A Taste of Coolum

You know that feeling when you experience something local and you are kicking yourself you didn’t try it earlier? I have recently had that moment! Ah well, better late than never…
A Taste of Coolum is three day food and wine festival held at Palmer Coolum Resort. This yearly festival has been running since 2006 and is an absolute must for foodies and wine lovers! Running in June, it’s the perfect antidote for cold winter weather.
Day 1:
After tackling the Friday night weekend traffic from Brisbane, we arrive at Palmer Coolum Resort and check into our refurbished King room before racing off to start our weekend away.
The festival kicks off with “A Night in Chile” in the Village Square (they change the country of origin for the opening dinner every year). The Village Square is the dining hub of the resort, featuring a large alfresco area along with their Pizzeria, Noodles restaurant and their café-style restaurant Bruschetta.

First, we were greeted with our keepsake wine glass and then left to sample several South American wines. We worked our way through the Antipasto buffet – featuring a huge selection of seafood including mussels, oysters and prawns. Yum!

Mr LML and our dinner companion then went on to practically inhale the wood fired meat selection at one of the other stands. There was also a huge selection of soups, breads and salads however my firm favourite dish was the cheese empanadas.
The dessert selection heavily featured caramel flavours (very popular throughout South America apparently) also including Churros with chocolate sauce. After more than just a couple of stops to the dessert and wine station, we called it a night.
Day 2:
We woke up to a fairly miserable and raining Saturday morning, so I was super lucky I had booked an hour massage at The Spa.
After the massage finished, I took full advantage of the spa facilities – particularly the ladies relaxation lounge and indoor spa. There are some lovely touches, like providing you with hairdryers, robes and slippers but I must say the Molton Brown products were my favourite – I probably loaded up on years’ worth of moisturiser in just one morning!
All pampered up, we drove into Coolum town and enjoyed a sneaky drink at the Surf Club.

Our lazy day continued as we drifted back to the resort for the afternoon and wandered around checking out the Golf Course, Village Square and pool. We even glimpsed a cheeky wallaby gazing into one of the bottom floor rooms.

That night we treated ourselves to a delicious laksa at Noodles restaurant in the Village Square… before retiring to our suite to sleep off our food comas.

Day 3:
It’s the perfect Sunday morning, and our day of grazing is just starting! To start the day we head off to Bruschetta Restaurant for breakfast where Mr LML tucks into the buffet and I enjoy some very scrumptious pancakes and berries.

After begrudgingly packing up our bags and checking out we headed over to the Chefs Alfresco festival at the Pavilion area of the resort. We knew it must have been good after hearing it attracts hundreds of people yearly, and it definitely impressed, being by favourite part of the weekend!

The tickets were $95 per person and included all of the food and wine. We spent an extra $25 each to access the Sparkling Garden so we could sample sparkling wines and Champagnes. Note to self: Next year Mr LML will be nominated as designated driver!

The Chefs Alfresco event features a variety of tastings throughout the day. There are multiple displays set up to sample food and also meet winemakers.

The food was incredible – including cheeses, seafood, lamb cutlets, veal tenderloin and gourmet pizza, all personally served by the chefs.

And now for the best part of the day…

It was the perfect weekend and I can’t wait to return next year… but I’ll be making sure my friends get hooked on this wonderful event too.

My tip is to make a long weekend out of the event and stay on the Sunday night.