By Roy Weavers

Saturday and Sunday evenings were brought to their respective ends in superb style and a fabulous crescendo of fantastic food prepared and presented by the sensational brethren of celebrity chefs assembled by co-organiser Spencer Patrick (owner of Bucci Ristorante and Harrisons Restaurant).

VIP Guests and 100s of paying guests arrived from 6pm on Saturday evening and soon overwhelmed the ticket and beer tents.  Once this bottleneck (forgive the pun) was sorted out the evening rocked along with the Johnny Cash tribute band performing all the country legends hits.  The crowds danced to this amazing tribute band, they ate, and they partook (almost 100% responsibly) of the excellent beers and wines on offer whilst thoroughly enjoying themselves in the traditional Port Douglas way. 

It brought back memories of when Food, Wine and Taste of Port during Carnivale was at its peak.  Congratulations go out to Reina and Spencer Patrick and their team for pushing the event into August and pushing the boundaries of great food and wine to establish Taste Port Douglas as a must do annual event.

The Sunday Porkstar Wrap up  Party was an invitation only affair at Harrisons Restaurant in Wharf Street.  The whole gang of celebrity chefs gathered to deservedly bask in the glory with Reina and Spencer for this brilliant weekend of culinary entertainment.  Unfortunately Colin Fassnidge (from My Kitchen Rules) was absent because of television duties but the rest of the cream of the crop took their and his bows.

After Spencer thanked all the sponsors, staff, volunteers and of course his fellow chefs for their magnificent support, TV Chef Alistair McLeod entertained the audience with a short speech of his own in which he expressed the hope that a disaster didn’t befall Port Douglas this night or the whole of the East Coast of Australia would undoubtedly starve since nearly all the top chefs were enjoying themselves up here.

Flowers were presented to Reina who, according to Spencer, had taken the lion’s share of the organisation to make this first solo Taste Port Douglas such a success.

As the microphone was passed around the chefs, the common theme that they were all coming back next year quickly emerged. That’s great news for Port Douglas because when the whole organisation has its debrief and the lessons learned from this year are digested and built into next year, Taste Port Douglas will just keep getting stronger and stronger.