Off the back of his restaurant's success at the 2017 World's 50 Best Restaurants awards (held in Melbourne on 5 April), Australia’s best chef, Ben Shewry, will join a very cool line-up of farmers, food producers, restaurateurs, critics and other chefs at Western Australia’s first Food and Drink Symposium, in Perth on Sunday, 28 May.
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The new festival’s theme will be the challenges facing the global food industry. A range of talks open to the public will cover sustainability, culinary tourism, food costs and the place of native ingredients in modern Australian cooking.
Shewry’s restaurant, Attica, claimed 32nd place in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and Shewry is known for being a passionate speaker on food topics.
Previously the host of his own anti-festival, intended to “inspire, energise and help people in the food community and beyond”, Shewry will be discussing his insights into running a restaurant in the modern global food industry, and maintaining good mental health in the hospitality business.
The festival’s co-founders – local food advocate Katrina Lane and Food Truck Rumblefounder Ai-Ling Truong – say they have created this event as a means of linking farmers, chefs and thoughtful consumers in an effort to help build a better food culture and they've organised other thought leaders to speak including one of Australia’s most innovative farmers, Tammi Jonas of Jonai Farms and Meatsmiths.
This ethical meat producer – in the Daylesford region, near Melbourne in Victoria – is a world-standard industry leader in pork and beef farming, and raises, slaughters, butchers, cooks and cures its meats on site. Jonas is also the chair of Fair Food Farmers United and will hold a discussion on ethical and viable farming models.
It wouldn’t be a food and drink festival without food and drink. As well as the workshops and lectures on offer, several masterclasses on topics such as fermentation, preserving and butchery will take place in the weeks leading up to the event.
The day itself will also feature locally grown and produced flavours, with a lunch of gourmet hot dogs with homemade sauerkraut and chutneys, and afternoon tea created by Perth dessert mavens Sophie Buddand Briony Whitton from Food Rescue produce.
Tickets are available to everything through a crowd-funding campaign: AUD$100 will buy entrance to all the lectures, workshops, lunch, morning and afternoon teas, while AUD$150 will also give you access to the Sundowner, an evening drinks session at which guests can mingle with all the chefs, producers and other food experts who speak over the course of the day.
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This article originally appeared on Australia.com