October 31, 2013

Taste of Melbourne 2013 preview at Burch & Purchese + giveaway

Agnes food event, south yarra, suburb

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Taste of Melbourne, B&P and Hothouse Media.

Hello and happy end of October! November is rolling in quickly.

November means (hopefully) – warmer weather, more sunlight and also Taste of Melbourne, which is returning to Albert Park on Thursday 14 November – Sunday 17 November. The other week I headed to Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio for a preview event.

Those familiar with Burch & Purchese know that it’s basically a sugar wonderland, full of fun and innovative desserts and cakes. At the preview night we sampled the desserts they will be serving at Taste of Melbourne, all presented on a table with edible soil and gold painted chocolate leaves and mini meringues. Pretty!

Salted Caramel, Hazelnut & Dark Chocolate Royal Tart – 6 crowns

Chocolate tartlet brushed with Belgian dark chocolate filled with salted caramel, topped with chocolate velvet sprayed marshmallow, hazelnut cream and crumble topping.

This dessert is like chocolate and nutella and salted caramel in overdrive – very rich and gooey. The top is made from a chocolate velvet sprayed marshmallow, and inside the tartlet is salted caramel and hazelnut cream. Whoa. Sugar lovers paradise.

Explosive Raspberry Ice Cream on a Stick – 8 crowns

Tangy raspberry ice cream on a stick dipped in Belgian milk chocolate and topped with explosive chocolate coated popping candy and freeze dried raspberry crumb.

During Taste, this dessert will be an ice cream on a stick – we had an equivalent in tube form as it’s a bit hard to display ice cream at an event without it melting everywhere. I will definitely be eating one of these ice creams at Taste.

Coconut Passionfruit, Ginger and Mint – B&P Signature Tube Dessert – 10 crowns

Salted oat and ginger crumb, passionfruit jelly, coconut caviar, mint jelly, velvet sprayed coconut mousse, white chocolate and mint square served in a 130ml clear acrylic tube.

Anyway who’s been to B&P will be familiar with their range of tube desserts. This one is so good – I really love the coconut caviar / tapioca and the passionfruit curd together.

Icon Dish: Nitro Poached White Chocolate, Raspberry, Peach, Lemon & Champagne – 14 crowns

White chocolate and raspberry parfait poached in liquid nitrogen, Laurent Perrier Champagne jelly, white chocolate and raspberry liquid centre mousse, fresh raspberry compote, peach meringue, lemon curd and raspberry shortbread.

The last dish is B&P’s icon dish for the event. We all gathered around the workbench while Darren Purchese freshly poached white chocolate meringue in liquid nitrogen before plating up the rest of the dessert – a soft mousse made from white chocolate with a raspberry centre, some raspberry compote, peach meringue and jellies made from Laurent Perrier Champagne.

So fun with the mix of different flavours and textures, while still being a bit grown up (probably the champagne jellies). And if you eat it straight away, rather than taking five minutes to take photos, it’ll still be all misty from the liquid nitrogen.

At Taste, there will be a limited amount of this dish available each night, so if you are interested, get in quick.

Giveaway

I have two double passes to Taste of Melbourne 2013 to give away.

All you need to do is comment below telling me which restaurant you’re most keen to check out – you can see the list on the Taste of Melbourne website.

Make sure you include a valid email address when you comment – it won’t be published, but I’ll use it to contact you if you win. This competition will close at midnight on Wednesday 6 November, is valid for Australian residents only, and I’ll draw the winners randomly. Good luck!

Check out the Taste of Melbourne website for more details of the event, or see my post on last year’s opening night.

Update: This competition has now closed. Congratulations to Jia and Caroline. Your tickets are in the post. 🙂

Taste of Melbourne 2013
Pelican Lawn, Albert Park
Sessions:
Thursday 14th November: 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Friday 15th November: 12.00pm – 4.00pm OR 5.30pm – 10.00pm
Saturday 16th November: 12.00pm – 4.00pm OR 5.30pm – 10.00pm
Sunday 17th November: 12.00pm – 5.00pm