2009-08-24T23:55:11","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T13:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.australiantropicalfoods.com\/?p=3565"},"modified":"2014-12-09T22:38:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T12:38:15","slug":"festival-cairns-regional-food-showcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/2009\/08\/festival-cairns-regional-food-showcase\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival Cairns Regional Food Showcase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"festival-cairns-portrait-version_-on-black-background-web1\"<\/a>Masterchef Gary Mehigan in Cairns<\/span><\/h3>\n

Gary Mehigan<\/strong> <\/span>was a Master of his Class when he starred at the Festival Cairns Regional Food Showcase<\/strong> <\/span>last\u00c2\u00a0Saturday to a packed audience at the Farmgate Market<\/span><\/strong> at The Pier<\/span><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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An early morning stroll around the markets with his\u00c2\u00a0diminutive but mighty head chef Tracey Robertson<\/span><\/strong><\/span> from his restaurant Fenix, Gary gathered a\u00c2\u00a0basket of local ingredients for his two cooking demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Seats were filled an hour before\u00c2\u00a0each demonstrations and the crowd swelled to fill the centre when Gary took to the stage.\u00c2\u00a0People were\u00c2\u00a0highly entertained\u00c2\u00a0by M.C. Tammy Barker<\/span><\/strong><\/span> and with\u00c2\u00a0Gary’s wit, culinary expertise\u00c2\u00a0and all the inside gossip on Australia’s most watch television show; MasterChef.<\/p>\n

He\u00c2\u00a0finished with a\u00c2\u00a0poinant message\u00c2\u00a0about using regional and local produce even though it sometimes may cost a few cents more, had benefits that reached across the whole community.<\/p>\n

On\u00c2\u00a0the way to Palm Cove that afternoon Gary and Tracey stopped off at St. Andrew’s Catholic College <\/span><\/strong><\/span>in Redlynch to visit\u00c2\u00a0hospitality students cooking for a school\u00c2\u00a0function.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not every day a Masterchef drops in to their kitchen!<\/p>\n

Glorious weather on Sunday for\u00c2\u00a0the Taste of Palm Cove<\/strong> <\/span>set the perfect scene for The Sebel Reef House <\/span><\/strong>and Stoneleigh Wines<\/span><\/strong><\/span> ‘Chef’s of the Reef’ luncheon.\u00c2\u00a0 (So popular was Gary that the luncheon sold out within 4 hours of opening the ticket box). \u00c2\u00a0Here Gary and Tracey with the help of chef\u00c2\u00a0Philip Mitchell <\/span><\/strong><\/span>and his kitchen brigade, whipped up a stunning menu with platters of local foods cooked in Gary’s style\u00c2\u00a0that had\u00c2\u00a0a hint of\u00c2\u00a0Tropics meets Morocco flavours.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

A cool ceviche of reef fish,agrodolce of sweet potato and fingerlimes with chilli, coconut vinegar and coco\u00c2\u00a0cream was followed by a bastilla of duck with\u00c2\u00a0olives Mungalli dairy labneh, tangy sumac, coriander and pinenuts. More local seafood\u00c2\u00a0arrived\u00c2\u00a0with avocado and poached green prawns, blue swimmer crab, a honey mustard dressing\u00c2\u00a0and baby basil cress keep the guests very happy.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The colours of the\u00c2\u00a0main course\u00c2\u00a0were outstanding on the plate with the\u00c2\u00a0aged sirloin that\u00c2\u00a0had been slowly cooking since the previous day and presented with its rich shallot jus, deep red of the beetroot\u00c2\u00a0and golden colour of\u00c2\u00a0pumpkin puree.\u00c2\u00a0 Flavours a sensation!\u00c2\u00a0 This was\u00c2\u00a0accompanied by more colourful persimmon, fennel\u00c2\u00a0and pomelo salad with Vanella bufalino mozzarella.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dessert was a simple\u00c2\u00a0tasty buttercake with roasted pineapple, salty caramel and coconut ice-cream for a perfect finish to the meal.<\/p>\n

Whilst in Palm Cove, Gary took time out to stroll down Williams Esplanade, say “Hello” to passers by and to visit\u00c2\u00a0some\u00c2\u00a0of other restaurants involved in the Taste of Palm Cove, that\u00c2\u00a0were busy preparing their special menu.<\/p>\n

Aside from his culinary talents, thoroughout the whole\u00c2\u00a0weekend, Gary’s affable personality and his\u00c2\u00a0fabulous connection with children made him a star where every he went.<\/p>\n

Thank you Gary and Tracey for a wonderful Regional Food Showcase<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masterchef Gary Mehigan in Cairns Gary Mehigan was a Master of his Class when he starred at the Festival Cairns Regional Food Showcase last\u00c2\u00a0Saturday to a packed audience at the Farmgate Market at The Pier. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 An early morning stroll around the markets with his\u00c2\u00a0diminutive but mighty head chef Tracey Robertson from his restaurant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atf-hot-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3565"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5073,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions\/5073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/australiantropicalfoods.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}