Fine Food Australia - Sydney 2011 were you there?

Fine Food Sydney 2011 - What we saw.  By www.Foodstrategy.com.au
As most foodies will know, Fine Food 2011 was held at the Sydney Convention Centre. It's the largest international food and hospitality event on the Australian calendar.  This is the business end of things for the industry and closed to general public.
Thousand of products were displayed over 6 massive exhibition halls. Everything from juicy little blood oranges to production size combi ovens.  Every imaginable country was represented in their own pavilions; Greece, Italy, Thailand, China, USA, Pacific Islands, Cyprus and beyond.
Robert, Chris and Katrina represented the Food Strategy team this year.
We had intense training on the latest concepts, foodservice designs and solutions at an international forum by FCSI (Foodservice Consultants Society International), we met with existing clients, new clients, sampled and tested food and catering equipment from around the globe, developed media relationships and met up with new contacts made on Twitter and Facebook.

This Youtube video captures Fine Food 2011 as we saw it. See who you know.  Everyone was there' from Goldstein Eswood, JL Lennard, Skope, Stoddart, Electrolux, Zanussi and Lambaarginies to Breast Pops.  See if you can name the stars in the music track (clues at the end of the vid).

The annual Fine Food Best New Product Awards:

The awards are given in four categories - Best New Hospitality Equipment, Best New Foodservice Product, Best New Australian Retail Product and Best New Bakery Product.

In the Best New Hospitality Equipment category there were two winners -

1. Winterhalter Australia for its just released RoMatik XS reverse osmosis water treatment unit. The compact filter is designed to fit in smaller areas at the front of the house and offers a number of great advantages to customers; minerals are removed from the wash water, giving glasses and cutlery a perfect finish without the need for polishing.
2. Stoddart also winners for the Adande VCR2 refrigerated drawers (a brilliant unit!) Provides bulk chilled storage at the point of use in hot and busy kitchens. Simply pull out the drawer under the food prep bench - at your fingertips. Space saving format.

Adande Refrigerated Drawers by Stoddart

Winterhalter Reverse Osmosis Water filter

Apromo Trading grabbed the Best New Foodservice Product award with its Caviaroli product while W&P Reedy were victorious in the Best New Bakery Product award with its Asto Portion Cutter. (see the above Youtube vid)

Wagyu Oil by York Foods

The winner of the Best New Retail Product was York Foods for its new Wagyu Oil product. (A gourmet deli delight).


Another innovative product worth mentioning is the "Magic Carpet" Sushi Conveyor by Joseph Lee & Co. Sushi glides magically over a glass top conveyor that has no joins, seams or obvious moving parts. It truly appears to be a magic carpet. See our above Youtube vid.



2011 demonstrated a foodservice and hospitality industry that was focused on eco friendly concepts. Less energy, less water, less waste and less space.  Whether it be for saving money, time or the planet it's a sign of the times we live in.
Food Strategy is committed to ongoing training and research in foodservice and its application in design at an international level.

Read this little story if you have a moment:
It all began at the Brisbane airport awaiting our 7:30am flight (BNE to SYD). Hospitality professionals were buzzing. Industry friends from the catering equipment sector were coming over to say hello and compare notes. As we lined up for boarding we curiously watched a mature couple carefully carrying 6 little blue eskys. All of them were neatly taped and kept close at hand.
We pondered what might be inside that's so valuable; live animals, dead animals, heart, liver, eyes, or other life saving body bits perhaps. We dare not ask. More on that shortly.

During the flight, it was fascinating to eaves drop on others who were discussing in detail people in the industry that we know. I'm pretty sure they didn't realise that they were easy to hear.... interesting!  I sat next to a lovely couple who dozed for most of the trip until we were approaching Sydney airport. A conversation sprang up between us. They were from Beefy's Pies on the Sunshine Coast; previous Great Aussie Meat Pie gold medal winners at the Melbourne 2010 comp.  This year they had risen at 3am to catch our flight to Sydney to enter 6 beauties in the 2011 Great Aussie Meat Pie comp.  With anticipation I delighted in hearing how they lovingly packed their precious pies into the mysterious, little blue eskies - so that's what precious cargo was being hauled in the eskies!  Do you think our guessing of the contents was close?

www.FoodStrategy.com.au  Local People - Global Vision