Murwillumbah’s own award-winning chef, Le Ping Wong from The White Olive, is taking his popular cooking classes to the great outdoors.
On Sunday, June 12, Le Ping will host a special al fresco cooking class at farmer Buck Buchanan’s bush tucker garden, behind the famous Banana Cabana roadside stall at Chillingham.
“This is a great opportunity to focus on the importance of using freshly harvested, local ingredients straight from the source,” said Le Ping.
“Buck grows a fantastic range of unique herbs, greens and citrus fruits – including the Tweed’s own native fingerlimes and lemon myrtle, as well as exotic Buddha’s hands fruits, Japanese yuzu fruits, kaffir lime leaves, curry leaves and more.
“As such, a highlight of the day will be a ‘shopping’ trip with Buck in the orchards, picking the fruits and herbs straight from the trees to use in our hands-on and demonstration cooking class.
“We’ll then return to Buck’s open-air barn to prepare a couple of dishes to enjoy for lunch.”
One of the attendees who will be paying extra close attention is cookbook author and food writer, Sheridan Rogers, who is touring the region as part of a familiarisation arranged by Destination Tweed.
“The Tweed is now on the ‘foodie’ radar, having been featured recently on the top-rating MasterChef television program and in the current issue of the associated MasterChef magazine,” said Destination Tweed CEO, Phil Villiers.
“We are keeping this momentum going by inviting Sheridan Rogers to sample the dining experiences and marine-based activities of our Seafood Discovery Trail, as well as some of our cooking classes.
“The media exposure that our Tweed food industry operators gain out of these familiarisations all helps to build our profile as a serious foodie region and a source of unique produce.
“Our ultimate aim is for this exposure to translate into increased visitation from the ever-growing market of ‘food tourists’, as well as showcasing our operators as suppliers to potential buyers in the restaurant trade.”
Places are still available for Le Ping’s cooking class at Chillingham Bush Tucker, which starts at 11.30am and costs $50 per head (lunch included). Phone Simone at The White Olive on (02) 6672-3000 or 0439 937 449, or go to www.thewhiteolive.com.au for more details.
