l: tasmania
c: australia
s: spring
I've not long arrived back from a culinary trip to Tasmania with the James Boag's team. We spent five days venturing around the state with Chef James Viles of Biota, visiting farms and small batch producers, gathering wild food and harnessing the rugged to refined environment that this part of Australia does so well. We spent early mornings in the rain on the open sea collecting baskets full of oysters, afternoons harvesting offshore wakame, urchins and abalone and evenings grilling wagu beef over coals with ocean sunset views for days. We learned how wasabi is grown, how cultured butter is churned and the depth of flavour from the purest, raw honey. I don't need to tell you that throughout the trip James and his sidekick Riley Aitken whipped up meal after mind blowing meal inspired by all of the above. All washed down with a seemingly endless supply of Boag's beer, of course.
There are few things I love documenting more than the genuine story and process of food - beginning with the environment from which it grows, to chats with mindful farmers who grow it, to appreciative chef's teeming with inspired recipes to cook it and then, eventually, the delicious moments that follow filling the belly. From Launceston to Stanely, Freycinet to Bruny, Mornington to Copping, this Tassie trip allowed just that. What a deliciously wild and welcoming place to feast on.
Above Farms and Producers: Freycinet Marine Farm, Shima Wasabi, Ashmore Seafoods, Tasmanian Butter Co, Wellington Apiary, Leap Farm,
Post sponsored by James Boag.