Recently I had the pleasure of attending an evening with Nigella Lawson presented by Good Food in Sydney. The event was wonderful, as was the erudite, charming and generous Ms Lawson whose ‘conversation’ with Jill Dupleix was interesting and entertaining.

The venue for the evening was Chef Matt Moran’s beautiful ‘Chiswick at the Gallery’ restaurant, where his talented team showcased the food from Nigella’s new book, ‘Simply Nigella’. This will no doubt be will be one of the highlights of my 2016 food adventures!

The food was plentiful and delicious…and the accompanying Yulumba wines were well matched.

The Pork Buns were soft and luscious ….

Little dishes came out next …. Prawn & avocado, Thai steamed clams and Caramelised garlic hummus & flat bread…… (no photos as at the time of serving I was transfixed by the discussion between the host Jill Dupleix and Nigella).

Then there were the mains, which again were served in separate dishes to which we helped ourselves….. all were flavourful as well as appealing to the eye… mind you my photo doesn’t do the separate dishes justice!

And there was an unexpected bonus dish! The man sitting next to me was a vegetarian and the kitchen sent out a Pumpkin risotto which, to my delight, he was happy to share….it was so creamy and possibly the best risotto I had ever tasted. As it wasn’t in Nigella’s book I assumed it to be a Matt Moran recipe. I tried to recreate it at home by adapting another Matt Moran recipe and was quite delighted with the result…here is a link to my previous post and recipe for  Roasted Pumpkin Risotto.

Now….I am on record as saying, ‘I am not a desert person’, and whereas I stand by that statement I have to admit the desert served at the event was something else…something to really celebrate. I am sad to say that I didn’t get a photo of the little individual jewels (Lemon pavlova), but I did see a really good photo on Instagram by Goodfoodau. In the book Nigella presents this dish as one large Pav …here I have resorted to a photo from the book.

Towards the end of the evening there was an opportunity to have a very brief moment with Nigella, as part of the book signing. Even though she had been at the task for over an hour, when my turn came to have my book signed I found her still smiling & engaging her ‘fans’ in a natural and warm manner…. it was a pleasant encounter at the end of a memorable evening. Hats off to GoodFood, Jill Dupleix, Matt Moran, Chiswick at the Gallery, Yulumba wines and of course the Domestic Goddess herself…Nigella Lawson 🙂