This year’s 2018 festival was more popular than ever with record crowds all clamouring to have a tête-à-tête with a French speaker and to imbibe the unique je ne sais quoi of French culture. What started in 2010 by the Brisbane Francophile community, the Brisbane French Festival has transformed to “Le Festival” now becoming the biggest French Festival in Australia!
There was something for everyone young and old and it was a great opportunity for those wishing to embrace and sample all that is French: from the superb cuisine with numerous food stalls; the culinary Masterclasses; art and crafts; fashion; live music from the Amadeus orchestra; and even French speaking lessons.
I arrived early in the morning, when it was quiet giving me a fantastic opportunity to sample some of the French delicacies such as the crepes from French Kiss and browse the stalls. I bought the obligatory beret from La Boutique de Maurice for my daughter and a delicate French handmade bracelet for myself from La Lutine.
I was fortunate to attend two masterclasses on the day hosted by Le Cordon Bleu, who have been teaching French cuisine around the world since 1895, when the first school opened in Paris. Now they have 35 institutes worldwide including schools in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, with their latest addition here in Brisbane at the South Bank campus offering casual cooking classes to fully specialised culinary Diplomas.
The first masterclass was French profiteroles with a flair hosted by Daniele Panetta, who although originally Italian, specialised in French patisserie after studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. The Masterclasses were held in a lovely crisp white tent overlooking the Wheel of Brisbane, full of fresh flowers and an aroma of sweet delicacies. Classes are kept small and intimate enabling all attendees to ask questions and view the chef’s techniques closely via two large screens and a camera mounted above the table.
Daniele was an excellent host relating his personal culinary journey throughout the world and describing his speciality of patisserie to be ‘Zen like’ and the culinary art being mostly mathematical. This was clearly something which appealed to him. Whilst whipping up a selection of Choux pastry fillings such as Crème patissiere, Pate a choux, a Vanilla Chantilly, coffee creme and a praline, he described each step well and the likely pitfalls involved with each one.
The participants each received a goodie bag with numerous recipe cards for ease of following the chef and minimising tedious notetaking. Instead the audience could concentrate on Daniele’s interesting facts, such as the original Choux pastry being over 500 years old and named after sprouts from the cabbage family due to the shape.
After an hour of drooling over the choux delicacies including a choux swan we were able to sample six different choux pastries including green avocado and a delicious coffee one. Daniele answered questions as we greedily feasted on the delightful French pastries. French breakfast tea was available, which was a lovely touch to cleanse the palate between pastries.
With only a short interlude to lick my fingers I was back in the Masterclass tent with the renowned French chef Bruno Loubet to learn how to cook a classic French onion soup with truffles, but without the need for animal products or meat. As a lifelong vegetarian who has worked and travelled throughout France, I had to live on baguette, frites and red wine, as most French food including the vegetables are usually tainted with animal fats or meats. It was refreshing to hear a different view that meat should not be an integral part of every French dish from Bruno, a classically trained Chef and Winner of Chef of the Year who has worked in 3 starred Michelin restaurants around the World, including working as Head chef for the award-winning Raymond Blanc.
The Masterclass was hosted by Katrina Warner of the Brisbane Le Cordon Bleu school. She asked most of the questions, which unfortunately did not allow the audience to have the more intimate experience with the Chef, as in the previous class with chef Daniele Panetta. Because of the change in format with an MC dominating the dialogue we also missed hearing about each individual cooking stage as Bruno made the soup. We also weren’t given individual recipe cards, as in the previous masterclass making it more difficult to understand the nuances of the process. That aside, the class was still good and Bruno was very interesting when given the opportunity to speak freely, relating tales from the numerous restaurants where he has worked and name dropping customers such as Lady Diana and Francois Mitterand.
Whilst Bruno served the soup to a now ravenous audience, he described the types and locations of truffles and then grated a good one or two hundred dollars-worth of Western Australian truffles from the Truffle and Wine Company onto the top of the soups, saying he really wanted us to appreciate a good truffle. Who were we to complain? The heavily truffled soup was delicious with a rich creamy texture and a distinctive umami flavour from the addition of nooch, an activated yeast. Small potato dumplings with cheese floated in the soup to give it an authentic touch, not to mention the oodles of fresh truffle! The soup was served with a glass of pink bubbly to complete the pleasurable French dining experience although the decadence was diminished by the soup being served out of paper bowls, rather than real crockery. But hey, it's all part of the experience at the end of the day.
Chef Bruno answered many questions after the event from audience members desperate to know more about his style of French cookery. He is opening his home on the Sunshine Coast for intimate French cookery classes, which I am sure will be popular for those kitchen chefs, not wanting to become professionals but keen to have an impressive dinner party or two. The Masterclasses are a fantastic way to meet and observe professional chefs with the bonus of tasting fantastic food at the end and Le Cordon Bleu is available here in Brisbane for those wanting to embark on a professional career in French cuisine.
Le Festival was fun, creative and well organised and a great introduction to France, guaranteed to dispel any ennui from those with the Brisbane blues. La vie est belle at Le Festival!
Southbank, Brisbane
6th July - 8th July 2018
Review: Dr Gemma Regan