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The Tasmanian tourism sector dishes up 'Tasmania On A Plate'
Tasmania's tourism sector is considering new ways to dish up 'Tasmania On A Plate'.
The state has a tradition of small-scale farming and quality food, wine and beer, but its tourism providers have been challenged to collaborate more on food tourism at the state tourism conference.
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival CEO, Natalie O'Brien, told the conference the two main groups her events cater for are younger people around 30-years-old seeking great social experiences, and older people with relatively high disposable incomes.
"It very much is making sure that even if it's an event
Ms O'Brien says to compete with a vast array of food tourism events, world-wide operators need to collaborate with other businesses to offer a richer experience than their food and beverage offering alone.
"It very much is making sure that even if it's an event for 20 people or an event for 5,000 people, that that experience is truly wonderful," she said. And people come away and say the ambience, the people, the food, the wine, the local community and 'local heroes' made this very special.'
"So what we ask the industry to do, is to do something special that they wouldn't normally have done.
"Sometimes it's a chef cooking with his mum that might have influenced him. Sometimes it's a grower working with a local chef, or a combination of wine makers coming together that wouldn't normally. It doesn't necessarily need to be a high end experience. It could be simply enjoying some gorgeous cheese at the bottom of a vineyard with some beautiful pinot to go with it. It's really just making sure that it is a unique and memorable experience."
Also addressing the Tasmanian Tourism Conference was Victorian restaurateur, Alla Wolf Tasker.
Mrs Wolf Tasker is credited with doing more to shape the face of regional dining in Australia than anybody else, and it seems necessity is one reason why.
She says she grew up around the Victorian township of Daylesford with Russian immigrant parents and learned about growing and enjoying food.
But Mrs Wolf Tasker says by the 1970s when she returned to set up her Lake House Restaurant, most local food was transported out and the regional food culture had to be created anew.
"The thing I am seeing is that there is a time for regions," she said.
"There was a particular time for Daylesford, and it was once we got enough critical mass of product in the area and it became a nice place to live. People relocate and with them come a raft of, we call them tree-changers, different skills. And it's quite often a lot of those people who fulfil their dream of having a little biodynamic or organic concern as well as whatever else they do. They'll ring up and say 'we've got six acres, would you like us to grow something for you?' and they'll give it a go. And they're becoming our suppliers, not the traditional monocultural farmers who have generally been quite difficult to convert to growing food for local tables."
"So I'm seeing that everywhere, right around the globe and especially in places where there isn't an inherent, historically strong food culture, as there isn't in Australia. In France this has been happening for generations, it's just a given.'
"But this is all a bit new for places like Australia."
Source: ABC - 14th August 2014
