Parramatta Lanes food festival offering free desserts October 12-15

Foodies are in for a sweet onslaught at Parramatta where dessert giveaways are set to whip tastebuds into a frenzy. The business owners behind a successful company show what they have in stall.

Parramatta Lanes food festival is returning to celebrate its 10th year — and is if that was not enough to get foodies excited, dessert giveaways are running at Centenary Square each night from Wednesday to Saturday, October 15.

Kicking off the freebies will be Dessert Boxes’ decadent doughnuts to be dispensed near St John’s Anglican Cathedral with unholy temptations of Nutella doughnuts from 7pm on Wednesday.

If you miss out on the treats, Dessert Boxes co-founder Samantha Khater, her sister Rose and brother Kaisser will be whipping up doughnut fries, Nutella and Oreo, white chocolate and sprinkles, and Biscoff doughnut fries throughout the four-night festival.

They each studied business at university and jumped aboard the trend for producing photogenic food.

“It was a time when Nutella started taking off and thought ‘let’s jump on the trend’,’’ Samantha said.

Rose, Kaisser Samantha Khater in 2016 when they ran a food truck. Picture: John Fotiadis

“Nutella is the most popular. I think it’s just become part of our diets now. Nutella is a household item and Biscoff’s becoming a household item and it just adds flavour to the desserts.’’

Of course, social media is a big part of their business.

“It’s people wanting to take photos of their food, sharing it with others,’’ Samantha said.

“It’s got to be social media-worthy. It’s just gimmicky.’’

The siblings debuted their business in Parramatta a week before Valentine’s Day in 2016 after seeing the demand for gifts they knew would be consumed and appreciated.

They sold 400 packages in their first week and now the business has grown to become one of Australia’s largest online dessert companies selling 120,000 gift boxes each year.

Other desserts to be given away are KOI’s ruby chocolate, yoghurt, vanilla, peppercorn and blueberry desserts on October 13, Filipino treats by Tita’s Cakes on October 14 and Kneady Boi’s fortune cookies on October 15.

The festival runs from 5pm to 10pm each night.

Newcomers Tokyo Lamington, Firepop, The Pharoah BBQ, Pocket Rocketz, Satay Bros, Burger Head and Hyderabad House will join old favourites including LilyMu, Koi Dessert Bar and Mrs Wang’s Dumplings.

Originally published as Parramatta Lanes food festival offering free desserts October 12-15