What to do when a friend says I have free tickets to a foodie event, would you like to come on Sunday?….Hmmmm, let me think about that. Yes! Food and free ticket. Doesn’t get much better.

What are we seeing?

Master Chef Live. Billed as a live theatre and cooking festival, running over 3 days in December, it’s the first time the reality TV series has branched out in to this sort of thing. With cooking demonstrations, an extensive list of top Australian Chefs, junior master chef, hands on cooking classes and more food samples from producers than is possible for one City Hippy Farm Girl’s tummy. I have to say it was fun!

Some stand outs of the day were.

Brasserie Breads (top picture) 25 minute lesson on sourdough making. I have long wanted to do one of their classes and it just hasn’t happened for various reasons. Now, I’m not sure that I need to. I was able to get lots of little tips in that condensed lesson, that I am as ‘keen as mustard’ to try out when making my next batch of sourdoughs.

Geoff Hudson from The Italian Gardener (Italian vegetable and herb seed from Franchi Sementi, est 1783), was a likeable and knowledgable fella that just makes you want to go stick your fingers in some dirt and start gardening. Specialising in heirloom varieties from Italy, he had a vast array of seeds that made me yearn for a garden even more…one day, one day. (The website has an extensive selection of Italian vegetable treasures, along with an organic section.) In the mean time I am going to try my hand at a few chillies in a pot and I couldn’t resist buying some tomato seeds that may find their way down to my mother’s garden. (With a few fruit firmly set aside for me!)

The Little General was selling some knock out olive oils. Sam Mancini (on left) is the one pictured on the great looking bottles as a two year old. As a kid, The Little General was what he was affectionately known as. Locally produced and based in Griffith, in the Riverina area. This is a family run business that seems to be doing some great things with their olive crops, as this olive oil really was a delicious drop. I couldn’t resist buying a bottle as it was begging for some home made sourdough to be dunked in it…dunk me, dunk me.

There were two other stand outs of the day. One them being Rochester Ginger, a non- alcoholic ginger drink that came in two flavours, or two levels of gingery deliciousness. So I was quite happy to find out that one of their stockists was just local to me. I think this particular one may find itself being drunk quite a bit over Christmas, I do love anything with a hint of ginger.

Mayfield Chocolates is quite possibly the best chocolate I have tasted in quite awhile. Incorporating some distinctly Australian flavours in these tasty little numbers such as, Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey, Macadamia, Lemon Myrtle, Wattleseed, QLD Rum, and Kakadu Plum. An Australian company that is based out of Brisbane. If you live in the surrounding areas good luck trying to stay away from these once you have had a taste. Lucky for me, I don’t live in the area, (and for now I will ignore the fact that they have a n Express Post Trackable postage option….it’s for the best.