Food Master's Report

The Society was able to introduce five new chefs to the members out of the 9 dinners I arranged. I believe that Chris Shapstick from the Turret and Ryan Pearce from trident chef were the outstanding chefs this year. 

Some of the other notable dinners included the joint Beef Steak function, The Luigi Bazzani Order of Australia ladys lunch and the 750th Dinner at Craigs. The Cafe Meigas night was a lot of fun with more food than we could poke a stick at and the warm welcome from Jose and Yamelly added to the occasion. 

The good range of Spanish wines in our cellar that we enjoyed only goes to show what a great job Jim has done in giving us exposure to wines around the world. I’m sure we shall enjoy Jim’s contribution for many years to come. 

I would like to thank Mal for being a great support in getting the dinners together. His good humour and passion for the task is always something to look forward to. 

I look forward to continuing in the role should that be the wishes of the membership and finding some more new chefs and passionate restraint operators.

Dean Stevens

January 2015

Cellarmaster's Report

Wine & Food Society of Ballarat Cellarmasters Report for 2014
Thanks for the pleasure of being your Cellarmaster for my fifth (and final) year in which I have continued to update our Cellar List to be more suited to your tastes and to reduce our cellar stock with an emphasis on increased quality and variety.
During the year we Purchased 102 Bottles for $ 7,210 at an average price of $71 and consumed 202 Bottles worth $ 14,775 and averaging $73.
This left a Balance 0f 1,402 at 31/12/2014 worth $ 95,435 averaging $68 and some money in the Bank for the new Cellarmaster.
We used some of our best wines during the year including the 1976 Grange which had been checked at the Biennial Penfolds Clinic. The Clinic standards indicated that all of our 15 year old wines should be in great condition. Overall it was one of the best years in recent memory for the quality and variety of wines drunk thanks to Mal’s good selections as Winemaster.
Thanks must go to Dean Stevens and Mal for offering a great variety of wine and food matches at some of the better Restaurants around town and we must remember the generosity of Les Dickinson for providing our Cellar.
A breakdown of origin shows the Cellar made up of 892 Australian, 270 French,97 from Italia, 46 from New Zealand, 38 from Germany, 27 from Spain, 15 USA, 11 Portuguese and 6 from Chile totalling 1402 a reduction of 100 for the year. At our average rate of 20 bottles per Dinner we have 7 years supply which should be offset by purchases.
In 2010 I set out to rebalance the Cellar both in Quality and Variety and, whilst not anywhere near perfect, I feel satisfied with the end result.
Thanks,
Jim Patterson 

best avoided