Hello friends,

I hope your year and the sparkling decade ahead are full of delights - especially delicious ones - and the world treats you warmly and kindly and kisses you on both cheeks. Thank you for your patience during the time we'd been closed over the Christmas / New Year period... and now we're busy preparing for the year ahead...especially with our new Italian Gourmet Safari.

Broome-beach Vietnam Hoi An restaurant_balcony

Now this may get confusing so let me explain - the lovely new TV show called Italian Food Safari starts on SBS on Thursday 18th March at 7.30pm with 13 weeks of the most delicious regional food from all over Italy filmed in Australia. Please mark out Thursday evenings for the next few months - at least at 7.30pm...(and then race to the kitchen or make reservations at your favourite Italian restaurant!) The recipes from the show are featured on the SBS site: www.sbs.com.au/Italianfoodsafari

The food tour - Italian Gourmet Safari to the Victorian High Country and Melbourne where you can actually step into the incredible delights shown on television starts on March 22nd in Melbourne...and let me tell you, you are in for some of the best meals of your life, the best people, beautiful country and sheer good fun. A few of my favourite people are already booked...and obviously we want you to come along too...a small select band (around 20 or so) to journey from Melbourne to the King, Ovens and Kiewa valleys in search of great food and wine...

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 Bright, VIC

I've spent the last week with some of the stars of the High Country plotting and planning and fine tuning...for one thing, the air is crisp and clear and makes you feel amazing even before you've been kissed on both cheeks or a splash of wine has gone into a glass. This is a truly lovely place.  We will be spending time with some of the winemakers you read about in magazines and newspapers...and we arrive in the middle of vintage so each winery will be absolutely humming...and they're delighted they can show us how it all happens.

I don't want to give away too many surprises but do want to let you know that there are wonderful lunches and dinners planned. We meet a food goddess - Patrizia Simone, originally from Umbria, a woman who cooks like the angels. With her husband and son she runs a two hat restaurant in Bright and will spend a whole day with us showing us what and who inspires her - introducing us to chestnut growers and passionate gardeners and cooking up an al fresco lunch just like the one featured in the television show.

There's a lot of history here too - the High Country is such an interesting part of Australia's Italian past - the people we meet are the descendants of the Italians who came in the 50's and 60's and worked on farms in the area and then started growing tobacco, a crop that thrived in the hot days of summer. A lot of the tall corrugated iron sheds that you pass are the old drying sheds which would sap the moisture from the big leaves. Binding those leaves together was the work of whole families and it was hard going but it gave all of them a start. Luckily for us, the High Country families adored their Italian heritage and have kept traditions going - both with food and wine.....and years later we reap the benefit! Our grand finale is with Italian cooking legend Guy Grossi who will prepare a special dinner for us with matched wines at the very upmarket Grossi Florentino restaurant

lunch-with-the-Pizzini-family Guy Grossi 

Have a look at the itinerary - we hope you are tempted to join us!

Margaret River
19th - 24th April 2010

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I seem to have been reading loads of stories over the summer about the delights of Margaret River, its scenery, its great food and wine culture and terrific people. Yep - we know...it IS a truly wonderful place... we've been visiting for quite a few years now and the best thing is that we know the great places and people there. It helps. We don't want you to have any ordinary-not-quite-good-enough meals while you're with us....

I caught up with some of the stars of this safari when I was doing one of the Food Safari literary dinners in Perth - my friend chef Don Hancey who leads the safari and the lovely Michael Whyte, who is one of the driving forces behind Vasse Felix Wines.  Last year one of the memorable lunches - and there are so many - was an al fresco feast in the beautiful private garden at Michael's home which is on the banks of the Margaret River. Chef Aaron Carr from Vasse Felix prepares a feast and Michael grabs some of this favourite wines  ...as you can see from this photo taken at last year's lunch, this is the sunny table that you want to be sitting at! Have a look at the itinerary - full of joy and you'll be catching some great warm (tho not too hot weather) on this one which we've scheduled just a little earlier.

 
Our fabulous lunches

This is all about work life balance - and what a beautiful way to spend an afternoon -  have a long lunch with us and you'll feel like you've been on holiday.

We've organised a couple of beautiful waterfront lunches - one at Orgmeggio at the Spit with a cooking demonstration from chef Alessandro Pavoni on Saturday 6th March and ....

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And the other at the lovely Flying Fish in Pyrmont with a demonstration by chef Peter Kuruvita. Join us on Saturday 20th March. Both lunches includes a three course lunch with wine and cooking demonstration.

And for something delicious and exotic without a waterfront location but with lots of bounce and  fun and deliciousness, our Peruvian seafood lunch is just the thing.

And there's a few spots left on our Valentines day French lunch on Sunday 14th February with champagne and beautiful Belgian chocolates - and it's not just for couples!  Clcik here and then scroll down for more information.

Other overseas trips

Gorgeous Safari to Vietnam: we have scheduled just one Gorgeous Safari for the first half of the year so please clear the decks and come along - dates are 14th to 21st March. Give yourself a treat!

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Gourmet Safari to Vietnam: our beautiful safari that covers north, central and southern Vietnam is booking well - scheduled to get the best weather on 21st to 31st March. Each day is a lovely jewel of an experience with so much to savour in this inspiring country.

Click on the following link to access more information and a copy of the itinerary

Stop Press!
Broome Girls and Pearls

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Our Broome Gorgeous Safari just got a little more enticing. This is the Girls and Pearls escape that is booking fast. We've added an extra spa treatment to the package ...so you now have 2 and a half hours of total indulgence and bliss....we already have a 90 minute session that can be divided into 60 and 30 minutes of treatments if you like....PLUS we've just added another 60 minutes...because as that cosmetic advertisement says "You're worth it". This will be in the afternoon of our big Gala dinner at the Pinctada Resort with the wonderful Marilynne Paspaley...who has organised for us to borrow Paspaley Pearls to wear for dinner.  A truly Gorgeous Cinderella evening after being totally spoiit during the day. And that's on top of cocktails and camel rides on Cable Beach, a day at the Broome Races, special pearl showroom visit, special screening of Bran Nue Dae at the open air Sun Pictures, walk through national park with indigenous ranger. Please see the Gorgeous page on our website for a copy of the itinerary. Can't wait till June!

We look forward to looking after you in the year ahead.

May all your adventures be delicious!

Maeve, Suzy, Jinan & Georgie
 
 
 
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