So after my judging and eating hijinks in Port Douglas where’s a girl to go but south, literally in search of some of the Tablelands most well known producers including two coffee plantations, a distillery, a Swiss Italian restaurant, a coffee museum, cheesemakers and a rain forest retreat. Come along with me for a ride Dear Reader, but do have a cup of coffee ready for this is a long story (and the coffee will help with the coffee cravings, trust me!).

Skybury Coffee Planation

I always thought that one would have to travel overseas to see a coffee plantation but apparently I was so very wrong. We are at Skybury Coffee Plantation, Australia’s first and largest coffee plantation in the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland which is about 1.5 hours drive from Port Douglas. We have just enough time to have a coffee (and a very good one just as one would expect) before we get onto a bus to take a tour of the coffee plantation. Curious coffee connoisseurs can take a 45 minute tours which depart two to three times a day and cost $25 a person.

John our guide first drives us for a drive through the farm that also grows papaya and lady finger bananas as well as coffee beans. When a banana flower appears on a banana tree, they wrap it in a sack and allow it to grow bananas for a period of 16 weeks. There is a mother and a child or a sucker tree which is the smaller one and a banana tree can only produce one lot of bananas in its lifetime. After that they need to cut it down and they will grow the bananas off the child or sucker tree. Who knew right?

We are next onto where the coffee bean trees are growing. Coffee is a tropical plant and here they only grow arabica beans (as opposed to the robusta which is an inferior bean used in less expensive coffees). This arabica coffee bean comes in both red and yellow and is best grown at altitudes of 500-1500  metres high (it is 525 metres here). Did you know that coffee trees are said to produce the best beans between the ages of 5-10 years and these trees are currently even years old. They are thirsty trees indeed requiring 1 litre of water a day each.

A coffee cherry

Inside a coffee cherry-two beans

We pluck one of the cherries and they are a rubied red and resemble small, hard berries. There is a thinnish but firm outer layer, like a thick grape skin and inside is a very, very sweet, thin juicy layer which is similar to a longan or lychee. Inside this is the actual coffee bean which is pale yellow in colour and covered in a slippery membrane called a mucosa.

To pick the beans they use an automated picker from Brazil which is very similar to an olive harvesting machine. Fibreglass rods rotate through the trees and the cherries fall off and harvesting takes about two months in total. Per hectare they get about 1 tonne of wet cherries which are then dried out and lose 75% of their weight to make 250kg of beans. They then lose another 17% in the final drying process to remove as much moisture as possible as moisture can cause mold.

They sort these first through water and the premium beans float to the top. Most of their beans are exported overseas to markets such as London, Paris, Berlin and even Italy and they export a special bean to Japan called a peaberry as it is a whole bean rather than two halves and the Japanese like it because it has a sweeter taste.

The coffee roasting machine

These are then stored in a 40 tonne storage tank and can be kept for years there or shipped out straight away as green beans. At Skybury they also roast on site using a coffee roaster and the beans get roasted twice and they take out the beans just before they reach 212C for a medium roast whereas they have an extra minute or two in the dark roast. They have three trays of coffee which you can use a spoon to taste and to do so you suck or aspirate it over your tongue (like wine or olive oil).

It’s lunch time and having missed breakfast I’m starving! There is a cafe style menu available with a caesar salad with a twist, instead of offering it plain with bacon or with chicken, there is the option for salt and pepper squid so I take that up along with a papaya shake and a slice of bannoffee pie.

Creme de Papaya shake $7.50

The drinks are not cheap but the papaya shake is delicious without that really strong papaya aroma that divides people. There’s just the right amount of creaminess. I rarely have more than a sip of a milkshake as they can be meals in themselves but I find myself drinking half of this.

Lime crush $7.50

The lime crush using their Mexican limes with a distinctive orange skin is refreshing. The limes aren’t sold commercially because their skins are hard to keep clean and they have too many pips but they taste just like regular Tahitian limes.

Salt and pepper squid caesar salad $17.50

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Hardy Suangin of Harrison’s

It was an offer sent to me via email a few months ago. As soon as I opened it I was instantly intrigued. It involved twenty four meals, six hours and the chance to imitate the daffy judges on Iron Chef Japan. Yes please! Answering the invitation to judge the Taste Paradise Food Fight at the Port Douglas Carnivale, was impossible to resist. I had always wondered what it was like to judge a food event and I was about to see it first hand. Would my fellow judges and I agree? Would there be disagreement arguments about whose cuisine reigned supreme? Would there be vast ratings swings with many of us unable to decide a winner? What about collusion or bias? Well I had to see for myself!

Ricky Jordan of Bucci

The Port Douglas Carnivale is a celebration of the local food industry and the “Taste Paradise Food Fight” is one of the more fun events. It’s part of the local scene and we’ve all made it into today’s paper too and prior to the event I also did some radio interviews.

Evan Seaward of Bistro 3

The brief was simple. I along with my fellow judges wine and food critic Winsor Dobbin and chef Nick Holloway were to sample and judge two dishes made by some of Port Douglas’s leading chefs. There would be three rounds, the first two with four chefs each and the third round the deciding round with the two winners from the first two rounds facing off. Each chef would be challenged to cook in an unfamiliar environment with a surprising list of ingredients and an entree and main must be prepared within the 40 minutes allocated. In a twist, the chefs were given mystery boxes and each box had five ingredients in them. They needed to use at least two ingredients from the mystery box and the more they used the more points they would receive. They would receive ten points for each of these categories.

1. Difficulty of preparation and skill proficiency of each contestant(10 points)
2. The creative use of the ‘mystery’ ingredient and if what was originally planned has been prepared (10 points)
3. The innovativeness of the dish and how it relates to current cuisine trends (10 points)
4. How good the dishes taste and look (20 points)

Along with this we were also given a judging guideline which described what a score of 0-10 would involve and under which circumstances we should award the scores. Still since many of us were new to the whole judging process we were nervous although there was agreement that we wouldn’t discuss scores in case that created bias. We’re given our score card for each round with the chef’s names as we talk as the crowds gather. Each of us has a different background so we were curious to see whether our palates would rate things similarly or not. Only time would tell!

Vikas Chandra of the Sheraton Mirage

Round 1: The Gentlemen

Mystery box ingredients: cream, hard persimmons, cardamom pods, chillies and soft coconut meat.

Jed Sneddon of Nautilus

Enter the four chefs who nervously pace around their station. The crowd is mild mannered, it’s 5:30pm on a Friday and they’re politely awaiting some food fighting action. There are four cooking stations, each with two gas burners and a barbecue and there is a shared deep fat fryer, oven and hand wash facilities. Chefs are allowed to bring in cooking utensils, pots, pans, knives and appliances and any crockery to plate up on but are not allowed to bring any ingredients.

Behind the four cooking stations there is a huge fruit and vegetable display from Blood Orange, a local deli and a fridge full of meat, dairy and other assorted necessities, a pantry and a fish and seafood display by Coles which includes banana prawns, live mud crab (but very sleepy!) and several types of fish like red emperor, trevally and Spanish mackerel. The chefs are allowed to beg or borrow items from each other and they can keep going back to shop for more items after the initial shop. However there may not be enough of an item and it is on a first in first served policy although points are deducted for wastefulness!

The four chefs look nervous. We are sitting on the left hand side to them and after introducing them and us  to the audience the two hosts, radio MCs Sal and Roy let them go for a shop. They’re surprisingly restrained and not in a hurry at all given the time constraints. They bring around their goodies to the station and we walk around and take a look and see how they are doing, what their knife skills are like, how messy and how ordered they are.

We note that one chef Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton has even written up plating instructions. Last year’s champion Tommy Young is on hand to defend the title in this round. Sal and Roy encourage the chefs as the crowd and we the judges look on. Any gaps in silence are punctuated by some bizarre Jamie Oliver sound bytes.

Dom Uhlig from Salsa

The 40 minutes goes surprisingly quickly for us and we’re just the judges – imagine how quickly this would go for the chefs! Before we know it, chef Dom Uhlig from Salsa is standing in front of us telling us about his two dishes.

Noodle salad

The three of us crowd around the dishes and we take some and put them on our plates to try them. The noodle salad was good although there was a bit of a presentation glitch when the lemon segment still had the sticker on it which prompted judge chef Nick to explain that if details like that are forgotten in his kitchen then one may wonder what else may have been forgotten. I found this a bit on the sweet side. With Thai and Asian style salads, there is that balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty and this was a bit too sweet for me.

Lamb chops

The lamb chops are very well cooked and seasoned and come with a delicious mash, flaked almonds and greens. But no time to dawdle, we are tapping our pens onto the clipboard and writing down our scores before the second chef comes up to give us his dishes.

Jed Sneddon from Nautilus

Fritter

Chef Jed Sneddon of Nautilus is up next and he presents us with his two dishes. The first is a fritter and the texture is very soft and not crispy which is a surprise for us. It is paired with creamy exotic mushrooms.

Fish with salad

The fish is nicely cooked although Winsor finds the centre too raw for his liking but I do like the seasoning and the searing on the outside. It is paired with a salad which is a little tart for my liking and a creamy sauce as well as a couple of prawns.

Vikas Chandra from Sheraton Mirage

Grilled prawns served with salad of pomerieno, raw papaya and pomegranate with cream and green cardamom sauce

The third chef is Chef Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton Mirage and he presents us with a prawn dish. As soon as we all taste it we are in agreement, the seasoning for this is just right and the balance of flavour is great. The herbs used in it were very well balanced and the prawns had a good texture. There’s much scribbling and I’m curious to know how the other judges rated it but resist from peeking!

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How does that real estate mantra go? Location, location, location? When I see where my behind is located, on top of a rainforest drenched hill with rain pitter pattering on the roof and an outdoor pavilion decked out with modern equipment, tables groaning with fresh figs, strawberries, sobrassado and tartuffo truffle sausage, I’m glad that my location is right here.

I’m at the Freestyle Escape farm kitchen, a two hour drive from Brisbane on the Sunshine coast (except the Sunshine Coast weather forgot to read their brief today and have given us buckets of rain). We’ve gone past landmarks such as the big pineapple, an igloo and other esoteric directions furnished to us by dessert king chef Martin Duncan who owns Freestyle Escapes. They hold cooking and art classes and team bonding experiences all in the comfort of this stunning location.

Martin Duncan

Today however we are lucky enough to be taught jam and relish making by local Sunshine coast chef (but Leichhardt Sydney born) Jamie Milverton who markets his jams under the brand Jamie’s Gourmet. He is a chef of 18 years experience and he holds classes where he turns up at someone’s home and shows them and their friends how to cook. The Masterchef home dining phenomenon means that a class like that (at $75 per person) sells like hot…jam?

We are greeted by fresh coffee, tea and scones and thick whipped cream and Jamie’s own rain berry (lilipilli), cherry and strawberry jam which has a nice contrast of sweetness levels-slightly tart from the rain berries, medium sweetness from the cherries and luscious sweetness from the strawberries.

Jamie Milverton

For this class he uses modifications of his mother’s traditional recipes-and his mum is not your regular mum. She has been awarded gold medals for 10 years in a row at the Rockhampton show for her jam making efforts. We’re going to make and be furnished with the recipe for a tomato relish and a fig, strawberry, rhubarb and orange jam. Not only that but we’re also going to make pizza in their wood fired oven affectionately called Myrtle the Turtle (you can see why she has that name right?).  Jamie shows us a container of curry powder that he made only this morning and it smells incredible-like a regular curry powder has suddenly woken up and started dancing.

But as for me I’m starving and it’s only 10am and I wander over to try some of the sausages being sliced. “Taurean!” Martin pronounces as I sample a bit of this and that and it’s true, you keep a Taurean happy by feeding them and not making them “rough it”. We’re simple creatures really.

We split into two teams and start chopping up our tomatoes and onions for the relish. Next we chop the figs roughly and remove the calyx from the strawberry and then slice these in quarters for the jam. He tells us that apples contain the most pectin and that by simply using the apple skin placed in muslin and cooking that with your jam, it will set. He recommends using the Maslin pans for preserving as they have a measure inside the pot so you know exactly how many preserving jams you will need and because they are sturdy and have a handle to help with pouring and carrying.

Another tip that Jamie tells us if that you can test for the pectin content before any sugar is added to the cooked fruit by taking 1 teaspoon of juice from the fruit and putting it into a  glass and leaving it to cool. Add 3 teaspoons of methylated spirits and stir. If a large clot forms in the juice, adequate pectin has been extracted from the fruit and the sugar may be added. If there is medium amount of pectin, several small clots will form but if there is very little pectin, it will break into small pieces and you will need to add additional pectin. And don’t drink it whatever you do!

For this tomato relish we will use tapioca flour to thicken it instead of cornflour which can make it cloudy whereas tapioca flour will leave it with a glossy sheen. I’m hungry (what’s new) but before we can eat lunch, we have to do some foraging. Martin and his guests which include chef Katrina from the Spirit House are all passionate supporters of local food and slow food. In fact there is a slow food festival happening on the 10th and 11th of September this year.

Finger limes

We go up into the hills and see Martin’s kitchen garden which is sprawled across the hills with 250 trees dotted across the orchard. There are fabulous things such as finger limes, carambola, lychee, bay tree, tamarind, rose apple and feijoa growing here among others.

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Kaffir lime tree

I’m tasked with picking some finger limes which are that amazing indigenous fruit that are long slender finger shaped fruit filled with  little caviar like type of beads of fruit that pop in the mouth. It makes for an incredible fruit curd although the branches are a bit spiky it has to be said! We also pick some wasabi parsley which has the briefest kiss of wasabi before it disappears on the tongue.

Wasabi parsley

We can’t leave before poking our head into the accommodation on the hill. There are two places to stay in, an artist’s cottage as well as another cottage but this has guests in it so we take a peek at the artist’s cottage. In the bedroom there are two easels on which you can draw and the cupboard is stocked with painting supplies. And there is an outdoor bath situated a few steps below out in the open so it’s a perfect honeymoon destination-or second honeymoon hint hint Mr NQN!

Myrtle the turtle

The Long Apron’s chef Cameron Matthew

My pizza

Enough of this fantasising! We have to make lunch. Myrtle is fired up and  it takes a mere 2-3 minutes to cook a pizza in her. We are provided with dough by the Spicers Clovelly chef Cameron Matthew (where we are staying and dining tonight) and we stretch it out. I’m doing mine with a thinner centre and thicker edge. I top it with my favourite toppings of sobrassada, tartuffo, bocconcini and sun dried tomatoes. Tom slides this onto the paddle and voila! Two minutes later I have my very own pizza in all of its char grilled glory. It makes you want to build a myrtle of your own.

Tom aka Morty attending to the oven

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