2010
The final year of the decade is upon us, and already good NEW things are happening.
The Bomboniere
One of Maureen's bright ideas last year was to develop the concept of a Bomboniere.
The giving of a bomboniere or guest favour is a centuries old French tradition which
originated as a way for couples to show their appreciation to family and friends for
sharing in the celebration of their wedding day. 
Most early wedding customs have altered over the years, so there
shouldn’t be any reason for guests to be thanked with something
ordinary.
So All the best fine foods is offering a wedding favour as individual as
the wedding itself. To create a memorable and delightful “thank you” for their guests,
Brides (and Grooms)can choose a unique idea – an All the best fine foods preserve.
The jar will be personalised with your photo of the bride and groom, wedding date and
a personal, “thank you for sharing our special day”. We can even print the name of
each individual guest on the label.
Brides are calling us (02 6662 2330) to talk about this idea.
The Tour Down Under
Early in January, Maureen received a call from the Adelaide Convention Centre. According to the PA, chef
had decided that he wanted to cook with Cumquat Chutney for the official 'Tour Down
Under' dinner.
All the best fine foods Cumquat Chutney was the one chosen. With 8 kg of Cumquat Chutney delivered
the week before the dinner, everyone ended up very happy. I could not have made up this story.
2009
So, a Happy Christmas to all, and to all, a Good Night!!
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Friday 18th December, 2009
And still we grow with new outlets!!
BALLINA We were really excited to be accepted at Ballina's newest good food outlet
Deli4U.
Michael and Anke are really enthusiastic foodies, who have found a great spot handy to
the CBD with great outside eating areas. Anke makes a lot of their own label products,
but is keen to fill the shelves with items that are local and different.
Later in the day we travelled to GRAFTON to meet Fiona, another extremely enthusiastic
foodie. who got really excited at the tastes of 'All the best' she experienced and had our
products on her shelves as quickly as we could unpack them.
Gourmet To Go is most definitely the place to go if you are in Grafton if you are in the
market for some fine food.
On our return visit on Monday with more supplies, it was exciting to meet up with former
customers, who had already discovered our new outlet.
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STOP PRESS
When we got back from our Brisbane trip, we had a call from our good
friends at Blue Kitchen Gourmet Foods, Louise & Andrew. They had a
proposal for us to join them (and others) in putting together a Northern
Rivers' Foodies Christmas hamper. We couldn't wait!! The end result
is worth a look. If you are interested in a totally LOCAL Christmas
hamper from the Northern Rivers, click on
http://www.chillies.com.au/hamper.html
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For something completely different for us, we were approached by the Wilson
brothers of the Nimbin Valley Dairy to use All the best onion chilli jam
with their goats’ milk cheese, and market it as 'Chilli Billy Cheese'.
It looks good and even more importantly, tastes good. Keep your eye out for it.
'Chilly Billy Cheese' is being sold in selected outlets locally and around
Australia.
You can find the Wilson Brothers regularly at local farmers' markets, as well as
the Lismore Car Boot Markets.
November
We’ve just returned from what has become an annual trip to Brisbane for The Good Food &
Wine Show. If you haven’t been to one of these, you are missing out!! We managed to
attend a cooking session with George Colombaris and Gary Mehigan, the Master Chef
flavours of the month – most entertaining and even informative.
We then spent the next two days spreading the ‘All the best’ word around Brisbane. As a
result, our newest outlet is ‘Euro Continental Foods’ in the West End of Brisbane. There
are also a few more outlets that should be coming on board over the next few weeks.
Hopefully, this will satisfy the enquiries we are receiving from Brisbane people, who have
found us while visiting the Northern Rivers or who would like to try some of what they read
about on our website. Maureen decided to enter the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show again
this year, and was awarded a bronze medal for her lime date chutney, to go with the
silver medal for the onion caraway jam last year. Well done!!
Back home, as mentioned in our report earlier in the year, we only made it to a few
markets this year:
• Grafton Regional Gallery
Our first outing of the year – a very pleasant day in the gardens and on the
verandahs of the Gallery. Plenty of familiar faces and return customers.
• Sawtell Chilli Festival
Our second visit to this vibrant and fun filled festival. We do well at this festival.
Our chilli products are not as hot as some, but they have flavour, which
appeals to those with discerning and undamaged tastebuds. And of course,
the people loved Maureen’s chocolate chilli biscuits
• Beef week
Sadly, we were unable to make it to any Casino Beef Week markets this year.
Maybe next year?
• Kyogle Fringe Festival Business Expo
This was run in conjunction with the World Rally Championship that Kyogle
Shire shared in hosting. There were big crowds in the street, but for some
reason, they magically disappeared as soon as the rally cars did. It was
obvious why the crowds were there, so we put the day down to experience.
• Lismore Food & Wine Show
This was a fundraiser for the ‘Our Kids’ charity held at Invercauld House
in Lismore. Like a mini - Good Food & Wine Show, if you didn’t enjoy the
day, you weren’t really trying. Maureen put together the All the best
grazing platter which included the award winning onion caraway jam
and lime date chutney, spiced cumquats & prunes in a marscapone
tart, fetta & cream cheese chillies, and tomato herb fusion with
Wesleydale cheese. Needless to say, the supplies ran out in two hours,
with the crowd wanting more. Could be a repeat next year.
• The Northern Rivers Italian Festival
The first of these was held last year. The organising committee built on that
experience and produced a much improved festival in 2009. Even though the
weather wasn’t as good as it might have been, it was a great day. It seems
that “Italian” is synonymous with “good food”.
Enough said. Ciao, and see you next year
• Grafton Jacaranda TAFE market
Fortunately, we had our roof over our head, so the already set up tables and
boxes didn’t suffer when the heavens opened. We did though, and the
difficult decision to repack the car, when the rain stopped was made. It was
sad to leave so early, but with soaked feet and an early start for Brisbane the
following morning, we made the decision. It's always encouraging to have
people come looking for you, as a result of previous purchases. Finding
new people to taste and purchase, and just having the opportunity to talk
about food, really makes the time fly. Hopefully, our regulars weren’t too
disappointed, but it’s only a short run to Ulmarra for Graftonians.
We will return – next year!
Some of our friends who enjoyed the Grafton Jacaranda TAFE market more than we did!!
That’s basically a summary of our year, out and about. We’ve enjoyed the interaction with our
customers, as well as having learnt a lot. Right now, we are flat out with hampers and Christmas orders – so, bring it on!
