March, 2017

Whether you wanted a German sausage, fresh produce or some local craft beer – or you wanted some tips from a top chef or to try your hand at making pumpkin ravioli – Maitland had you covered on the weekend.

Thousands of people wandered through The Levee to enjoy treats – both sweet and savoury – and soak up a carnival atmosphere as the annual Taste festival took place in Central Maitland.

Gourmet BBQ owner Tobias Rose, who operated a Sliders and Ciders bar with Tilse’s Apple Truck Cider, said the festival was an overwhelming success.

He and his staff set up their food truck armed with 800 sliders – a type of miniature hamburger – on Saturday morning, but were down to their last 150 when they re-opened on Sunday.

“Maitland has been one of the greatest places for us to trade,” Mr Rose said.

“It’s been absolutely wild. The Levee is a one of a kind place – the look, the amount of people who come here and the good food.”

A Maitland City Council spokesperson said, based on early estimates on Sunday afternoon, between 12,000 and 13,000 people attended the festival.

She said attendance had been constant on Saturday and Sunday morning, but the warm weather had thinned crowds slightly by Sunday afternoon.

She said celebrity chef Paul West’s cooking demonstration was among the popular features of the weekend.

There was also a renewed focus on fresh produce at this year’s event.

Slow Food Hunter Valley – the group behind the successful Central Maitland produce markets – set up a Pumpkin Precinct, where people could buy fresh locally-grown pumpkins and learn some interesting new ways to prepare the produce.

There were also activities involving local fresh produce to keep the kids occupied.

Slow Food Hunter Valley project leader Amorelle Dempster said the precinct had been “very busy”.

“It’s really great that the people have come out. I think having many facets of the product – not just having the raw primary product, but being able to show people what you can do with it and give people a taste of the produce – I think it creates general interest,” she said.

“I think that’s meant we’ve been very busy.

“People have been amazed that there are so many types of pumpkins.

“There’s so much interest in the fact that they’re local and people are almost getting to the point where they expect that they can get local food.

“Because we are a not-for-profit organisation, we need a platform like this that has the infrastructure created around it for us to then bring our message to the people.

“It enables us to just bring the message.”