From the 8th – 15th July 2005, Vic Cherikoff and I hosted the Australian Food & Wine Festival at the Hilton Nagoya, Japan. The Australian Food & Wine Festival was centred in the Hilton’s Terrace Brasserie and each evening we presented a buffet featuring native Australian ingredients. As well as the evening buffet, Vic and I hosted live cooking shows in the restaurant teaching guests all about Australian food.

Hilton guests experienced the flavours of Australia such as kangaroo, emu, riberries, wattleseed, lemon myrtle, wild limes, paperbark and over several dozen other ingredients flown in especially for the event. Highlights from the menu include;

• Red Desert Dusted Tasmanian salmon and yakajirri hollandaise
• Seared kangaroo fillet with mountain pepper sauce
• Lamb rump with Illawarra plum sauce
• Wildfire seared tuna tossed in lemon aspen chilli
• Wattleseed pavlova with a wild fruit coulis

On Monday the 11th July, Vic and I held a private Australian cooking class where we  demonstrating how to use Australian native herbs and spices in every day cooking.

The 438-room Hilton Nagoya, located at the centre of the business, shopping and entertainment areas of the city and only 12 kilometres from Nagoya Airport, offers a wide range of leisure and business facilities as well as a ballroom which can host up to 1,200 guests.

The week long Australian food and wine festival is presented by Dining Downunder and is sponsored by Australian Airlines, Wolf Blass Wines, Fosters Beer, Meat & Livestock Australia and Vacel Inc (a kangaroo meat supplier).

Click here to see photos of the Australian food and wine festival