Kirsten Tibballs and Kyla Kirkpatrick descend on Brisbane for Good Food and Wine
They are Australia’s perfect pairing of culinary royalty, and now luxury foodie fans of Brisbane have the chance to learn the skills. Meet the Champagne Dame and the Chocolate Queen themselves.
Lifestyle
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The British Royals may have decided the sunshine state was not worth a visit on their whistlestop tour down under, but Brisbane will this weekend host royalty of a tastier kind.
Joining an All-Star celebrity team presenting at the Good Food and Wine Show at South Bank, Champagne Dame Kyla Kirkpatrick and the dessert queen Kirsten Tibballs are at the top of their game.
The luxury food and beverage industry is often a man’s world, but these two powerhouses are proving that women can have their cake and eat it too, with both busily travelling the world, running their empires, growing their real-estate portfolios and honing and sharing their skills.
Kyla Kirkpatrick’s story reads as though from a novel.
In 2005, working in an unfulfilling finance role, Kirkpatrick read a book on the history of champagne, and of Napoleon Bonaparte and his friendship with Remy Moet, and from that moment, everything would change.
She became enthralled with the ‘beverage of kings’ and its rich history, and after writing a letter to her favourite author on the subject, and receiving from him an invitation to France to learn more, she quit her job, left her partner and jetted off to the city of love and lights.
Flash forward almost 20 years and now Kirkpatrick is living a charmed life, but still finds time to don her warehouse sneakers and work alongside her staff at Emperor Champagne.
Kirkpatrick told the Courier Mail that she had a busy few months ahead, travelling between her home state of Victoria to Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane to deliver masterclasses, and private events in her role as a champagne educator, hitting the warehouse floor and liaising with her Austrian architect ahead of her planned purchase of a chateau in France, which if it proceeds will see her spend Christmas in Paris before a summer holiday on Victoria’s coastline.
She explained that there were final checks to be done before the sale of the chateau was finalised, like ensuring the moat was functioning and there were sufficient bathrooms, a feature apparently not common in chateaus.
This might give the impression that Kirkpatrick is above it all, but for a woman known as the Champagne Dame and living a life most can only dream of, she exuded nothing but friendly, down-to-earth charm, if not the most relatable of life experiences.
Her passion for champagne and educating people on it is clear and interestingly, Kirkpatrick has a particular passion for the ‘changing of the guard’ in Champagne, and shares this openly with her clients.
“I got into champagne through reading about its history, the history of the region and the house,” she said.
“Champagne was ravaged by war … the people of Champagne were so, so resilient given the trials and tribulations they faced and yet champagne has always been the wine of kings.”
“Now, there is a whole flight of new producers, a full democratisation of the region with these young cats not doing things the same as they always have been doing, they are cutting edge.”
“They don’t follow highfalutin champagne society.”
This knowledge forms much of Kirkpatrick’s focus in her masterclasses for the Good Food and Wine Show this weekend.
“Champagne masterclass is not just technical, not just about the wine,” she said.
“They (other educators) often focus on that, this is how to taste, how to smell.”
“I can’t take out the history of the house and the region from the teaching though.”
In a perfect pairing moment, joining Kirkpatrick is expert chocolatier and patissier, the Queen of Chocolate herself, Kirsten Tibballs, known for her appearances on MasterChef and as the host of her own show, The Chocolate Queen.
Tibballs has always been fond of our beautiful city, having chosen to launch her book “Chocolate All Day” here last year, and describes Brisbane as feeling like a holiday, certainly for her Victorian self.
This year as she returns for the Good Food and Wine Show, Tibballs has specially developed and crafted a Queensland tropics-inspired dessert which she will guide masterclass attendees through making.
“I’ve made this cake called St Tropez which no-one else has seen before,” Tibballs said.
“It has a cinnamon crumble base, which I crumble and then is baked as a solid, topped with a coconut fudge, caramelised sauteed pineapple jelly, coconut and white chocolate whipped cream and white choc palm trees.
“Brisbane to me is immediately tropical, it feels like a holiday.”
Tibballs mused that some of her favourite spots in the city included along the Brisbane River, the Valley and the Botanic Gardens, admitting she loved to get out running.
“I love to get out for a run along the river, when you eat as much chocolate as I do, you gotta get out for a run,” she joked.
Similarly to Kirkpatrick, Tibballs’ calendar is packed in the coming months with international travel and personal projects.
In its final stages, her painstakingly planned and designed off-grid house in the Yarra Valley, which has been in the works for the last four years, will be ready for occupation in December.
“I’ve never built as a house before, I know I’m very blessed, not everyone is able to do that, but I’m so excited to have done that, but also to not be having any negative environmental impact,” Tibballs said.
“I am so excited to cook in the kitchens, we will process our own waste, there’s two full kitchens and the whole house is run on solar, we have 180 solar panels.”
“We have use recycled timber all through the house and the fireplace is made from recycled stone from across the property.”
Tibballs also shared some excited baby news.
“Oh, I have two highland cows, one of them- Molly is due to give birth in the coming days, which is so cool,” she said.
Next week, following her weekend of chocolate masterclasses and book signings, the Chocolate Queen is heading to Europe to judge panettone in Barcelona, before jetting off to Fiji in December.
Here she will be taking up culinary residency at the Intercontinental hotel, sharing her dessert expertise and guidance with the staff there.
Next year, fans will have the chance to jet across New York State with her as part of mouth-watering culinary travel experience, guided by Tibballs through some of the States’ premier wining and dining destinations, including the New York Culinary Institute, the Hamptons and the Hudson Valley.
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