Travel & Culture

Lettuce shop inspires creative menus

It’s called the ‘The Lettuce Shop’ and just by coincidence, happened to park right outside the front door of Jamie’s Italian in Perth as we were in the middle of a press conference with ambassadors for the Jamie Oliver Better Food Foundation.

Inside we were offered salads plated high with tasty rocket and radicchio, aged balsamic, pine nuts and Parmesan, as chef at Jamie’s Fifteen restaurant Lorenzo Milanese, a graduate of the Fifteen program Lloyd Hayes and Danny McCubbin who has worked for Jamie for the last 10 years, spoke about their unique culinary experiences. It was in the lead up to the FACET 2013 Culinary Journeys conference held in the South West of Western Australia this month. The aim? To bring together the tourism community and food and wine producers to discuss strategies on leveraging the region’s assets.

Tourism and food make a mighty match, but one that can be under-utilised in parts of the state. From foraging field trips cooking bush tucker on open fires, to listening to inspirational keynote speakers on ways to boost the profile of one of Australia’s most significant food bowls full of salad ingredients; the conference was the perfect event to produce some mouth watering results. The third day was all about ‘Creating the Menu’, as everyone from the conference brainstormed creative ideas on how to capitalise on the opportunities available to build memorable visitor experiences. Some of the reoccurring themes included the need for a cohesive brand, the need to collaborate and the need to educate and raise awareness locally and further afield. It’s going to be interesting to see how these ideas develop over time. I mean it’s no coincidence that the best holidays are often the most delicious!

Where have you travelled and eaten the most flavoursome salad utilising the freshest local ingredients available in that region?

Enjoy your salads! Louise.

Join Louise on a journey through the seasons with salad ingredients, old traditions and popular, exotic or unusual vegetables. From Paddock to Plate founder, author, food writer, radio journalist & yoga teacher.