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March 28, 2024

Thousands flock to Sample Food Festival

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am Brook (Brookfarm) and Clayton Donovan (ABC TV’s Wild Kitchen) were just two of the many chefs giving a sample of our region’s celebrated food at Saturday’s Sample Food Festival. Photo Eve Jeffery
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The weather smiled on Bangalow’s Sample Food Festival again last Saturday, with the biggest crowed ever descending on the Bangalow Showgrounds to taste the produce of restaurants, cafes, caterers and providores from around the region.

Co-organiser Remy Tancred said she estimated 13-14,000 punters, based on the number of plates sold and cars parked on the day.

Some 28 stallholders (up from 26 last year) sold on average 900 plates each, with a number of new faces among them.

Such was the popularity of the event that by 2pm many dishes were finished and  ‘between three and four o’clock people were running right out of everything,’ Ms Tancred said.

She added that for this reason alone, she would not be revisiting the idea of extending the event to dinner time, as happened a couple of years ago.

‘There’s no point in extending for dinner. It’s already long day for stallholders and it adds a whole extra degree of difficulty. To be honest the extra expense not worth the stress,’ Remy told Echonetdaily.

Each year the plates are judged and this year’s judges were Alex Herbert, Darren Simpson, Scott Gooding and Luke Hines.

In a very surprising result, desserts won both categories.

‘Never before have desserts won both the $5 and $10 plate prizes,’ said Remy.

Town Bangalow won the $5 plate for its Japanese cheesecake while Puremelt chocolate won the $10 plate for its trio of raw chocolate.

Remy says she already has a couple of exciting personalities lined up for next year.

‘We’ll be adding a couple more ticketed events around the festival next year for the fifth year,’ she said.

Luscious Foods barista Carly and chef Phoebe lending a hand on dish-pig duties 'back stage' at Sample Food Festival. Photo Eve Jeffery
Luscious Foods barista Carly and chef Phoebe lending a hand on dish-pig duties ‘back stage’ at Sample Food Festival. Photo Eve Jeffery


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