The annual Gastronomica festival in Knysna kicked off this weekend (Saturday September 23) with a Royal Romance Fashion Show and High Tea, a three-day Food with Integrity Market and a Kiddies Cooking Workshop at Thesen Harbour Town.
Farmers and artisans from the Garden Route and Klein Karoo showcased their natural and organic produce at the Food With Integrity Market, fashionista’s soaked up high-end fashion and marveled at a table laden with lavender-infused shortbread biscuits, individual strawberry cheesecakes and organic pecan nut tarts at the Royal Romance High Tea, and children donned aprons and learnt to make biscuits, pizzas, sweets and other treats at the Kids Cooking Workshop.
Food enthusiasts worked side by side with culinary twins, Clare and Fiona Ras in The Trends in Cooking Meat hands-on workshop. Participants learnt how to de-bone and stuff a pork loin, to prepare a flattened cinnamon quail salad and confidently dish up a duck leg casserole. All the while, in another kitchen, lovers of fresh fish soaked up the secrets of Chef Franko Gohse of Franko’s Kitchen in Plettenbergbay. He demonstrated the ease of preparing a tender steamed Kingklip and a chilled beetroot Borch.
Gastronomica is a food lover’s paradise with hands-on workshops, demonstrations, competitions and discussions presented by international and national chefs, restaurateurs, farmers and artisans, and catering to culinary professionals, cookery enthusiasts, tourists and Garden Route residents.
But food is only one ingredient on the generous platter being savoured in Knysna this week. Music, fashion and education provide a backdrop for a delicious culinary show.
Main attractions on the programme include US champion pastry chef En-Ming Hsu who will present a two-day Professional Chocolate and Patisserie workshop starting on Wednesday September 27. Culinary professionals attending this En-Ming Hsu’s workshop will compete in a Chocolate and Patisserie Invitational Challenge on Friday September 29. Visitors are invited to watch talented chefs from Cape Town, Franschhoek, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Knysna competing to produce chocolate and pastry creations under pressure.
Aside from celebrating a love of good food, the festival has a larger agenda: to encourage participants to adopt a lifestyle which encompasses food with integrity. This lifestyle will be showcased at Knysna’s top restaurants which will offer festival menus featuring ingredients which are in season such as blue berries, strawberries, artichokes, mushrooms and asparagus, and presented in dishes which contain no preservatives, additives, colourants, frozen or long-life ingredients or MSG.
“We want people not only to enjoy what they are eating but to be aware of where the product comes from, how it was cultivated, the processes involved and also to have fun preparing dishes. Not for the consuming of food to be an unconscious decision,” said Pat Mulder, MD of Gastronomica.
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