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6:24AM Sunday 23 November, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Mostly sunny min 17° - max 25°

At the cutting edge

3 October 2008

| By Ann Rickard

When the northern Italian town of Turin swells with the huge influx of people attending the Salone del Gusto at the end of October, Noosa will have played some tiny part in that.

Three Noosa chefs and one restaurateur will attend the prestigious bi-annual Salone del Gusto festival in Italy from October 23-27 – and it is certain to benefit Noosa’s already renowned culinary scene.

Belinda Tuckwell from Ma Mensa, Shaun Morris from Berardo’s, Daniel Mosedale from Blue Angel and Gail Palethorpe, owner of Ma Mensa, will travel to Italy this month to attend workshops and cooking demonstrations, talk to producers and growers, research and discover the very latest trends in food and wine. All four are attending the festival to better their careers and to bring valuable information back to Noosa.

“It’s a huge food and wine event,” Belinda said. “I imagine hundreds of thousands of people will be there. The scope of workshops offered is out of this world. We will find out about foods we would never be exposed to here.”

Belinda will travel to Italy with Gail, although they will be attending separate workshops.

“Belinda will do food, I am looking after the vino side,” Gail said. “I have made up my mind that I will have to learn how to spit or I will never get through all the classes sober in each day. Most have tastings of about eight glasses per class, so this is going to be a marathon effort.”

Shaun Morris will travel with fellow chef Daniel where they have an intensive line-up of workshops planned.

“We will be going to all these master classes,” Shaun said. “One day it will be on the best sparklings, another on the best black pork. I’m doing a class with the head chef from El Bulli, the famous restaurant that has been voted the world’s top restaurant for the past 10 years.”

Shaun said the intention was to bring all the information and experience back to Noosa to ensure the town stayed at the cutting edge of food and wine trends.

“We will be talking to so many hospitality and food people over there and all that we learn should fit in with Noosa.’’

While Belinda, Shaun and Gail are attending the festival independently, Daniel has been invited by the Italian organisers.

“I’ve been invited to represent Queensland as a chef delegate. There are forums every day for discussion. I’ll be there with Martha Shepherd from just outside Cooroy. Martha does native bush food. She does a lot of bush foods and preserves.”

Daniel said the Salone del Gusto was a real educational experience, a forum to stand up and see all that is available globally on the food and wine scene.

Noosa Slow Food branch president Daniel plans to bring back ideas and information to enable him to collaborate with chefs Belinda and Shaun later this year to present a degustation dinner based on the Italian trip.

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