2009 Sydney Good Food & Wine Show

I’ve just returned from the 2009 Sydney Good Food & Wine Show. The event featured hundreds of exhibitors showcasing specialty foods, wines and the latest cooking gadgets.

The biggest draw was undoubtedly the infamous Gordon Ramsay who performed live cooking demonstrations over the three-day event. The 2,500 seat theater was electric with excitement and curiosity about the notoriously bad tempered chef. And given his recent antics at the Melbourne Good Food & Wine Show, people weren’t sure what to expect. I braced myself for bad language and obscenities.

To my utter surprise Ramsay turned out to be charming and very amusing. He treated the audience to stories about his family, his English bulldog ‘Rumpole’ and told several very funny and self-deprecating stories including one about a high profile charity dinner at which he was honored guest.

Ramsay has been working for almost 48 hours straight and was utterly exhausted by the time he’d arrived at the event. Half way trough the meal he ducked into the washroom to freshen up and promptly fell asleep in a cubicle. Twenty minutes later he was roused by the event organizers who were shocked to see strange markings on his face. He’d fallen asleep with his cheek against a wicker basket and ended up with red welts over the whole side of his face. Two minutes later, he and his welts were on stage giving a speech!

At the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show Ramsay prepared three dishes in 30 minutes – a blue eye cod minestrone, followed by marinated Tasmanian salmon served on a bed of lightly sautéed baby spinach and radish and a gorgeous dessert of poached pears with flaked almonds and caramelized figs.

Stay tuned for more from the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show including a rising trend in the use of native Australian herbs and spices and my newly discovered obsession -- chocolate quinoa bread.

Photo: © S. Wongkaew (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc