Good Food & Wine Show - Melbourne, Part II

This continues from the last post.

After our big lunch, we wandered off to the free cooking theatre (Good Food Magazine)... to see Manu cook up a storm...


He was really charming (just like on TV and I've had a tiny crush on him since Ready, Steady, Cook days in uni)...

At one point, he asked the crowd, "Any of you watch My Kitchen Rules? Good... why would you want to watch 3 fat man instead of two handsome one's eh?"... saying that this was a running joke with him and the Masterchef "boys"

Taking a pot shot at Masterchef... to my delight... they (all the celeb chefs) appear to be good friends anyway...


We wandered over to the Border's Book Signing area next and took a few snaps of Gary and George doing their 'thang...

(The book signing session times)

At this point, I was wanting to buy heaps of food and ingredients, but they Boy wouldn't let me... at the pretense of going to see Gary and George at the Border's booth, the Boy went to line up at the celebrity iLive theater and was cheekily grinning from ear to ear...


Turns out, he had bought tickets for us to see Matt Moran's cooking show... titled Matt's Favourite Things


Cheeky fella...

So I was really excited and happy that we managed to get seats for the show, as all other shows were fully booked, with the Boy saying that George and Gary's show was sold out!


I didn't care as I was happy anyway with the surprise of Matt Moran... That's Lucy the Lamb on stage with him...


And man can that Chef disect a lamb really quickly (yes, the whole bloody lamb!) And he was giving out each piece of the lamb to audiences on the floor... shoulder, leg, neck, etc... everything!!!


He then called up some lucky sods from the audience (floor and further back) to be participants on stage to eat his food... he was trying to matchmake people, and the reward was, if the couple hit it off on the show and got together, he would throw in $500 to spend in his restaurant Aria in Sydney...

JEALOUS BIG TIME!!

(The happy couples)

Matt was suave and a big comedian... often putting his foot in his mouth and apologising for it... it was really fun! Quick like Jamie's (Oliver) show which I went to a couple of months back... fun!!!

At the end of the show, I was ridiculously happy and the day could not get better! (Or so I thought!)... walking out... the Boy and I were making a list of things that we should buy.. he wouldn't let me buy a lot of things, saying that we will be walking around and he didn't want to lug the items around... fair enough...

I didn't suspect a thing... when he said he needed to go to the Gents... I followed him towards the exit as the toilets were located outside... and he sneaked into the iLive celebrity theater line again!!!!!!!!!!!!


He had somehow gotten us tickets to the SOLD OUT show of Gary and George's Your Place or Mine show!!!


When the two chef's walked out, it was pandemonium... quite akin to Rock Stars coming out to their concert stage.. it was phenomenal... of course, I added to the din and hullabaloo...


Their show concept was simple... partly to promote Masterchef and partly to promote their new book coming out at the end of the year... where they will demonstrate how to cook 40 different ingredients cooked via Gary's and George's own respective styles... (So that's 80 recipes!)


They have an amazing rapport on stage... and spent a lot of time making fun of Matt Preston (only because he wasn't there to bite back)...


I was jumping up and down on my seat trying my best to be picked to go up on stage (we were 5 rows away)... and still missed out!


At the end, they brought out the team of chef's and apprentice who were "behind the scenes" at their restaurant booths and the back stage preparation ....

(Gary and I during last year's Taste of Melbourne... I'm milking this picture for all it's worth!)

And finally, as that was the last show of the weekend, I could finally walk out of the theatre knowing that there wouldn't be anymore surprises and could happily shop with no interruption...


The great thing about leaving the shopping at the very last minute, was the extra bargains that came our way...

We got 6 tubes of herbs from Gourmet Garden for $6 (originally 3 for $6)...
Ayam Brand sauces 5 for $10 instead of 4 for $10 (including free recipe books, 2 sets of bowls, chopsticks and spoons)
3 rose juices for $12 instead of $15
3 packets of Luv'A Duck for $20 instead of $16.50 each!
A bottle of coffee Bailey's (new) for $25
A jar of Yarra Valley salmon roe for $15
and a Masterchef (1 year) subscription for $38 with a free Masterchef Junior kit

All in all a good haul.. and a fantastic Surprise gift from the Boy...