Ferment the Festival reveals the secret process behind cheese, chocolate and other favourite foods

BREAD wouldn’t rise, cheese wouldn’t develop its creaminess — even coffee or chocolate wouldn’t taste the same.

Winemaker Kate Laurie, Ferment the Festival director Kris Lloyd and Jessie Spiby from Jessie Does Food. Picture: Dylan Coker.

BREAD wouldn’t rise, cheese wouldn’t develop its creaminess — even coffee or chocolate wouldn’t taste the same.

The age-old process of fermentation is key to many of the world’s favourite foods.

Ferment the Festival, the first event of its kind in Australia, will celebrate the mysterious role played by bacteria and microbes in making many of the things we love to eat and drink. The best local practitioners and interstate guests will gather in Rundle Park from October 20-22 for a weekend of tastings, masterclasses and discussions.

The festival has been created by Kris Lloyd, who sees it as a natural evolution of her previous CheeseFest event. “Cheese is fermented milk,” she says. “It gives milk a deliciousness that has so many forms across the world.”

For Deviation Road winemaker Kate Laurie, who will be part of a special Great Wine Capitals tasting of landmark labels, fermentation plays multiple roles in the production of her celebrated sparkling wines.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into getting all that right,” Kate says. “If I taste one of my sparklings two years down the track and it’s all worked out well, sometimes I just cry.”

Jessie Spiby, meanwhile, has developed her own recipes for the pickled vegetables, sauerkraut and kimchi that she uses in her catering work. At the festival she will demonstrate how to make kraut pancakes and dumplings, among other dishes.

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