| |
award-winning wines |
bunya nuts and bush foods
|
fresh farm produce
|
mouth-watering recipes!
 News
tip?
Our web site
is always interested in news about developments in the South
Burnett's wine and food industries.
You're most welcome
to send any news tips directly to Jason Ford
via email. Include
your phone number if you have more details you'd like to discuss. |
|
You can find out more about the South Burnett on the following web sites:
South Burnett Online
South Burnett Tourism
|
|
|
-
 Merry Christmas To All Our
Readers!
-
25th December
2002: South Burnett Cuisine would like to wish all our readers a merry
Christmas and all the best for the coming New Year. We're going to be taking
a short break until early January 2003 and during this time we'll
be working on some further improvements and additions to our web site.
Surprisingly - for such a new site as ours - we've already become one of
the most popular sub-sections of the South Burnett Online content
network. We can only guess that this proves quite a lot of people are interested
in South Burnett wine and food and that our region has a big future
in this area. We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people
who've given us such positive feedback. You can expect to see a lot
more surprising and (we hope) genuinely useful material here in
2003.
-
South Burnett To
Become Hub For Wine & Food Training
-
22nd December
2002: The recent expansion of Australia's wine industry and wine tourism
has given rise to an increased need for formal training and skills recognition.
Training for wine cultivation has been addressed with the Wine Training Package
developed by
WINETAC. Increasingly,
though, wineries have been adding tourism activities to their operations.
In addition to cellar door sales (for example) many are now offering winery
tours and formal wine tastings. Many also host special events and/or have
on-site restaurants. In order to address this growing industry, Tourism Training
Australia (TTA) in partnership with Adelaide's Regency Institute of TAFE
are developing Wine and Food Tourism training products. In early 2003 TTA
will be conducting a series of workshops in wine producing regions in each
state and the South Burnett is looking likely to host the only Queensland
leg of these workshops. The
Queensland Department of State
Development is demonstrating a keen interest in supporting this
initiative and a funding application is currently being prepared for a major
South Burnett Wine and Food Production Forum to also encompass the
TTA training workshop. South Australia recently completed construction of
the $40 million
Centre for Hospitality, Leisure
and Food Studies - a training facility dedicated to its own state's
booming wine and food tourism industry. This facility currently attracts
thousands of students from all over Australia and has a large enrolment base
of International students. Could the South Burnett eventually become the
Queensland home for a similar facility?
-
Burning Beats Cafe
Becomes An Unexpected Success
-
 19th December 2002: Kingaroy's Burning Beats Cafe -
which opened quietly in late September this year - has become an unexpected
instant success for owners Paul Stoddart and Kerry Cotter.
The outdoor cafe has been booked almost solid since it opened and now often
has to turn away diners who haven't had the forethought to book. The eatery
specialises in Asian and Indian cuisine and changes its menu
every fortnight. All of the cafe's dishes are cooked fresh daily (often
twice daily if they've had a big run on lunches) and as much of the produce
as possible is sourced from local suppliers. Paul Stoddart said that he'd
been encouraged to start the business because of the lack of similar facilities
in the region, even though this type of eatery is now very common in Brisbane
and on the coast. He feels the main keys to the cafe's appeal are that the
food is fresh, inexpensive and constantly changing.
In addition, it caters to a niche area largely ignored by other restaurateurs
and serves meals continuously from around 10:30am in the morning until
around 8:00pm or later at night. If you haven't tried Burning Beats
yourself yet, though, you'll have to wait. The Cafe will be on holidays from
December 22nd until Wednesday 8th January 2003. Photo above:
Fresh, inventive and lots of it - a chicken and oyster
sauce stir-fry typical of the Burning Beats Cafe's $10 main meals
| South
Burnett Restaurant Fast Facts |
Restaurant:
|
Burning
Beats Cafe |
Address:
|
194
Kingaroy Street, Kingaroy |
Contact details:
|
Phone:
(07) 4162-3932
Email:
info@burningbeats.com.au |
Open:
|
Weds
to Fridays for lunch and dinner (10:00am-9:00pm)
Saturdays for afternoon teas and dinner
(4:00pm to
late)
Functions
by arrangement |
Average entree:
|
$6.00 |
Average main:
|
$10.00 |
Average dessert:
|
$5.00 |
Licensed?
|
BYO
($1.50 corkage) |
| Type of Cuisine: |
Fresh South Burnett
foods cooked Asian and Indian style (Burning Beats also offers chicken/salad
and steak/salad options for those with more pedestrian tastes). Curries can
be made any strength from mild to hot. The Cafe also serves coffee and cake.
Takeaways are available for around $6.00 each |
|
-
Regional Cuisine
Cook-Off For Wine & Food In The Park 2003?
-
16th December
2002: The Regional Cuisine Cooking Competition which proved such
a smash at the
2002 Wine and Food In The Park
Festival will return in 2003 if enough willing volunteers
can be found to do the site set-up and shut-down work on the day. The South
Burnett Events Corporation - who organise this incredibly popular event every
March - are keen to see the Competition return in 2003 but will be so busy
organising the rest of the Festival they simply don't have enough "legs on
the ground" to do the necessary work. Similarly, our wonderful friends at
the DPI have said they're happy to provide the raw materials needed
to stage the cook-off (tent, banners, PA and mini-kitchen etc) but also have
a bit of a manpower shortage when it comes to lumping everything to Memorial
Park in the morning and carrying it all back out again in the evening. The
cook-off has really helped put South Burnett foods on the map
and has already led to this web site, all the recipes we currently feature
and the up-coming Regional Cuisine Cookbook - so it's certainly a worthwhile
thing to support! Any community group or organisation who'd like to volunteer
for a bit of yakka is most welcome to
contact me or the
South Burnett Events
Corporation.
-
Japanese Pay Through
The Nose For Kumbia's Kobe Beef
-
 13th December 2002: At a time when many South Burnett cattle
producers are struggling to achieve returns of $500 a head from their steers,
one enterprising Kumbia grazier is achieving returns of more than
$3,000 per head by selling yearling Wagyu cattle to Japan. Eric
Schafferius of the Dandilla Pastoral Company currently runs five
fullblood Wagyu bulls on his property and mates about 450 breeders a year
for export. Last month alone he shipped 16 live yearlings to Japan where
a top-of-the-range Wagyu carcass can command prices as high as $20,000.
Ironically, Wagyus originated in Japan (where "Wa" means Japanese-style and
"gyu" means cattle) and only began to be raised by Australian producers in
1991. The reason for the phenomenal returns are that Wagyu produce the famous
Kobe beef: a highly marbled, fatty meat greatly prized in Japan. Eric
has been raising Wagyus for 5 years now and believes that Wagyu beef will
also eventually become popular on the domestic market, especially at high-class
restaurants and gourmet butchers. So does the
Australian Wagyu
Association. At the 2002 Brisbane International Food Masterclass,
Jean Novelli (a French three-star Michelin ranked chef) stated that his
Queensland Wagyu striploin ate like "a piece of rich, dark chocolate".
Photo above: Wagyu cattle on Dandilla Station. Although
the cattle come in both red and black varieties, the Japanese believe black
Wagyu have the best quality carcass and pay a hefty premium for it.
-
 Crane
Wins Gong From Grapes Gone Wrong
-
10th December
2002: Botrytis cinerea can strike fear into the hearts of fruit farmers,
flower farmers and winemakers alike. Botrytis (or noble rot
in grapes) is found in abundance in nature and comes in several strains.
Under the wrong conditions - such as high relative humidity and rain - tightly
bunched unripened grapes form a fungus bloom called grey rot which
can quickly spoil the grapes and render them unusable. But when carefully
cultivated by a professional wine maker, botrytis can cause the grapes to
shrivel rather than mulch. This intensifies the sugars and flavour and also
keeps the acid levels high (preventing the resulting wines from being to
sweet). And for John Crane of
Crane Wines, noble rot
has just added another accolade to his overflowing mantelpiece. After observing
a neighbouring vineyard disposing of affected grapes, Mr Crane was exhilarated
to obtain the entire crop - then even more excited to be able to weed out
a few tons of noble grapes from what would have otherwise ended up as landfill.
He used these to produce a 2001 Noble Chardonnay which later took
bronze at the 2002 Courier Mail Sheraton Brisbane Queensland Wine Awards
(see story 1st December 2002). Botrytis wines are generally Sauvignon
Blanc, Semillon or Riesling as these are subject to positive effects of noble
rot. This makes Crane's Noble Chardonnay another unique South Burnett product.
Photo above: Grapes infected with noble rot - one man's
rubbish becomes another's trophy winner.
-
Mudgee Trip Spawns
New South Burnett Hamper Business
-
7th December
2002: A study tour to Mudgee organised by the Fraser Coast South Burnett
Tourism Board in mid-November has already spawned a new South Burnett businesses.
The Left Bank at Kilkivan
announced this week that they intend to create a new business called South
Burnett Hampers which will sell prepared food hampers featuring the best
of the region's food produce to tourists and locals alike. The business was
inspired by
Heart of Mudgee, a
highly successful tourist operation in Mudgee which specialises in preparing
gift baskets made up exclusively of local produce from the Mudgee-Gulgong
region in NSW. Heart of Mudgee - which began in a small way only a few years
ago - now sells its wares nationally through personal visits, mail order
and the Internet. Bruce and Rae Hurley from The Left Bank said they were
"very excited" about the potential of South Burnett hampers and have already
sourced a wide range of local produce including olives, peanuts and similar
regional food goodies. Producers who'd like to find out more are invited
to contact them on (07) 5484-1016 or
via email.
-
Regional Cuisine
Cookbook Expected Early In 2003
-
 4th December 2002: The South Burnett's first full-colour regional
cuisine cookbook is expected to be released early in 2003 once final layouts
are approved. The cookbook is currently being prepared by the Regional Cuisine
subcommittee of the South Burnett Tourism Association with support from the
Kingaroy office of the Department of Primary Industries and the South Burnett's
councils, all of whom have advanced funds to get the first edition of the
publication onto the presses. Design work on the cookbook is being undertaken
by Martin Stern of
Big Scrub Graphics in
Durong. When complete, the book is expected to be on sale through the region's
four Visitor Information Centres, selected local newsagencies and similar
outlets for under $20. Profits from the publication will be reinvested into
future print runs and the gradual expansion and extension of the product.
The first edition is expected to feature 25 recipes from local chefs made
using South Burnett food products along with a range of regional cuisine
postcards sponsored by local businesses. Photo above: an
early draft of the front cover of the regional cuisine cookbook, currently
in pre-press stage.
-
South Burnett Wineries
Win 9 Medals At State Wine Show
-
 1st December 2002:
South Burnett wines continued to secure their growing reputation at the 2002
Courier-Mail Sheraton Brisbane Queensland Wine Awards last month by winning
14.9% of the medals on offer from 14.7% of the total entries. Kingaroy-based
Crane Wines took out silver
for their Frontignac (which was also runner up in the Best Fortified Wine
category) and Bronze for their 2001 Noble Chardonnay, while Moffatdale-based
Clovely Estates took three
bronzes (for their 2002 Semillon Chardonnay, 2001 Burnett Valley Shiraz and
2001 Shiraz Cabernet Merlot). Redgate's
Barambah Ridge won two
bronzes for their 2002 Semillon and 2002 Verdelho while Maclagan's
Rimfire Winery took bronze
for their 2001 Cabernet Franc Ruby Cabernet. Other regional wineries which
were also graded highly in the competition included
Stuart Range Estates,
Moffatdale Ridge and
Bridgeman Downs.
Significantly, most South Burnett exhibits at the 2002 Show were white wines
and the few 2001 reds that were entered all performed exceptionally well.
The majority of the region's wineries expect to be unveiling their signature
2001 reds over the next few months. You can obtain a full list of all the
South Burnett wines entered in the 2002 Queensland Wine Awards (along with
the points awarded to each one by the judges) as a 6K Adobe PDF file
by clicking here.
-
Back to news archives
-
|
|
|
top
