Noosa’s food, glorious food
The rich and famous can afford to reside in Noosa. For the rest of us, it’s a great place to live it up, lard it on, and then leave, writes Megan Gattey.
Let me tell you about the very rich,’’ said writer F Scott Fitzgerald. ‘‘They are different from you and me.’’
Too right, Fitzgerald. They can probably afford to live in sunny Noosa, Australia. But however pricey it may be to actually live in Noosa (I can tell you for free – it’s pricey), it is an easy place to visit.
I amaligning my jaunt with the Noosa Food and Wine Festival because it is the ultimate opportunity to live it up, lard it on, and then leave before I’m penniless.
Whether you funnel food into your bottomless pit on the regular (like me) or you are ready to initiate your stomach into the brotherhood of fullness, this food and wine-a-palooza is for you.
I amthe hungriest human I know, so I amdefinitely in the right place. If I had to die mid-meal anywhere, it would be at the Hastings Street Long Table Lunch, eating wattalapam (coconut milk pudding) whipped up by Noosa Beach House chef Peter Kuruvita. Hundreds of people fill tables that stretch along the entire length of Noosa’s main street.
Chefs from the street’s best restaurants serve meals and pour King Valley Prosecco Road wine – made in Victoria’s High Country by Australia’s Italian wine families.
Kuruvita’s wattalapam involves coconut cream and cinnamon that has been cooked like a custard. But it’s the icecream that sweeps my taste buds off their taste bud feet. Kuruvita says it’s maple syrupflavoured, but ‘‘made with equal parts brown bread and equal parts sugar’’. All of the desserts I’ve consumed prior to this piece de dessert resistance now seem positively pedestrian.
Returning to his restaurant for dinner, I wonder how it is possible to top the magic he created at lunch. He and Melbourne-based chef Adam D’Sylva, of Coda and Tonka restaurants, are teaming up to present modern takes on ancient cuisine. D’Sylva’s dishes are inspired by his Indian ancestry, whereas Kuruvita pays homage to his Sri Lankan background.
When it comes to cooking, Kuruvita says his grandmother is one of his greatest muses. By that, he means he feels like she is always sitting on his shoulder watching him cook with a wooden spoon at the ready. ‘‘She’ll whack me if I get the flavours wrong.’’ He has nothing to worry about. The flavours are right on the money. The boatie taking us to Makepeace Island, off the coast of Noosa, enthusiastically tells us not to worry our poncho-covered heads about the wet stuff. They don’t call it rain in Noosa, he says. It’s just ‘‘liquid sunshine’’.
On the island, the chefs for ‘‘Make Peace with Wine’’ are UKbased Sat Bains, Yarra Valley’s Oakridge Estate’s Matt Stone and Jo Barrett, and Makepeace Island’s very own chef Lisa Mahar.
The eight courses they serve are all (the best kind of) bonkers. And they are all matched with wines, of course.
After wine No 7 I’m feeling comfortably numb, but saying no to an eighth glass of wine on Richard Branson’s Island is kind of like letting one rip in the presence of royalty. You just don’t do it.
Bains comes from the UK, where his Nottingham-based restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms is decorated with two Michelin stars. The classiest of his firstclass dishes is the Teriyaki Pork NOOSA FOOD AND WINE FESTIVALS Belly with Piccalilli and Salsa Verde, paired with Shaw + Smith 2014 shiraz.
Stone’s cuisine has a distinct focus on sustainability. For the kingfish dish with native limes, starfruit and young ginger, he only uses seaweed as seasoning. It is the fastest-growing plant in the world, and though it might not all be delicious, it is all edible.
Barrett’s dessert menu caters to the more adventurous epicures: he presents green tree ants on lemon tarts. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), green tree ants and citrus make a congruous pairing.
Mahar’s divine chicken slider is paired with Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay 2015, one of Australia’s highest-rating chardonnays. Since 1971, Cullen Wines have pioneered biodynamic viticulture, which involves maintaining sustainable soil fertility and respecting the connection between the cosmos and plant growth. Matching dishes with complementary wines is tasked to Matt Skinner – sommelier, author, and educator. One of his projects, The Drinks List, is an online wine shop that helps people discover the best wines available on the market. ‘‘Enjoying wine is a right, not a privilege.’’ Melbourne-based chef Ian Curley is hosting a pop-up of his restaurant, French Saloon, on the beach. I find Curley walking around his newfangled sandyfloored kitchen in Crocs and socks, chuckling. ‘‘Never cooked on sandy floor before.’’
He seems impressively relaxed. ‘‘Ah yeah, all the chefs have got everything under control.’’
Curley wants the experience to be reminiscent of an evening at French Saloon, where sharing is encouraged. ‘‘If you don’t know the person next to you, you will by the end of the night.’’
The courses are all matched with wines from the Sound of White Vineyard, in Marlborough.
It seems there has never been a better time in history to be someone who avoids certain food groups. Luckily for them, all people with dietaries – or ‘‘the vegetarians and glutards’’, as Curley likes to call them – are catered for.
Whenever I amon a health buzz I get temporarily jealous of glutards and the like. But then I remember that while gluten truly doesn’t agree with them, it does agree with me. Hard.
Another chef cooking up a storm on the sand is Sandringham Yacht Club chef Kol Gemmell, who is preparing the food in the festival’s bustling beach teepees.
This is a man capable of preparing more than 5000 servings of food in two hours. The teepees need that kind of tour de force chef; one who can poach 140 eggs in 15 minutes (and still think that’s slow), who comes prepared (he has 200 kilograms of salmon stored in fridges out the back), and who can plate up two sliders a minute.
He is also working consecutive 3am to 10pm days during the festival. Whatever he’s taking, I need it. Dearest reader, you would be forgiven for thinking that all I do is eat. Exercise? Who, me? But I am actually quite partial to occasionally pounding the pavement. SAM FRYSTEEN TOURISM AND EVENTS QUEENSLAND
If you are feeling sapped – from prolonged periods of sunbathing on the beach, or (like me) sitting in restaurants and feeding your face – Noosa National Park is just a short stroll away.
Walk along the seaside boardwalk straight into the park, which offers 4000 hectares to explore. Keep your eyes peeled and you might spot some exotic endangered wildlife such as the black-throated finch, loggerhead turtle and the giant barred frog.
If you practise yoga and sometimes think to yourself: ‘‘I don’t fall over often enough,’’ try stand-up paddleboard yoga (SUP).
I can guarantee I never think that because I have broken both of my ankles multiple times – so I am constantly falling over in both yoga and daily life.
But SUP is a great way to test your talent for balance, and Sunshine Coast local Kat Harding teaches her classes on the stunning Noosa River. Classes cost A$20 (NZ$21).
I find myself attempting, and semi-succeeding, to do a headstand at the end of class. I manage to hold it for a few seconds before a sniggerinducing, balance-thwarting thought pops into my head: ‘‘You know how if you don’t breathe, you die?’’
If you would prefer to focus your mind and body on land, Harding also offers plenty of onshore classes.
Noosa Flow is another local option for yoga and pilates. You can turn up for a casual yoga or pilates class for A$25. ● Megan Gattey travelled as a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland, and dined with compliments of Noosa Food& Wine Festival.