The James Street Food & Lifestyle Trail – An epicurean adventure 15th-20th October 2012

Brisbane just keeps getting better and better!! ‘The James Street Food and Lifestyle Trail’ is on running from October 15 – 20 and there is an amazing showcase of food, fashion and lifestyle events.

Held in the heart of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, this inaugural event will meld internationally acclaimed designers with world-class chefs over a series of intimate events, culminating in a large-scale festival with fresh food stalls, tasting stations and pop-up bars on Saturday October 20.

Bucci Ristorante will open the festivities with An Evening with Pepe Saya and Pangkarra (Mon, 15 October), a four-course dinner and demonstration that will provide guests a unique opportunity to interact with head chef Shaun Malone alongside his favourite producers.

“With such a strong focus on fresh produce at Bucci, we want our customers to explore some of the techniques and processes that have gone into creating the dishes. Guests can expect to learn how Pepe Saya’s hand-churned butter adds that extra flavour kick that they have come to know and love!” Shaun said.

Organisers of this event said enhancing each guest’s knowledge of food and wine is a key trend that will continue throughout the week.

As well as An Adventure in Tea and Food Pairing with the Specialty Tea Institute’s only certified speaker in Australia (May King Tea), Scrumptious Reads will be hosting the launch of The 2013 Foodie’s Guide to Brisbane.

Author of The Foodies’ Guide, Karen Reyment, said “James Street is such a vibrant food hub in Brisbane with many new food and wine destinations to explore, so hosting the launch of the Foodies’ Guide during the Trail seemed to go together like crackers and cheese.”

One such notable introduction to James Street has been Gerard’s Bistro, who will showcase its signature fusion of European, African and Middle Eastern cuisines with a five-course degustation (Wed, 17 October) and a variety of live cooking demonstrations at a pop-up stall in Gerard’s Laneway (Sat, 20 October).

Free brunch bites will be featured from 10AM at Gerard’s Laneway, giving guests a snapshot of the newly launched breakfast menu, followed by a presentation by head chef Ben Williamson on the art to the cooking the perfect suckling pig.

As you can see there is so many amazing events in this epicurean week. My hot tips would be “An Evening with Pepe Saya and Pangkarra (Mon, 15 October) and the Gerard’s Bistro five-course degustation (Wed 17 October). Having been to one of  May King Tsang’s Tea classes I definitely recommend ‘Scrumptious Pairings – An adventure in tea and food pairing” too (Tues, 16 October).

For more information on The James Street Food and Lifestyle Trail, including a full program of events, please visit:

www.jamesst.com.au/foodandlifestyletrail/index.html