February 2005

 


A mid-winter’s day on Hamilton Island. The sun is shining and we are sitting outside under a large white marquee feasting on Turkish delight and rose petal ice cream. Subtle and delicate, it’s lightly studded with glace ginger and red rose petals. Over to our left the aquamarine waters of the Whitsunday Passage are dancing in the sunlight. Life’s tough, eh?

You’re probably thinking we’re guests at one of the 500 weddings held annually on the island and that this heavenly ice cream was specially created for the bridal pair. But guess what? Chef Geoff Lindsay from Pearl restaurant in Melbourne has just spent the last half hour showing us how to make it in the first of five Master Classes being held over the June long weekend. His other two dishes – Raw tuna with shredded granny smith apple, ponzu and wasabi-flavoured flying fish roe and the Tiger prawn and bean curd sandwich with dashi-warmed oysters, dancing bonito and Yarra Valley salmon caviar – are just as sensational. In fact, the Tiger prawn and bean curd sandwich is the highlight of the Great Chefs Dinner on Sunday night – light, mouth-watering and ultra-modern in its presentation and technique, it literally stole the show.

Lindsay is just one of a number of guest chefs and winemakers sharing their expertise at the third Great Barrier Reef Feast. Some, like Paul Wade of Little Nell’s in Aspen and Wolfgang Strauss of the Hotel Murmeli in Lech, Austria, have flown thousands of miles to participate. Others – like Gilbert Lau, Anthony Liu and Allan Koh have flown in from Melbourne while Peter Doyle of Est has come up from Sydney.

Stellar winemakers Len Evans (Tower Wines), Jeffrey Grosset (Grosset Wines) , Michael Hill Smith (Shaw & Smith), John Purbick (Chateau Tahbilk) and Oliver Crawford (Penfolds) conduct Master Classes on wine.

“It’s difficult to choose between the classes because they’re run side by side,” said Cathie Kenatake of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. “This year we made a decision to attend most of the wine classes. It’s great to sit in with the winemakers and taste and discuss the various wines in detail.”

Cathie and husband John have been to all three Feasts along with six of their friends.
“It’s a wonderful adult get-away combined with what we’re interested in,” said Ruthanne Tregaskis, one of Cathie’s friends. “We leave the kids behind and indulge ourselves for three days. We just love the atmosphere and feel really spoilt.”

Events host Len Evans likened it to being on a luxury liner. “There’s a great feeling of camaraderie,” he commented. “It’s short, sharp and great fun. Paul Wade told me it made the Aspen food and wine festival look dull.”

Many guests considered Evans’ class on ‘Tower Wines and Pinot Noirs of the World’ as the most inspiring. “When he describes a wine, there’s so much romance about it,” said Ruthanne. “It’s as though he’s talking about a beautiful young woman. With him, we travelled around the world from Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley then along the Route du Vin in Burgundy.”

Paul Wade lent an outsider’s perspective. This was his first trip to Australia but he was already enthusiastic about Aussie wines, cheeses, barramundi and Kiwi beef, all of which are on the menu at Little Nell’s. What he hadn’t realised was the quality of the fresh produce available. “This is a gastronomic paradise,” he told us during his cookery demo. “Your fresh produce is of such good quality. You can get anything here. It’s a chef’s playground.”


 


Wade believes Australia is destined to become one of the food capitals of the world. “And what’s more, you also have the best wine in the world.” This year the theme of the festival was ‘Fusion Cuisine and Great Wines of the World’. “We survey the guests to get feedback and see what they’re interested in for the following year,” explained Wayne Kirkpatrick, managing director of Hamilton Island. “Through the festival we want to showcase not just the work of leading chefs and winemakers but also the restaurants here on the island.”

There are ten restaurants on Hamilton, a number of which showcased dishes for the Saturday night dinner. They revealed an astonishing variety, ranging from Italian to Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian and Malaysian. Hamilton also offers cooking classes at other times of the year. Weekly classes take place at the island’s flagship restaurant, ‘The Beach House’. Led by sous chef Byron Moore, the classes offer an informal means for novice and accomplished cooks to improve their culinary repertoire. And on Mondays guests are invited to partake in a hands-on sushi demonstration by the island’s leading sushi chef.

After all that eating and drinking, you might like to partake in some of the other activities available on Hamilton. A small booklet is available showing the many walking tracks on the island so make sure you pack your cross-trainers. If you really want to burn off a few kilojoules, try climbing the Peak early in the morning (a good hour there and back) - the bird life (cockatoos, lorikeets, currawongs) on Hamilton is very noisy so you won’t feel alone. Water activities include swimming in the lovely warm waters surrounding the island, snorkeling and scuba diving. You can learn to sail a luxury yacht and qualify for a myriad of licenses including a boat license and sea-radio operator’s qualifications.

There are also eco-friendly kayaking tours in which you can glide over colourful coral reefs and see native Green and Hawksbill turtles, dolphins, whales and even dugongs
After all that exercise, you won’t feel so guilty about indulging in some Coral trout fillets with garlic, chilli and lime or a crayfish salad with chardonnay vinegar and honey dressing, will you?

Contact details:

Hamilton Island Ph 1800 075 110
www.hamiltonisland.com.au