Crave Food Festival in Sydney

The October is one of my favourite months in the year and not only because of my daughter's birthday and the Jacaranda tree starting to blossom. It is also the month of the annual Crave Food festival and this year it's going to be huge. South America and Mexico bringing us the new food trends and the festival organisers have invited a broad array of interesting chefs and cookbook authors from that area. I can't wait to see and meet them all in action. Hurray Sydney!

Just to mention a few there will be Diana Kennedy from Mexico, Francis Mallmann from Argentinia, Gaston Acurio from Peru and Alex Atala from Brazil.

This is what the festival site writes about them:

Diana Kennedy

No one has done more to introduce the world to the authentic cuisines of Mexico than Diana Kennedy. Acclaimed as the Julia Child of Mexican cooking, Kennedy has been an intrepid, indefatigable student of Mexican foodways for more than 50 years and has published several classics on the subject, including The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, a compilation of her first three books, The Art of Mexican Cooking and the latest, James Beard Cookbook of the Year winner, Oaxaca al Gusto. Her uncompromising insistence on proper local ingredients and preparation techniques has taught generations of cooks to appreciate the richness of Mexican cooking.

Here is what a fellow blogger "The Wednesday Chef" wrote about one of her recipes:
Last night, I triumphantly held aloft a long-clipped recipe from the LA Times for Diana Kennedy's meatballs that I'd been hoarding all by its lonesome, since it's one of the only Mexican recipes I've clipped over the years. The meatballs are made from a flavorful mix of pork and beef and stuffed to the gills with chopped zucchini and onion more

I've done a bit of research myself and was surprised I hadn't heard of Diana Kennedy before. Her cookbook "The art of Mexican cooking" are amongst the 50 best cookbook of all times, compiled by the Guardian. Her latest cookbook "Oaxaca al Gusto" gets mentioned by the NY Times and she talks about the book which took her 18 years to put together and her busy life in Mexico. Watch it here.

Francis Mallmann

Francis Mallmann is a Argentinian culinary superstar who started as a home cook in Bariloche, Patagonia, Francis worked in eight three-Michelin starred restaurants in France in the 1980s, including stints with nouvelle cuisine godfathers Alain Senderens and Roger Vergé. He has since rediscovered traditional food and cooking - at the centre of his high-heat and short cooking time approach is fire. A recipient of the French Grand Prixe de l’Art de la Cuisine, Francis has owned restaurants in South America, Spain and New York, appeared on TV since the early 80s and has played host to presidents and world leaders. Has written four books, the most recent being Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way.

Gaston Acurio

South America’s most celebrated chef/restaurateur shakes, rattles and rolls out 500 years of food fusion in his 28 restaurants around the world. Gaston’s plan is to seat Peru at the international culinary table — with his signature, warm Amazonian ceviche as the entree. His fellow countrymen want him for president. His haute cuisine restaurant Astrid Y Gaston in Lima, debuted at No. 42 on the S. Pellegrino list this year.

Alex Atala

Brazilian food was turned on its head when Alex Atala opened D.O.M. in 1999. Using indigenous and Amazonian produce, such as açaí, pupunha and cupuaçu, Alex set out to create food that captured the essence of Brazil. His daring creations have seen him awarded every contemporary culinary award in Brazil and ranked at No. 7 on the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list; the first Brazilian restaurant to break into the top 10 since 2002.