One of the many events at the Sample Food Festival will be a demo of making pork and macadamia sausages held on the Northern Rivers Food stage by ‘Dan and Steph’ Mulheron, who established the eatery Eat at Dan and Steph’s on The Esplanade at Hervey Bay after becoming the champions of the television show My Kitchen Rules in 2013.
As part of the My Mayor Rules cook-off, from 12.30 till 1.15pm Dan will be taking on ‘the locals’, Bangalow Sweet Pork and Salumi, in what is described as a big, hot, smoky sausage cook-off.
The locals will have their work cut out against Dan, who is a dedicated competitor in the sausage arena. To win MKR, Dan would rise every hour on the hour from midnight till 4am to check the progress of his sausages and other meats that were in the oven slowly cooking away
‘My big passion is snags’, says Dan. ‘I’ve also got a smokehouse. It’s the manly thing to do – smoke stuff. I can’t find anything better than a smoked piece of fresh sea mullet.’
Dan and Steph, who also appeared at Sample Festival last year, have had a busy last 12 months. They have now produced two cookbooks, travelled widely doing many food stalls with their gourmet sausages, and of course their beautiful daughter keeps them on their toes.
‘Our daughter just loves food’, Steph says, ‘we are very lucky. We hope to see many faces at Sample again this year. We have a cracker of a dish to serve and Steph’s famous salted chocolate brownies also.’