To Ben Way, the month of August can’t come soon enough. Always excited to percentage his passion for Port Stephens and its seafood, the month-long Love Seafood Festival held throughout August is one of the Nelson Bay chef’s favorite activities of the 12 months.
But this year, with Love Sea Food and different crowd-pleasers, Tastes on the Bay, combining, the Way is greater excited than ever. “I can’t wait for it. It’s going to be a first-rate month,” Way, a chef and co-owner of Little Beach Boathouse, stated. “The value in combining those two fairs is large.
“Instead of getting forces going towards the only goal, you’re uniting them and creating more ability and celebration. “The Love Seafood and Taste festival, for me, isn’t about one eating place displaying off what they may be appropriate at. It’s approximately one vicinity displaying what it’s given, what it could do.
“The pageant isn’t just a celebration to get human beings to come back here and go to and strive for what we do. It’s also for the folks who are right here and running the same race to get together and have a good time, what we have was given.”
Destination Port Stephens launched the month-long Love Seafood Festival in August 2016 to “have a good time all that we adore approximately seafood in Port Stephens”. Tastes at the Bay, historically held on the primary weekend in November by Tomaree Business Chamber, was included in the seafood festival at the beginning of 2019.
Tomaree Business Chamber president Leah Anderson instructed the Examiner in April that Tastes’ achievement had numerous over the years, and a sparkling technique was vital. It changed into decided to transport Tastes again to August to round out the Love Sea Food month of festivities.
“August is the maximum thrilling time all 12 months to enjoy a taste of the local food and way of life now that Love Seafood and Tastes at The Bay have come together,” Eileen Gilliland, chief government officer of Destination Port Stephens, said. Throughout August, choosing eating places around Nelson Bay will feature special competition lunch and dinner menus aimed at showcasing the Port’s fresh and plentiful seafood.
There will even weekly seafood-themed cooking masterclasses held by chefs from The Poyer’s (Lemon Tree Passage), The Anchorage (Corlette), Rick Stein Bannisters Port Stephens (Salamander Bay), In House Kitchen, and Blueys restaurant (Nelson Bay).
The first pageant occasion will be the famous Port to Plate gala dinner, which allows you to be held at Broughton at the Bay on August 3. This occasion sees chefs from the Port join forces to create a unique seafood-inspired eating experience for three hundred-plus humans. Way said this gala dinner turned into one of his favorite elements of the pageant.
This yr he can be cooking alongside Ludovic Poyer from The Poyer’s, Mitchell Turner from Bannister Port Stephens, Michael Jenkins from The Anchorage, and Stacey Cleaver from A Sweet Ride Called Clyde.
“When I was first approached by way of the Love Seafood organizers about the gala dinner back in 2016, there was no other answer but ‘sure,'” Way said. “The organizers had been speaking approximately setting Port Stephens on the map for seafood, and with my passion for Port Stephens and seafood, there wasn’t a great deal else to mention.
“When I first got here to Port Stephens, inside the first 12 months of [Little Beach Boathouse] being open in 2014, I attempted to organize a few forms of dinner like this, a collaboration among cooks within the place, but it just didn’t paintings.
