French flavours return for Bastille Day dinner

A taste of France is coming to the Tweed next month as Potager prepares to host its annual Bastille Day Degustation Dinner.

The French-inspired evening on 11 July will feature a multi-course menu paired with selected wines, celebrating classic French cuisine while showcasing fresh produce grown on the property and sourced from local producers.

The Hinterland Collection group head chef Aaron Teece said this year’s menu would blend traditional French cooking with a contemporary Australian approach.

 

 

“I think with the menu itself, it’s trying to take the classic French menu, so giving people what they know and understand it to be, but then we’ll be able to trick it up and play around with it a little bit to make it a bit more creative,” he said.

Many of the ingredients, including vegetables, macadamias and herbs, will come directly from Potager’s kitchen garden and nearby farms.

“So a lot of it, it’s all trying to incorporate what we have growing here or close to us in abundance that also fits the theme,” Teece said.

 

 

 

Having worked internationally, including at Harvey Nichols’s Fifth Floor Restaurant in London and as a private chef for former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Teece said French cuisine had shaped much of his culinary training.

“Because of my age and when I started cooking it was very much French-based theory,” he said.

He said the event was a natural fit for Potager, whose name is the French word for “kitchen garden”, reflecting its focus on seasonal produce and traditional cooking techniques.

The Bastille Day Degustation Dinner will be held fat Potager – A Kitchen Garden on 11 Julyrom 6pm. Bookings can be made via potager.com.au/events-rezdy