All eight head chefs in the Spicers Retreats stable are - for the first time - heading to the Hunter Valley for a special dining collaboration called Chefs in the Vines.
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Eremo Restaurant at Spicers Guesthouse will host the five-course Italian dinner on Saturday, July 13. Each course will be matched with a Hunter Valley wine and a winemaker keen to share a story or two. The team at Eremo, led by Cameron Matthews, have impressed with their home-style Italian menu since the restaurant opened late last year. Each visiting chef will be cooking Italian - but with their own signature touch.
Tickets are $199 per person which includes matched wines with dinner. Accommodation packages are available at Spicers Guesthouse, Pokolbin, and nearby Spicers Vineyards Estate. The private dining room is also up for grabs, catering for just 12 guests. This experience also includes two nights' accommodation, a la carte breakfast daily, a private Italian cooking class, the Chefs in the Vines dinner and a Seafood & Semillon lunch on the Sunday at nearby Restaurant Botanica.
Bookings can be made online at spicersretreats.com or by phoning 1300 590 075. Chefs in the Vines is an extension of Spicers Retreats' successful Chefs in the City concept.
Read more: Escape the rat race at new Pokolbin retreat
Read more: Top chef brings Italian passion to Pokolbin
Book signing
Anna Polyviou is visiting The Essential Ingredient Newcastle on June 14 and 15 as part of her Pop Rock tour of Australia. Creative director at the Shangri-La in Sydney, Polyviou is an award-winning chef and has appeared on television shows like Family Food Fight and MasterChef Australia. Tickets to her dessert masterclasses have sold out however you can still get to meet the celebrity chef at her book signing: 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Friday, June 14. To celebrate the release of Polyviou's cookbook Sweet Street, guests will also be offered a glass of bubbles and nibbles from the store's in-house delicatessen. Tickets $25 per person; book online at essentialingredient.com.au.
Crabstock
Scotties at Newcastle East is hosting Crabstock this Sunday, June 2, for lunch and dinner. Owner Jenny Roberts told Food & Wine it would be "really casual crab curries, rice, roti bread, a DJ and lots of minimal intervention wines. We made the wine list 100 per cent natural". Tickets are still available - book online or email helloscotties@gmail.com.
Read more: Scotties shares the love for seafood
New faces
A gluten-free cafe has opened next to Maitland Gaol on John Street in East Maitland. Bread and Water is open Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30am to 10.45am for breakfast service, and from 11am to 2.30pm for lunch. A Friday night dinner service will kick off on June 14, bookings essential.
Another new addition is Sudania Cafe & Restaurant, which has opened at The Levee. It is open Monday to Saturday for lunch, and Thursday to Saturday for dinner. On the menu are Sudanese curries as well as some more familiar dishes with a Sudanese twist. You can find Sudania at 459 High Street, Maitland.
Fast Feast
New Shanghai at Charlestown has launched a Fast Feast lunch menu. It is essentially a "greatest hits" of the full menu, and most dishes are less than $10. Highlights include kung pao chicken, mapo tofu, and pork and prawn wonton noodle soup. A serve of steamed or boiled dumplings can be added for $5.
Wine scholarship
Applications are being sought for the inaugural Hunter Valley Sommeliers Scholarship. Two are being offered and the recipients will be able to attend three Hunter Valley Sommelier events for free.
To apply, you must be under 30 years of age and currently employed in a winery, restaurant service or cellar door in the Hunter Region. You must have worked in the wine/hospitality industry for a minimum of one year. Applications close on June 21.
Hunter Valley Sommeliers hold monthly wine dinners and masterclasses designed to educate your palate, hone your senses and improve your wine evaluation and appreciation skills in a friendly and encouraging environment.
Email huntervalleysommeliers@gmail.com.
Baking hopefuls
TAFE NSW Hamilton students Zachary Trigg and Tristan Beisler will compete next week against 11 other apprentices in the 2019 National Excellence in Baking Awards in Melbourne.
Trigg, who lives in Mount Hutton and graduated with a Certificate III in Retail Baking (Cake and Pastry) in 2018, is hoping to win 2019 National Apprentice Pastry Cook. Beisler, a Certificate III in Retail Baking (Combined) student from Dungog, is hoping to win 2019 National Apprentice Baker. He was named Australasian Baking Apprentice of the Year at the recent LA Judge competition.
An apprentice at Pekarna bakery in Adamstown, Trigg is moving to Belgium next year to train at the Callebaut Chocolate Academy.
"Baking allows me to be creative with pastries and sweet treats, but also to use a great deal of precision and skill," he said. "I would like to own a business one day but right now am taking one step at a time and will wait to see how I go in Belgium."
TAFE NSW research suggests the baking industry is facing a nationwide shortage of chefs and pastry cooks: 50 per cent of baking job roles and 60 per cent of pastry cook roles were left unfulfilled in 2018 due to a skills shortage.
Free hot dogs
Free food alert: The Bavarian is opening at Stockland Green Hills Shopping Centre in East Maitland today (May 29) and 500 free hot dogs will be handed out from 11am. It is located in The Courtyard on the first floor.
Freebie of the week
The Beauty Chef Gut Guide is the practical companion to The Beauty Chef, by Carla Oates. Written for people who want to better understand the science underpinning the link between gut and skin health, the eight-week program includes information on the importance of gut functionality, weekly meal plans for repairing and reprogramming your gut, and more than 90 recipes. Recipes include coconut crepes; lemongrass and kaffir lime salmon cakes; Swedish meatballs; and tamarind fish curry. The Beauty Chef Gut Guide is out now through Hardie Grant Books, RRP $39.99. Food & Wine has a copy to give away. To enter, send the words "The Beauty Chef Gut Guide" with your name, address and number to freelunch@theherald.com.au. Entries close on Monday (3/6/2019) at 9am.