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August 08  Last week at Restaurant 08 in Sydney the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries profiled some of Queensland's farmed, fresh and fabulour regional produce to the Sydney food-serice market. Ten gourmet growers from across the state tantalised the tastebuds of more than 6000 visiting chefs, food buyers, distibuters and media with quality produce borne of a love of the land and a passion for good food. I accompanied the growers and created some exciting dishes for visiting chefs and good distributors. See the full media release here.

June 08  It is great to receive words of thanks:

Dear All, All the team here at Tutto Bene were delighted to contribute to such a successful evening and our sincere thanks goes out to all the team at Delicious, Fosters, Dominique and sponsors whose professionalism helped us to achieve a smooth running event. It is the first time in nearly 4 years of operations that we have closed the restaurant for an event and so we were pleased with its overwhelming success. Bravo Bravo!!!!
Simon Humble, Tutto Bene

and another ...

On behalf of Delicious magazine, thank you for holding our reader dinner at Tutto Bene last night. The feedback from the guests and from everyone involved said it was a great evening, truly memorable and the food was superb! ... Thank you for all of your help in making this reader event a night for us at Delicious and our readers, on to remember.
Francesca Schmutz, Events Co-ordinator

June 17 & 18  Those of you who are originally Melbournites may know the lovely Italian restaurant Tutto Bene and the man behind "all is well", Simon Humble. I have been invited by Fosters and Delicious Magazine to join forces with Simon to starch up the chef whites, add a couple bottles of Riccadonna, and create a 5 course dinner as a media launch for the new look Riccadonna. I can't wait! I know that Simon is a risotto champion and cooks everything Italian. Fantastic!

June 12  A special expo, Your Community - Caring for You, was held at CastleTown Shopping World where Matt Golinski and I, both of Channel Ten's Ready Steady Cook, prepared tasty and nutritious dishes live on stage for the crowd to sample. Click here for the full media release.

June 12  Always wanted to travel and cook, so I guess my dreams are coming true. I am heading to Townsville to run a series of cooking demonstrations for the Nannas and the Poppys who live on their own. It is in collaboration with Meals On Wheels, Carers QLD, Diversicare, Council of the Aging, and Alzheimer's QLD.  So I am going to aim to inspire them to be a little more experimental in their cooking but keep it really simple. I volunteered for Meals on Wheels for a while and I know that apart from the meals that some of them get, they really don't cook for themselves. It will be fun getting them up to help me.

June 3  If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Gordy's cafe deli, in Toowoomba, pop in and say hi to Geraldine and myself as we join forces to put on a fabulous cooking class, including 20 Minute Wonders: a selection of my all time favourite recipes from this series of Ready Steady Cook. The class is a demonstration with some hands-on, and will be featuring an amazing banquet dinner at the end of the evening. Definately a couple glasses of wine that night!

May 7  Heading into the city to launch Brisbane's Biggest Morning Tea with the Cancer Council. Should have the recipe up on my site: something luscious and healthy. If you are around, come and join us. I believe that there will be free muffins given out on the morning. There is also news that I will be holding a morning tea at Kitchenware Plus - my new favourite place to shop for any kitchen equipment. Paul and Ian are fantastic and if they don't have it, well, it's probably not invented.

April - June/July  I am very excited to be involved in assisting The Merlo Kitchen Catering Company to relaunch their new catering menu and I will be featured in the Merlo Catering Kitchen for a couple of months introducing my food flair and food styling. So, if you are looking for some great, innovative catering, drop a line to Debbie at Merlo and I look forward to seeing you at the event and creating some rather tasty morsels.

April 23  A lot of the work that I do I offer for charity when I can as I believe that I have been given a gift that doesn't really fulfill me if I cannot in some small way allow it to fulfill others. So, if you are out there and feeling a little empty, there are so many volunteer based charities that could use a small amount of your time, or simply offer a kind word to someone in the street. It's amazing how it fills your spirit.

After featuring in "The One Armed Cook Book" last year, a cook book grown from love, hard work, and dedication by three women who single handedly started the project from an idea, to raising thousands of funds for premature babies at the Mater. I am honoured to be working with Tara Castle, an amazing woman who, while looking after her small son and husband, pregnant and renovating, she still manages to find time to selflessly assist those who are less fortunate to help themselves. I so admire people like her. Tara is putting on a luncheon to raise money for homeless women and children from Women's House in Wooloongabba. As I mentioned, I am honoured to be assisting her with raffle prizes for private cooking lessons and cooking school vouchers from Learn Cook Dine cooking school. I will keep you posted on the details.

April 8 - April 12  I love my life! I have been invited by Matt Golinski from "The Rolling Dolmade" Catering in Noosa to participate in the Rural Spud Festival to be held in PInaroo, South Australia. Judging a cooking competition, cooking a gourmet 3 course dinner using some of the best local produce for a black tie dinner, and then, to finish the week with a little mash potato wrestling. I am really looking forward to that - and there will be photos posted on my site.

April 2  My new series of cooking classes start at Kitchenware-plus. You can't miss the shop its right on the freeway, and it's a homemaker's dream if you are  wanting to fit out your kitchen. The gadgets, pots, pans and kitchen accessories are amazing. Forget Prada, forget Dolce, it's Le Chasseur and Mario Batali all the way. Come and join me in the classes; we have a great time and get to eat some wonderful foods, not to mention Paul and Ian offer great prices on all the kitchen wares.

March 29  I was invited by Alastair McLeod, his amazing team from Bretts Wharf, and some of the best chefs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, to join forces under the direction of Alastair and cater for the 2500 guests at the Virgin Charity Ball. Let's just say I was in awe at the enormity of the scale of food and equipment; the skill of Alastair and his team; and the joy when we all sat down at 3.30am in the morning for a chilled glass of sparkling and I could finally take my boots off ... oh, that was just me.

March  Again another amazing series of Ready Steady Cook on Channel 10 has finished, and thank you to those of you who took the time of an afternoon to support the show. You know that we all love doing the show; everytime I get an opportunity to watch the show we are all laughing and carrying on, and, yes, we really do. The new series will start at the end of the year; I believe there will be a bit of a surprise in the next series: a little more competition!

February Completed a wonderful series of recipes and a photo shoot for "Fosters" to relaunch the fabulously bubbly and wonderfully versatile "Riccadonna Asti". Oh, it brings back memories. The recipes will be coming out in "Delicious Magazine" later in the year, so keep an eye out for them. Quite a good drop for cooking & cocktails, and for splashing a little over some berries with ice cream.