Recently, I attended the media launch of the inaugural Adelaide Food & Wine Festival, a not for profit, community led and focused festival running from 6-14 April. With the festival almost upon us, I chatted with the woman behind the festival, Amanda James-Pritchard, about why she started the festival, some of the events on offer and what makes a great pie floater.
Everybody, meet Amanda!
Amanda, tell us about yourself. When did you arrive in Adelaide and what brought you here?
I arrived in Adelaide in 2008. It was my fiancé Glenn James, a winemaker who brought me here from Melbourne. I decided to give up my communications job at Foster’s to join him across the border. I was excited to make the move from Melbourne and especially to explore the nearby wine regions and the City for myself.
Your company, Kooki PR, has a lot of food clients. What are some of the jobs you’ve most enjoyed?
I am so lucky to work with some of the best food producers across the country and especially to work with people who are willing to do things that might be a little risky or left of centre (i.e. kooki). One of my favourite campaigns of late would have to be the “BEARDED Bottle” campaign we did with Oliver’s Taranga. We produced a video and made a bottle that actually had a beard! It was all about celebrating the Oliver family’s bearded heritage. Some other top people I work with include Pepe Saya (the butter master) and Phil Lamb at Spring Bay Mussels, a true gentleman of the seafood industry – we created a campaign called “MUSSELLOVE” recently that was lots of fun, encouraging people to share their mussel love inspiration on Facebook. Twitter and Instagram.
When did the idea of organising an Adelaide Food & Wine Festival first come to you and what inspired it?
Quite honestly, it was only 6 months or so into living in Adelaide that I wondered why we didn’t have our own food and wine festival… Having worked for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and with Sydney International Food Festival, I sensed an opportunity then, but I knew as an outsider to Adelaide if I decided then and there to produce a festival it would be akin to going out into rapid fire without a flak jacket – I could hear the cries of “who does she think she is?” from the established Adelaide folks! So I figured I would set about to get to know the State – its winemakers; traders; chefs; producers and people before I got anywhere near creating a festival.
I worked for the Lord Mayor Michael Harbison, established myself on the marketing committee for the Adelaide Central Market and got to know people like Josh Fanning, Jim Plouffe at Adelaide* Magazine, Paola Coro, Mark Gleeson, Corrina Wright, Sue Bell etc etc.
When I left the Council job, I started producing events – mostly at Adelaide Central Market but also interstate. Bolstered by the continued success of these events and feeling confident I could ‘pull it off’ so to speak, it was in November last year that the Adelaide Food and Wine Festival was conceived – over a good bottle of wine, with like-minded friends. Then, the Festival was to be one weekend or perhaps 4 days and maybe a maximum of 10 events, but, with the amazingly positive response it quickly grew to be 8 days and the program now boasts some 31 events.
When you first told people about your idea, what was the general reaction? Which companies or organisations were particularly supportive?
As above, the immediate reaction was so great that I spent an entire month meeting with people from across the state back-to-back. Some people were curious and perhaps even considered the Festival as predatory but the majority of people simply wanted to get involved. I have a folder of emails that I have kept and the basic message from these people getting in touch who had maybe read about the festival in InDaily or heard me on ABC or 5AA radio was “what a great idea, good on you for having the guts to do it.”
It was the support of individuals that I was most bolstered by – these people became the committee – and then 891 ABC Adelaide came on board as a radio partner in our first year and the Adelaide* Magazine agreed to support one of our events as a reader event. Others include the Adelaide Central Market, the Hilton, winemakers from across the country, restaurants, chefs, producers such as Michelle Lally from Savannah Lamb and Saskia Beer, Richard Gunner, Marco Marinelli, Mark Gleeson, Lucia’s, Rennicks, Novatech – I can’t list everyone here that has done something large or small to assist this first Festival getting off the ground.
You’ve put together an interesting program, with lots of events to suit different tastes, including a bacon trail with Saskia Beer and a tea degustation. Which events are you most proud of and why?
I’m most proud of the entire program but if I had to pick one event it would definitely be the Market Feast. It was the Market Feast that made me feel we could actually call this the Adelaide Food and Wine Festival. An after-hours progressive dinner in our mecca of food (i.e. the Adelaide Central Market)? It is probably the event that has had the most protracted negotiations but with sheer determination we got there. I cannot wait for it.
Are there any family-friendly activities?
Absolutely, we encourage families to get involved in many of our events – Wines & Fishes on Semaphore Beach (April 13) will be a wonderful day that kid are most welcome to attend (so long as they are seafood lovers)! At #EASTENDWINEDOWN on Sunday 7th there will be a special “kids corner” with crayons and paper to keep the little ones occupied. For more grown-up kids, the hands-on classes — learning to make butter or sausages in the Central Market Kitchen — would be a great thing for parents to do with their kids. They’re educational and fun!
I notice you have a pie floater competition as part of the programme. (A pie floater is a meat pie served with tomato sauce on a bed of pea soup – it’s a uniquely South Australian dish). In your opinion, what makes a great pie floater?
Yes, we are hoping to get some interesting entries in that! The Pie Floater was my first culinary experience of Adelaide as an 8 year old girl. My father told me quite seriously that the peas cannot be too thick, they need to be more soupy in consistency… I think the secret is in that heavenly combination of crunch/flakiness of pastry and velvety soupiness of the peas (plus a decent amount of good tomato sauce) As with any classic dish, the better the elements that go into making it, the better the overall result.
The inaugural Adelaide Food and Wine Festival runs from 6-14 April. Check out the full program.
