Free Range Chef

I caught up with Lyn at Puhoi (some of my favorite cheeses are made by Puhoi) who was showcasing there new Gruyere cheese which was very good, the perfect balance between sweet and salt , with a creamy nutty finish, this cheese will get better with age.

Found new suppliers of Mediterranean products. Lena was very helpful on the Mediterraneo range with olives, oils, vinegars and Antipasto products.

A great array of suppliers of crockery, knives, catering equipment and very new disposable canape and buffet ware were on show, giving lots of innovative ideas and giving the Free Range Chef a ever increasing wish list.

The Bakery competition was hotting with the 9 young finalists competing for the baker of the year crown and $14,000 in prizes. The competition was held in 3 heats over the 3 days, the cake decorating was amazing and the attention to detail where excellent.

Other foods of interest were from Mercato, with there huge range of specialist dry goods,meats and cheeses and there range of molecular gastronomy products.

Choco Vic Origen Unico chocolate is worth a mention. The range offers 3 different products with distinctive characters of there own. All are gluten and nut free.They even put the year of the harvests on the packaging as there are variations between the different harvests.

Another highlight of the food fair was seeing how to make Haloumi in 20 minutes courtesy of Over the Moon dairy. There cheeses are very good another favorite of mine. They run cheese making courses, teaching how to make all your favorite cheeses at home.

Warm milk. Add the Rennet. wait 30 seconds to a minute for the curd to set. Cut the curd into small pieces, press and drain the whey of the curd.

Then tip out haloumi when solid and drained well. Heat whey. Add the haloumi, cook through for a minute or to in the hot liquid.remove and put in to put into a water and salt solution for few minutes dry and cook...Very tasty and so easy !!!!

The show was very good and talking to the exhibitors they all thought it was very well organised and that it was one of the better food shows around. I agree I enjoyed it so much I went on the second day too. I tried so many products that I couldn't mention them all in this blog but I'm looking forward to the next time.

For any information on any of the products or on the fine food fair just hit the contact button and drop me a mail.