Exciting food and produce businesses will showcase the taste creativity of the Sunshine Coast when Regional Flavours returns to South Bank Parklands from May 13 to 15.
A huge array of Sunshine Coast chef talent and creative food businesses including Dale Chapman and Peter Kuruvita plus Silver Tongue Foods (Maroochydore), Hum Honey (Peachester), The Village Pickle (Nambour) and many more will showcase the region’s exciting gourmet tastes and products across masterclass stages and the food-lovers’ market stalls next month.
The Sunshine Coast has the largest regional representation at the event and will also share creations from renowned businesses including Chocolate Country (Montville), Bonefide Broth Bar (Noosa Heads), German Bakehouse (Coolum Beach), Goose on the Loose Premium Salami (Mooloolaba), Kenilworth Dairies (Kenilworth), Noosa Black Garlic / The Noosa Fine Food Company (Perigian Beach) and Sunshine Coast Cider (Kunda Park).
Themed this year as The Ultimate Grazing Table, Regional Flavours is a weekend-long festival dedicated to the best local, Queensland and Australian producers and foodies with a thrilling mix of market stalls, immersive experiences, esteemed chefs and restaurateurs in live demonstrations and masterclasses.
Dale Chapman will present exciting ways to use indigenous ingredients on the Greenhouse stage on Sunday 15 May from 11.15am to noon while Peter Kuruvita will present on the Main Stage on Sunday 15 May from 1.45pm to 2.30pm. They will be joined by other celebrity chefs Miguel Maestre and Alastair McLeod, Masterchef alum Georgia Barnes, Khanh Ong, Courtney Roulston and the chefs behind big name restaurants Otto Italian, Paper Daisy, Stanley, Agnes, Golden Pig, Rosmarino and newcomer, Essa, in a massive line up of some of the country’s best-loved cooks across the Regional Flavours weekend.
In addition to the Sunshine Coast’s incredible representation, a selection of farmers, graziers, growers, winemakers, brewers, distillers, and artisan producers from around Australia will showcase their wares at the market section of Regional Flavours while the demonstrations from classic Italian and Chinese to wine and cheese pairings, a Gin Lovers experience and farm to fork sustainability will be presented across three stages.
One of the many highlights of the event will be the native cooking demonstration from Dale Chapman, creator of My Dilly Bag. A bush tucker pioneer and award-winning slow food chef based on the Sunshine Coast, Ms Chapman’s extensive culinary experience and knowledge has seen her teach and promote Bush Tucker in culinary capitals of France, Italy and Japan.
“In the last two decades I have travelled extensively throughout Australia and overseas showcasing Australian native food and educating groups and individuals on bush tucker.
“Our passion at My Dilly Bag is to ensure both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples feel comfortable in learning from and about each other in a way that clearly demonstrates mutual respect and acceptance and I look forward to sharing this at Regional Flavours,” Ms Chapman said.
Live music and DJ sets will also be happening across three venues while Kids Collective will get the young ones interested on taking a sustainable food journey from an early age. First-time stallholders at the event will be slow-food producers Silver Tongue Foods from Maroochydore, which was started as a result of Covid when owner Kristina Kucan lost her employment during the first round of lock downs and started baking from home. Along with husband Andy Tolson, they now make naturally leavened organic lavosh (sourdough) without using preservatives, artificial flavours or colours.
“Thanks to the support of our community we have been able to grow the business and are excited to showcase our products directly to the public in Brisbane including our Fleur- Sourdough Lavosh which has local edible organic flowers and herb flowers from a Sunshine Coast grower hand placed on the lavosh,” Ms Kucan said.
“Our business is a genuine covid start-up which started from my home kitchen, followed by shared kitchens to fast forward having our own commercial kitchen to produce our crackers. Our crackers are 100 per cent naturally leavened, hand- baked and hand-packed and we can’t wait to share them with foodies at Regional Flavours.“
