Fair Work has organized the audit as part of the new compliance and education campaign.  The main aim is to check that hospitality employers are adhering to workplace laws and paying full entitlements to their staff.  If any inconsistencies appear, businesses will be offered assistance to rectify them.

Another 50 food businesses will be audited throughout Perth and a further 20 in Darwin.  The move comes after a high number of complaints against the foodservice industry.  According to Fair Work Australia the sector also employs many juniors, foreign workers and other vulnerable groups.

This year’s NAB Barossa Gourmet Weekend will again see over 25 of the region’s world famous wineries get together and showcase their finest wines.  Locals and visitors can also look forward to tasting some of Barossa’s best gourmet food.

The much-anticipated weekend of course wouldn’t go without live entertainment, with an array of South Australia’s greatest musicians playing over the two days.  The event is family friendly with activities and food options that children will also enjoy.

Free bus service from Adelaide to Barossa will be available or you can choose from a wide range of accommodation and stay the night.  Rooms can be booked through the Barossa website.

You can find more information about this fantastic weekend on the event’s officialwebsite.

The festival will begin on Friday night 27 July with a dance followed by variety markets, show rides and even night fireworks on the Saturday.  The main street parade and family fair day will take place on the Sunday, including everything from art to animal displays.  The weekend will also include plenty of live music by some of South Australia’s great local talent, with the line up yet to be announced.

Celebration lunches will be held on each following weekday and the festival will finish with the famous ball on Saturday night 4 August.  Thousands are expected to flock into Willunga for the festival, which is also a fundraiser for some local charities.

For more information and tickets go to the Willunga Festivals website.

The annual McLaren Vale Bank SA Sea and Vines Food & Wine Festival is almost upon us, and this year the visitors will really be spoilt for choice.  This stunning region is already famous for its unique flavours and this year the focus is based around three categories – Experience, Relish and Delight.

The festival promises a great party atmosphere in each of the 28 participating venues.  Visitors will get to experience live music and dancing will of course be encouraged.  Local producers will be showcasing a beautiful assortment of food and wine, guaranteed to delight your senses.

The aim is for everyone to simply relish in a very relaxing experience accompanied by great food and wine.  Each venue has chosen a different style and there will be a food and wine matching dinner, degustation or a long lunch to choose from.

With this much variety on offer, be sure to check the festival program so you don’t miss anything. Bookings are also required for certain events.  You can also find more information on the McLaren Vale website.

It’s a chance for those South Australian businesses that provide tourists with high quality experiences to be acknowledged.  The South Australian Tourism Industry Council Chief Executive, Ward Tilbrook, hopes the new category will also further highlight the fact that South Australia is one of the greatest food and wine destination in this country.

The entries for the Award are based on submissions and on-site assessments.  Each food tourism entrant also has to answer numerous questions regarding their business operation.  Nominations for Excellence in South Australian Food Tourism category close on 6 July and the deadline for submissions is August, 20.  The popular Awards Gala Dinner will take place on Friday 23 November at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The Clare Valley region only has two other breweries: Knappstein Winery & Brewery and Pikes Oakbank Beer; so a new addition is more than welcome to the region.

Keep checking their website for more information.

It was great to see both teams representing South Australia in the final, and shows that our state certainly has a lot to offer in terms of culinary prowess!
Congratulations to Leigh and Jennifer, we look forward to your next food venture!

Good Life: Modern Organic Pizza

Whether it’s the succulent free-range chicken or organic roasted vegetables on top crispy wood oven bread, Good Life definitely changes the way you’d normally view pizzas. Plus it’s a great place to hang with mates over munchies and some wine.

Their Free-range Roasted Duck pizza is a massive hit. It’s topped with shitake mushrooms, spring onions and homemade ginger jam.

Good Life offers vegan pizzas too! Vegheads would love the delicious Swiss Brown Mushrooms pizza, marinated in organic balsamic vinegar and garnished with lemon aioli tang. Pizza prices range from $13.90 – $37.

Good Life opens from 12pm to 6pm on weekdays and 6pm to 9:30pm on weekends.

Bliss Organic Garden Café
Bliss is a 100% organic vegan cafe – completely stays away from meat, fish and dairy products. Some may think they’re radical but they certainly build a reputation for delicious vegan dishes.

Whether you’re a veghead or not, you’re bound to find something to suit your liking at Bliss. There’s also a variety of fair trade teas, coffee and freshly made organic smoothies to choose from.

They’re also the winner of Australia’s Favourite Vegan Eat Out 2010 as well as the I Love Food Awards 2010.

The café opens from 11am to 4pm on Monday till Thursday and 8am – 9pm on Fridays. Saturday hours run from 8am to 3pm and on Sundays, Bliss Organic hosts a range of cooking classes, movie screenings and forums.

Joy-Discovery Vegetarian Café
Feel like you’re in need of some greens? Want to check out a café with waitresses draped in saris? Then visit Joy-Discovery.

The café serves east-west vegetarian comfort foods through a variety of gluten free, vegan-friendly and dairy free dishes.

Besides the aromatic curries and yummy tempeh wraps, something to look forward to in the café is the Not Dog. It’s a vegan hot dog served with soy mayonnaise, grilled onion, tomato sauce and mustard in a sour dough roll.

Main course ranges from $9.50 – $16.

Also be sure to try out the Fair Trade organic East Timor coffee while you’re there!

Joy Discovery opens on Monday till Saturday from 8:00am to 4:00pm.

Zenhouse Yum Cha Restraurant
If you’re ever in need of a place to unwind and have dinner after a taxing day at work in the city, step into Zenhouse.

Zenhouse is a relaxing teahouse café-restaurant that specialises in creating authentic vegetarian food. They have scrumptious vegetarian versions of duck, chicken, pork, beef, mutton and seafood – tastes like real meat!

Besides that, the restaurant carries at least a hundred different types of teas from all over the globe, ranging from white teas, green teas, oolong teas, fruit, herbal, and ayur life series. Zenhouse promotes the idea of tranquillity of the mind, body and soul through tea drinking.

As majority of the dishes in Zenhouse derive from Chinese cuisine, there are various teas that work harmoniously in enhancing the flavour of each dish.

The opening hours on Monday are from 11.30am to 4.30pm. From Tuesday till Saturday, their hours vary from 11.30 am to 9pm. They’re also available on Sunday, from 11.30am to 3.30pm.

Eggless Desserts Café
Hinted in its name, Eggless is an egg free, vegan-friendly and lacto-vegetarian dessert café. They offer an array of Western and Asian-inspired deserts such as the Molten Green Tea & Chocolate Pudding. It’s a sticky Belgian chocolate centre, surrounded by warm green tea pudding, served with strawberries and vanilla ice cream – it’s like happiness slowly melting in your mouth!

Amongst the many great things about Eggless is that several of the desserts on the menu have vegan or lactose options available.

An interesting fact about Eggless is that their menu changes every month, which means that customers get to try something new and different. They can also vote for past desserts to bring those back on the menu.

Eggless is the perfect place to go to if you crave for desserts late at night, as the store only operates at night.

The café opens Wednesday till Thursday from 8pm to 11:30pm and 8pm to 12:30am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s hours are from 7:30pm to 11 pm.

Due to Matt’s popularity in the industry, a group of friends and leading chefs have conceived a national fundraising event called Plates for Mates to express their care and support for Matt. The chefs spearheading the campaign include Janelle Bloom, Manu Fieldel, George Colombaris, Gary Mehigan, Damian Heads and Alistair McLeod. The idea is that restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, staff canteens, tuckshops, hotels, pubs, clubs, resorts, suppliers to the hospitality industry and members of the public do something to assist both Matt and The McComb Foundation.
Members of the industry can register an event on the Plates for Mates website; for example Peasant Restaurant in Brisbane will be donating $1 per table throughout the month of April. Other events include BBQ’s, pancake picnics and much more.

Alternatively, you can choose to attend an event: There are many listed throughout Australia over the next couple of months!

To register an event, click here.
To attend an event, click here.
For more information, click here.

In a span of only 24 hours, key wine harvest regions like Clare, Nuriootpa and Renmark were struck with rainfall reaching at least 62 millimetres. According to the ABC Online News, Chairman of South Australia’s wine council, Simon Berry said, “Because it is so widespread and it is so heavy, it is more than just the rain. It changes all the logistics, we get harvests cancelled, we get trucks moved round, everyone’s bookings change and so, it causes a lot of rescheduling”.

Although rainfall has affected grape harvests two years in a row with last years crop being the worst hit by rainfall in living history, My Berry is hopeful that harvests this year will be less affected by disease.

“In terms of grapes it’s always a bit of an unknown whether we’re going to see any splitting or botrytis but there’s differences in last year in that we were nowhere near as ripe and there was already niggling little amounts of disease, whereas this year we’ve gone into most of it looking pretty clean,” he said.