Eat It - 10 July 2011

Although it may not seem like it, winter is a time of great seasonal food variety, and the best way to get in touch with what's worth eating is at a farmers' market. Miranda Sharp is the President of the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association, and joined us to talk about the $2M of government funding recently received by the association. It will mainly be spent on grants: establishing new markets, and making existing markets better. They are also running a series of free workshops for prospective market organisers and stallholders, so if you're interested head to their website for more information.

Executive chef of The European Ian Curley took time out of his Sunday to hang out in the studio, and talk about what it's actually like being a "TV chef". We talked about kitchen culture, and how being an apprentice isn't for everyone - certainly not your average 16 year old. We also discussed how more restaurants are controlling their own food supply by growing more of their own ingredients, although it can be hard to grow 100 bunches of parsley per week. And if you're in the market for a kitchen gadget, Ian reckons a microplane grater is a must-have.

What do winemakers do in the winter... nothing right? Sit around and wait for the grapes to grow. Not so, at least according to Duncan Buchanan from Dromana Estate; "the vines don't prune themselves". Fair enough. He also mentioned that a lot of effort goes into actually selling the wines that are made over summer / autumn; arguably this is harder than making the wine itself! Finally, he suggests not to believe the apocalyptic talk about the 2011 vintage, on the whole it should be fine.