All star lineup for this year's Margaret River Gourmet Escape

The Staff Canteen
Top chefs, Heston Blumenthal, Rick Stein, Sat Bains and critic A.A. Gill are heading down under for this year's  Margaret River Gourmet Escape. Heston Blumenthal Chef Whites 5 photo credit Alisa ConnanThe event, now in its third year, is a three-day culinary festival running from November 21 to 23 and Heston says there is “no other food event on the planet” like it. Located in the Leeuwin Estate, in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia, this year the festival has drawn more than 30 international and Australian chefs and food celebrities. These include Masterchef Australia’s Matt Preston, Clare Smyth of London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Paul West of River Cottage Australia, Daniel Berline of Restaurant Daniel Berlin in Sweden, Massimo Bottura of the Italian Osteria Francescana and Claude Bosi of Hibiscus. The Leeuwin Estate’s Danny Angove called this year’s international component the biggest and most diverse yet, and the winery is hosting a $250-a-head Art Series dinner with guest speakers which has sold out. "It's probably one of the biggest food festivals in the world," said Aaron Carr, executive chef of the region’s Vasse Felix restaurant. "I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago and the guys over there can't believe the talent we attract. It's just getting bigger and better every year and is great for the region.” Massimo Bottura 27 by Per- Anders Jorgensen square edit Other events include intimate cooking demonstrations with Rick Stein and various Australian chefs demonstrating one of their favourite dishes as well as festival crowd pleasers like Heston and Claude demonstrating their skills. In addition to this there will be variety of wine tastings, Q&A’s and panel discussions throughout the weekend. More than 16,000 people attended the Gourmet Escape last year, including satellite events throughout the region such as gourmet beach barbecues, dinners in wineries and foraging events in secret forest locations.      
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The Staff Canteen

The Staff Canteen

Editor 23rd October 2014

All star lineup for this year's Margaret River Gourmet Escape