GREAT FOOD: Ben Davies, left, and Graham Manville show off some the region’s best produce. 230113RCA04
THE launch of the 2013 TASTE Tamworth Festival yesterday proved you don’t need to look beyond your local area for top-quality eating and drinking.
The festival, to be held from April 5 to 14 this year, had its own special launch outside the FanZone marquee yesterday morning with a barbecue cooking demonstration.
The demonstration involved local award-winning chefs Graham Manvell and Ben Davies serving up some tasty locally sourced delicacies that reflected the diversity of New England’s produce.
SSS BBQ Barn Tamworth and The Ritz chef Graham Manvell, who tended to the juicy buffalo meat on the barbecue, praised the fine ingredients local suppliers had provided them.
“With the local produce you always expect great flavour, because food’s always at its best when it’s grown locally, from the ground up,” he said.
“It’s great to know where and how the food’s been handled and you know the suppliers.”
The TASTE festival has been running for four years and celebrates the great local flavours with a range of family-friendly events around the area, including TASTE in the Park, the Kootingal Pumpkin Festival and the Long Lunch. The Farm Gate Trail will also give people an opportunity to visit farmers in the region and see how the produce comes to be.
A celebrity cook-off will tempt the crowds at TASTE in the Park on April 7.
The new “Bite Size” cooking area will give keen young cooks a go at making a culinary masterpiece. During the festival, some local restaurants will include on their menus a TASTE dish that boasts the delights of New England.
Quality Hotel Powerhouse chef Ben Davies said “the possibilities are limitless” when cooking with locally sourced ingredients.