Allan Campion & Michele Curtis - Australian food and wine website

Australian food and wine website
www.campionandcurtis.com

Campion and Curtis news updates

If you're keen to keep up with our news on cooking classes, food tours, demonstrations and new releases from Allan Campion and Michele Curtis simply send in your email address. A brief update will be sent each 4-6 weeks. Or simply drop into this webpage for all the latest news. Click here to sign up for Campion & Curtis news updates CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - July 2009
Plenty of foodie news this month - first up is the announcement from our publisher Hardie Grant Books that our cookbook In The Kitchen will be released in the UK in a few months time. Not bad for two based Melbourne authors!

News of the third annual Chocolate Rush Festival has just been announced. Allan will be involved in two events as detailed below.

The World of Chocolate
Indulge in a 90 minute gastronomic journey through the history and story of chocolate from South America to the world at large. The class includes a tutored chocolate tasting of over 15 different chocolates. From well known brands through to rare single estate vintage chocolates. Gain an understanding of where chocolate comes from, how it is made, how to really 'taste' chocolate and become an expert in choosing your favourites. You'll never look at chocolate the same again!
Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th August 2009 11.00pm - 12.30pm
$60- includes class and admission into the festival for the day of your class. Booking enquiries online here.

Australia's Best Chocolate Truffle
Learn the skills required to evaluate chocolate truffles. Join the judging panel to decide who out there makes the best truffle Australia has to offer.
It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!
Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th August 2009 3.00pm - 4.30pm
$60 - includes class and admission into the festival for the day of your class. Booking enquiries online here.

The Airey's Festival of Words
Allan will be heading to one of his favourite places in regional Victoria to host a literary lunch as part of the Airey's Festival of Words.
The theme for the lunch and talk is "For The Love of Food" and will cover Allan's 30 year career of cooking and food writing.
The event will include a three course lunch at the A la Grecque restaurant on Sunday August 16th 2009 from 12.30 pm.
Places are limited so do not delay in booking. Bookings via email here.

Why not make a weekend of it and head down the Great Ocean Road?
A host of other terrific authors will be hosting events including Partick O'Neil, Shane Maloney, Alison Lester, Sophie Cunningham and many more.
View the entire festival program here.

NEW - The Great Restaurant Walk...& Tastes - Saturday 5th September 2009
Plans have finally come together for the much anticipated restaurant tour of Melbourne.

Explore this food obsessed city to find Melbourne's CBD best dining rooms.
See where the best chefs are working as well as hidden laneway delights.
Tastings along the way include restaurant Fifteen, Oyster Little Bourke and Fed Square's Taxi Dining Room.
Bookings to the CAE on 03 9652 0611 or toll free 1800 601 111. Code DNT44701.
This tour costs $159.00 per person.

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - May 2009
Our efforts over the past few months have mostly been directed towards The Foodies' Diary 2010 and The Foodies' Guide to Melbourne 2010.
While it's been fantastic to be out and about looking at the best food food stores of Melbourne and regional Victoria, it leaves little time for the news updates.
So it's good to be back online.

A number of terrific cooler weather recipes have been requested in recent weeks in cooking classes and via email.
So to keep warm through these cooler months you'll find lamb hot pot, beef rendang and Moroccan lentil broth are now online at the recipes web page.

Our recently published cookbook In The Kitchen has been reviewed at the blog spot Melbourne Larder.

There are many email requests for Public Cooking Classes and Food Tours.
Michele is hosting Seafood for Beginners on May 30th, while Allan has the popular Kitchen Boot Camp on June 2nd and Allan's Favourites on June 20th.
Foodies' Bus Tour (North of the Yarra) will be departing on Sat 25th July and the ever-popular Foodies' Walking Tour of Melbourne is set for Sat 18th July.
Up to date details are always available online. Find our more at Melbourne Food Tours and Melbourne Cooking Classes.

Private Tours and Cooking Classes can always be organised for groups too. Get together with friends or business colleagues for a food filled day or half day journey or class. Details are online at Private Cooking Classes and at Private Food Tours .

Many schools book in for our School Foodie Tours of Melbourne. Students come from Melbourne, regional Victoria and interstate to explore the foodie delights of this terrific city. One of the newest tours is the Big Day Out. This kicks off with a visit to the iconic Queen Victoria Market. We start with a coffee and learn a little about the history of this famous foodie landmark. Then we explore the meat and seafood hall, the deli hall and the many wonderful fresh produce stalls, enjoying tastings along the way. A little free time is then provided for shopping before lunch. We then explore the western end of the central business district tasting beautiful cakes, seeing where Melbourne's early produce market was located and visiting the famous landmark buildings of Collins Street and nearby laneways. The tour concludes with delicious chocolates at the beautifully restored GPO. Details are available online at Melbourne Food Tours.

Bushfire fundraising (by Allan)
On a more serious note the Black Saturday bushfires devastated over 400,000 hectares of land in Victoria. 2000 homes were lost and more than 170 people lost their lives. Two of those who people did not survive the deadly fires were artist Angela Brunton and actor Reg Evans. Both were long-time friends from Kinglake. Their loss has been deeply felt by all those who knew and worked with them.

This dreadful event brought me to Kinglake in the days and weeks after the fires. It's almost impossible to describe the scenes of devastation on the environment and community. Seeing this spurred me to get involved in establishing a bushfire relief fund at my local St Agnes' school and parish (Highett, Melbourne) to directly assist a number of families affected by the fires in the Kinglake area.

A number of fundraising efforts will be conducted in the weeks and months ahead.
Our initial launch will be this Saturday morning 30th May from 8.30am with a cake stall outside the Highett Library, Highett Road, Highett . Melway 77 F9.
Come and say hello if you're in the local area.
Full details of the Bushfire Relief Fundraising effort is online.

Coming up in the next edition of C&C
News of the a new foodies tour - The Great Melbourne Restaurant Walk
Details of how you can get involved in judging and selecting the best chocolate truffle in Australia.

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - March 2009
Welcome to the March 2009 news update.

A few words first on the events of recent weeks with bushfires wreaking havoc across parts of regional Victoria.
Many of us have lost wonderful friends and the weeks ahead will be difficult as memorials and funerals are held.
Our thoughts are with everyone who has the difficult task of picking up the pieces and rebuilding their communities.

One of the ways in which you could help people touched by this terrible tragedy is to assist Kay Richardson at The Children's Food Education Foundation who is running an appeal for donations of food literature for distribution to schools, communities and families affected by the recent natural disasters in Australia. Losing a favourite cookbook, gardening book or food magazine may not seem important when compared to the loss of a loved one, a home or a livelihood, but we know the simple acts of growing food, cooking and eating a meal together will serve to heal in its own special way. Details of where you can drop books off to are on the Children's Food Education website - this includes bringing them to the Connex 'Sizzle' Global Chargrill BBQ stage as described below.

Now news of events for the food loving public - if you can get along make sure you come and say hello!

Connex Sizzle!
Allan will be joining Cam C. Smith from radio 3RRR as co-presenter of the Global Char Grill Showcase, part of Connex Sizzle! at Federation Square. We'll be on the River Terrace (near Zinc) where fantastic chefs and sports personalities will be demonstrating and talking about perfect barbecuing over glowing coals. Special guest BBQ experts will take a world approach to the cooking over glowing coals. Mauro Callegari (Argentinean), Stavros Abougelis (Greek of course) John McLeay (Vietnamese) and lots more besides. Join us for fun, barbecuing tips and plenty of delicious treats from the chargrill. Samples of the food they will be preparing will also be available!.
Books can also be dropped off here to support the Children's Food Education Foundation (as mentioned above).
Allan will be at the Angus and Robertson tent (Federation Square) at 3pm for a book signing.
Saturday 14th March 2009 - Midday to 7.00pm - River Terrace, below Federation Square.

Bright 'n' Sandy Food & Wine Festival
A terrific day celebrating the food and wine of Melbourne's Bayside suburbs. Allan Campion will be hosting celebrity chefs and wine experts on the demonstration kitchen stage throughout the day. Meet David Airoldi (The French Corner Restaurant), David Mackintosh (Alimentaria | Moritz Beer), Stephen Burke (Half Moon), Paul Raynor (Middle Brighton Baths Restaurant), Tony Lee (Foxeys Hangout), Stuart McVeigh (Botanical) Arno Backes (Ganache Chocolate) and many more.
Carmel McNally will again be heading up the wonderful children's cooking demonstrations tent.
Sunday 22 Mar 2009 11.00am - 6.00pm - Brighton Gardens, Green Point, The Esplanade, Brighton

School Foodie's Tours
A special program of school group tours is now available and is proving very popular with teachers looking for activities for their hospitality and food technology students. There are five amazing tours specially devised for school groups. Each of which offers an opportunity to explore and taste a vast array of different foods. There are walking tours through the Vietnamese precinct around Victoria Street, Prahran, the central business district and Chinatown. The Prahran Market and Queen Victoria Market can also be explored.
A number of tours are also available by minibus that takes participants to the best food stores in suburbs such as South Melbourne, Fitzroy, Carlton, North Melbourne and Richmond. All tours include tastings and the chance to meet culinary experts along the way. Find our more on the MFT's webpage.

Public Foodie's Tours
Tours coming up include a Foodies Walking Tour of Melbourne on Saturday 4th April and Foodie's Bus tour North on Saturday 9th May and Saturday 25th July 2009.
Full details on the Melbourne Food Tours website.

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - February 2009
In The Kitchen by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis

Welcome to the New Year 2009 - we trust you all had an opportunity to have a good summer break.

Various Campion-Curtis family members have been on trips to NE Victoria, Singapore, Vietnam (news of this in the next edition) and of course local beaches. Now it's back to work and school for everyone as Australia experiences some blistering 40C+ spells. Bring on the salads, chilled beers and crisp white wine on ice!

Those keen to hone new cooking skills can join Michele as she hosts a cooking class on Tuesday 17th February at 6.30pm drawing on recipes from our latest cookbook In The Kitchen. With over a 1000 recipes to choose from, it promises to be quite a session. Full details are available online here.

If you're thinking about booking your very own food tour of Melbourne then checkout the newest addition to the program called The Great Melbourne Restaurant Walk. On this four hour odyssey you'll explore the CBD's very best restaurants - and see exactly where the best chefs are cooking up a storm!
Naturally there are plates of food and glasses of wine to enjoy along the way - providing a perfect opportunity to discover 'new' favourite dining places. A fantastic way to explore Melbourne and its culinary delights. This tour requires a minimum of 10 people at $149.00 per person.

Melbourne Cooking Classes had a busy lead up to Christmas with many corporate groups and groups of friends coming together for real hands-on cooking experiences - and a fantastic meal to share in Melbourne's newest cooking school and studio. Spanish, Moroccan and Italian food were the big hits - and this is expected to continue into 2009. We�re now gearing up for a new year of foodie experiences. Prices start at $165.00 per person with a minimum of 16 people. Classes are hosted by chefs and culinary experts including Arno Backes, Glenn Flood, Pauline Leonard, Jennifer Graham, Monsieur Truffe and Tony Chiodo.

For those lucky enough to live in Melbourne Food and Wine Festival program has just been launched. Checkout the 200+ events now available online. There will be news in the next Campion & Curtis new update of events we're involved in. Do get your bookings in early as popular events sell out very quickly!

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - November 2008
In The Kitchen
Our newest release In The Kitchen, has been many years in the making. You'd expect that of a recipe collection drawn from the best of our work since we began writing about food in 1993. We've gathered the recipes we loved the most over years of writing and cooking - out absolute favourites from Fresh, Sizzle, Chilli Jam, Tucker For Tots, Food with Friends, Every Day Cooking, the many editions of The Foodies' Diary, and of course, the original Campion and Curtis in the Kitchen from 2002.

Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine this book would end up quite so large, but with more than 1000 recipes, plus lots of good kitchen advice, the personal stories behind the recipes and terrific food photography, that's what happened.

It's over 800 pages long and weighs in at a whopping 2.4 kg!

The recipes we selected are those we feel represent modern Australian home cooking. Simplicity, seasonality and freshness are the key to each and every one of them. We've also listened to our readers in the selection process. Dishes such as spaghetti with breadcrumbs, tuna, parsley and lemon caused a wave of emails from adoring fans; likewise, muffins that taste like doughnuts have an enthusiastic fan club.

Part of the enjoyment of food comes from sharing it with family and friends. Over the years we would have fed hundreds of hungry mouths, many willing participants in our own style of recipe development. No test kitchen here, just real people with great appetites. Our children Mia and Luke are still a delight to feed. They are always ready for French toast sandwiches filled with chocolate or spaghetti with braised chicken meatballs in tomato sugo. What's changed is that as they are now teenagers, they too are starting to cook. We couldn't ask for more.

We are both excited about In The Kitchen and how it reflects our approach to good food and good cooking. More importantly, we are glad to finally have all our favourite family recipes in one place so we can find them easily. We hope you enjoy cooking from this book for family and friends for many years to come.

In The Kitchen by Allan Campion & Michele Curtis - in store now - published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $69.95.

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - OCTOBER 2008

The Foodies' Guide to Melbourne 2009
The Campion & Curtis publishing program continues this week with the release of the Foodies' Guide to Melbourne 2009, our annual compilation of the finest food stores in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Our task is to walk every high street and shopping strip, to poke around in food stores, bakeries, delis, fishmongers, Asian grocers and the like, to direct readers towards the establishments we consider to be the best places to shop for produce and ingredients. We have no doubts whatsoever that Melbourne retains its crown as the culinary capital of Australia. Every day, across the city, food stores, greengrocers, butchers and produce merchants open their doors to eager customers. Bakers stock their shelves with warm breads and sweet treats, fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables are trucked into our produce markets in huge quantities, while butchers prepare sausages, slice steaks and debone legs of lamb for the home barbecue.

Chocolatiers fill display cabinets with cocoa-dusted truffles, raspberry-filled shells and chocolate bars studded with roasted hazelnuts. Fishmongers fillet and trim fresh fish ready for the pan, open oysters and display the sea's bounty for seafood lovers. Then there are bustling Middle Eastern, Italian and Spanish food stores, plus the hundreds of cafes, bistros and restaurants presenting meals for keen customers. All this combines to make Melbourne one of the world's great food cities.

Recently we have seen an amazing boom in the rise of quality food providores - the new kids on the block. These are intrepid souls who have decided to open the door on a new venture to see what local food lovers make of it. Arno Backes has established a delicious store called Ganache Chocolate in South Yarra and Port Melbourne residents are enjoying their wonderful deli/cafe called Eurodore.

There have also been some serious renovations at Melbourne's fresh produce markets. Queen Victoria Market now has a state-of-the-art fish and meat hall, while South Melbourne Market boasts a brand new food shopping aisle, which rivals the best food halls.

We also note a terrific resurgence in the French food scene around town. It's never been better with wonderful places such as Filou's, Le Croissant, La Tropezienne and Le Petit Gateau for stunning patisserie, La Parisienne Pates for smallgoods and Monsieur Truffe for wonderful chocolate bars and flavoured truffles.

We hope you enjoy exploring this wonderful food obsessed city - with a copy of The Foodies' Guide to Melbourne 2009 firmly in hand!

Don't miss the announcement and photos of the 2009 Foodies' Guide Award Winners here.

Published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $29.95

In The Kitchen
As mentioned briefly in the last C&C Newsletter we've been busy working on a new cookbook titled In The Kitchen. It will be released in November and includes 1000 of our favourite recipes drawn from our cook books and the diaries over the years. It weights in at 2.6 kg and is by far the biggest writing project we've ever been involved with. We'll have more information on this massive and very lavish book in the next news update!

CAMPION AND CURTIS - NEWS UPDATE - September 2008

The Foodies' Diary 2009
To coincide with the arrival of spring is the release of the latest edition of our produce diary. In keeping with Australia's changing shopping habits and attitudes to food, the Seasonal Produce Diary has been renamed The Foodies' Diary 2009 to better reflect the diary's popularity as a foodies' bible. Over the years this much-loved classic has grown to become much more than a record of fruit and vegetables in season. For today's food lovers fresh, seasonal produce is just one part of enjoying food and the diary reflects this with detailed listings of food and wine festivals, fresh produce markets and seasonal recipes with wine matches.

The Foodies' Diary 2009 is full of simple, yet elegant recipes designed to bring out the fresh flavours of seasonal fruit and vegetables, such as Crispy Salmon Salad with a Hot and Sour Dressing for winter or the more summer-inspired Asian Poached Chicken and Soba Noodle Salad with Asparagus and Mango.

It's filled with lavish full colour pictures by Tim James and illustrated and designed by the wonderful Trisha Garner.
The diary is a luscious and beautiful celebration of the changing seasons, fresh ingredients and great cooking.

Published by Hardie Grant Books ($29.95). In-store now - PS Don't leave it too late to get your hand on a copy - it sells out early each year!