Farming Feast With Matthew Evans for MFWF
Angliss Restaurant was the perfect venue for an exciting Farming Feast event for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Fat Pig Farm owner and chef Matthew Evans and his wife Sadie shared their experience of setting up the Fat Pig Farm within a small farming community. They also hosted a farming feast at Angliss Restaurant with a shared plate dinner for an epic evening.
We loved the cloudy Kizakura Piano Sparkling Sake - with some bottle ferment. Served with Pickled hakurei and Sesame cucumber.
Steamed mussels in white wine were a pleasure. Canapes and bubbles served by Angliss students.
Matthew Evans from Fat Pig Farm - TV chef, farmer, ex food critic, in fact a man hard to put into any box. Inspirational and engaging. He poured himself out (if that's the right expression) at this event with boundless energy and passion.
Matthew Evans spoke of farming and brought loads of humour describing then and now - how the industry has changed and evolved.
The foodie crowd loved it. This was an event with class but also "soul". It was a priviledge to be there.
Ham (simply desctibed but out of this world), buttered radish, herb salad, brown pickle and spring onion. This was a party in itself; the ham was outrageously good but the quality of the vegetables was to be reckoned with. Angove's wines were the perfect matching with the food including Angove Organic Cuvee, Lola's Garden Preservative Free White, Warboys Grenache and Semillon De Glaciere.
Charred zucchini with basil was another highlight. When you get produce of this high quality from the farm you can showcase it.
What a dish! Dilled carrots! These carrots, like the zucchini, were a revelation. Where can I access such produce? Of course there's skill in the kitchen, and the Angliss students did themselves proud working with this awesome produce.
Part of Matthew Evan's philosophy is community dining. This helped make the event so memorable. There was a sense of conviviality and warmth in the room, and I met many people over a shared meal.
Sicilian purple cauliflower with parmigiano was another highlight. We've seen the humble cauliflower elevated in recent times across menus.
Cider poached bacon was another showstopper. I may have taken one piece too many (can you blame me?) - and got my maths wrong in a shared dining experience. Fortunately they replenished the plate so we all got enough. This was bacon of the highest quality and we loved the cider poaching. Farmers salad with flowers and Cucumber with coriander seeds, were refreshing dishes alongside the meat.
Matthew and wife Sadie are a dynamic duo and it was great to hear from both of them in terms of history, Tasmania and food.
Another highlight was the Italian style slow roasted pork - melt in your mouth.
Citrus syoghurt cake with caramel apples and creme fraiche was a triumph, together with Sadie's whisky walnut biscuits.
Kudos to Angliss students!
Great to connect afterwards with Matthew Evans. A Q&A was another feature of the night and I asked about how we can better support farmers. Of course we can buy direct from farmers on line so they get better prices.
What an epic evening.