Meeting Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris from Masterchef

One of the perks for the weekend away that I won via LASTMINUTE was not only to have free tickets to Melbourne Food and Wine Show, but to also meet with Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. I got a copy of their latest book, "Your Place or Mine?" and it was signed by each of them. So what are Gary and George like in real life?  Well, they are just like what you see on TV, really nice guys! When we arrived in the 'black room'(I call it this because I always hear of the 'green room' on TV. This area was attached to the celebrity cooking theatre at the show and it was where the chefs chilled out before going on stage and it was black!!) George and Gary were chilling with Matt Moran and some other people who I only assumed were family or friends. They did not seem inconvenienced or annoyed by our arrival, which straight away put me at ease. They were more than happy to chat about whatever. I won't bore you with what we chatted about but we did want to know where we should eat that night for dinner. Here is a list of recommendations from the lads and I have looked up all the restaurants for their locations and link with the website details for convenience:

Mama Sita's - (I was feeling like Mexican, so this was their number 1 recommendation.)
1/11 Collins St

Little Press Club - 72 Flinders St

Bar Lourinha - 37 Little Collins St

Cumulus Inc - 45 Flinders Lane

Gin Palace - 10 Russell Place

Movida Next Door - Cnr Flinders and Hosier Lane

Gary also highly recommended if we wanted to try Vietnamese to go down Victoria St.

I have to say though, I did try to tell Gary we are not drinkers, so all the info about bars was not necessary but I didn't manage to get this across to him. I figured it was still good info to pass on to you anyways. As for where we ended up eating, well, we didn't end up eating out after all. My sister-in-law invited us to her place as she just got her new kitchen completed and wanted to cook us up a Vietnamese storm! We figured we would head out later in the evening and see where we ended up. My sis-in-law's meal was superb and as good as any vietnamese I have had in a restuarant and I am not just saying that! The sauce and the marinades were done from scratch and all authentic Vietnamese ingredients and flavours. So I was glad we ate with the family in the end. As for going out in the evening, I'm a bit of a sad case really! I was too tired, but in my own defence, I was up early that morning and we walked around all day at the show! Yes, I am 32 but sometimes my body acts older (I do have 4 kids remember!!). Anyway, I will always have this list and with family in melbourne, there are many opportunities in the future to get to some of these places.

We did manage to get to Tobie Puttock's, The Kitchen Cat on the Friday evening and I will write a seperate blog and review for that.  So I did have a fine dining experience to brag about!!!

We also got front row tickets to George and Gary's cooking show. It was all about cooking with fresh seafood, which was good for me. I rarely cook seafood at home. No other reason than I don't think about it when I am planning my meals. Seafood is something I tend to eat out but I have been trying lately to incorporate it at least once into the weekly/fortnightly meals.  It was a good experience to watch these guys up close and smell the cooking that I normally can't sitting at home.

So all in all, it was a fantastic day and an amazing experience that I am so happy I won and so happy I shared it with my darling husband. The show was great and suprisingly different to the Sydney one, I suppose just in the different types of food on display and to try. I think there is a different approach to good food in Melbourne that Sydney is starting to catch on to.  I will do some other posts about some of the amazing products I came across soon. Yes, I do have a lot to post about and I will be kept busy for the next little while!

From left, Gary Mehigan, Me, James (hubby), George Calmonaris

My camera ran out of battery power the evening before and I of course I didn't take my charger with me:(   We had to rely on hubby's iPhone and in this shot we didn't know his flash was not on! So we went outside and took the top pic.