FOOD FESTIVAL Christine Manfield will share two tasty yet easy recipes at the Koonya Garlic Festival

17

G astronomic traveller Christine Manfield knows Hobart’s food culture like an insider, thanks to friendships with The Agrarian Kitchen’s Rodney Dunn (“I knew him way back in his Sydney days”) and her former chef of 20 years, Jessica Muir, who’s on a pause after working at Franklin (“We run around together on food reccies”).

As a national judge at Delicious magazine’s Produce Awards, she’s also ahead of the pack on the best of what each state is producing (for example, she loves Launceston’s Meru Miso).

But the top Aussie chef and cookbook author ( Tasting India and Fire & Spice her most recent) has never been to the Koonya Garlic Festival. Lucky then, she’s a featured guest, invited to give a demonstration at the Tasman Peninsula community event that’s now a foodie calendar staple. She’ll share why she thinks garlic is vital to our diet. “I love its pungency, lingering sweetness when roasted, its aroma and its versatility,” says Manfield, on the phone from her home in Sydney. “I can’t imagine a world without garlic.”

Manfield will demonstrate two quick, yet-to-be-decided dishes inside the Koonya Hall, preferring to maintain an element of surprise.

“It’s like giving a menu to someone ahead of time: it’s boring, leaves no room for spontaneity,” she says.

Her invitation to Koonya this year came directly from Janice Sutton, author of Garlic Feast, the meaty, surprise-hit coffee table cookbook that sprung out of the Koonya Garlic Festival.

Sutton asked Manfield to contribute a couple of her recipes for a follow-up book on heirloom tomatoes she is co-authoring with Penny Woodward and Karen Sutherland (to be released at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale later this year).

“I get two bites of the Tassie cherry this month,” says Manfield, who, alongside trips to India and Bhutan, also hosts her own food-tasting tours (with a small group of foodie fanatics from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, who spend a week exploring the food and wine culture of Hobart and environs with her).

“Tasmania isn’t as exotic as India, or as challenging or dramatic,” she says, “but it’s incredibly beautiful and there’s a great deal of interest in it, and awareness of producers.”

Reflecting on how far the state has come in its food reputation, she says people once never thought about food in Tassie: “The two words were almost an oxymoron”.

Now, she says she puts on two kilos every time she visits, “because I can’t resist going to Pigeon Whole Bakers and buying up their cakes and pastries”.

She’s also one of many people who see the virtue in championing local. “It’s important you go to different regions and taste food only of that region,” she says. “The more support you give local growers, the more chance they have of surviving. I’m all for shining a light on the small regional areas and championing those places. The heart and soul of our business doesn’t just happen in our cities.” Koonya Garlic Festival is on next Saturday at Koonya Hall and Grounds, 10am-3.30pm, Tasman Peninsula. For more information, visit koonyagarlicfestival.com