When Savour The Tweed gathered food writers, local media and producers to Potager, tucked into the hills at Carool, we started with drinks in the garden. A vegetable garden to be exact. Raised beds of of greens, reds and yellows. As we sipped sparkling wine, Chef Aaron Teece gathered produce that before you know it was on our plate: it’s one thing to read about regenerative farming and produce-led menus in a press release; it’s another to eat lunch a few metres from where it grew.
Now in its third year as Tweed Shire Council’s signature food and drink event, Savour The Tweed runs from Wednesday October 21st to the following Sunday October 25. Across the coast and hinterland five days across the coast and the hinterland its five days of food events that the Tweed is renowned for. Co-curated again by Tweed-based chef and author Christine Manfield and Northern NSW food advocate Amy Colli, this year’s line-up runs to almost 30 events, built on connection, to land, to producers, to each other, matters as much as what lands on the plate.
Savour the Tweed Chefs
The chef roster leans on outside drawcards as well as the Tweed’s own kitchens. Bundjalung chef Mindy Woods is back, joined by author and TV presenter Palisa Anderson, Le Cordon Bleu Master Samantha Gowing and Sydney-based Syrian chef Sharon Salloum. They’re cooking with the region’s regulars: Ben Devlin at Pipit, Baxter Newstead at Paper Daisy, Dani Wilson and Ewen Crawford at Bistro Livi, and Dayron Concepcion at Tweed River House.
Similar to last year, it’s a winning formula. Bring in the names people already know, and let them cook beside the people who farm and fish this stretch of the Northern Rivers.
Boon Luck Farm Comes to Dinner
Farmer and restaurateur Palisa Anderson is stepping into the Bistro Livi kitchen, cooking with her own organic produce trucked from her farm at Tyagarah while sommelier and co-owner Nikki Wilson expertly matches wines . It’s the kind of collaboration that turns a restaurant kitchen delightfully inside out for a night. (This event is now fully booked, but there is a waitlist).
And its not just one event that’s now sold out.
Going…going…gone
Honouring Farm Traditions followed it out the door; Samantha Gowing joining the Prichard family at Mate & Matt’s Farm in Cudgen for a long-table lunch that starts in the sweet potato paddocks and ends in the packing shed, was simply a crowd pleaser. And Feast of the Beast, at Coolamon Station, paired Mindy Woods with Ryan Smith, who hunts and sources the game himself, for meats cooked over coals and finished with low-sugar meads from local mead maker Louis Costa; it went the way of the other two almost as fast.
Down at Chinderah, Australian Bay Lobster Producers is opening the doors of its aquaculture site for the first time for Ocean to Plate, an outdoor lunch with chef Jay Elbrihi built around an early look at ABLP’s crispy soft shell Bay Lobster, served katsu sando-style with smoked lobster shell mayo.
Tickets still available for:
What’s worth planning a trip around? These events below at time of writing, are still bookable.
On the coast, Fins Restaurant is running an Argentinean Seafood Parrilla with visiting chef Leopoldo Ucciardello sharing the stove with Chef/Owner Steven Snow. And because Chef Ucciardello is Argentinian – steak is on the menu. When purchasing ticket – please select either fish or steak for main course.
On Saturday at 4pm, Boots, Bites, Bulls & Beats turns Pioneer Country into a sunset hoedown, mechanical bull included. Six and Four Wine Store is running an Old World New World tasting on Friday October 23rd from 4 pm, with French vs Australian sparkling, German vs Australian Riesling and Spanish vs Australian Tempranillo. This boutique wine emporium showcases the finest organic, biodynamic and thoughtfully-made wines from small scale winemakers producers from Australia and beyond.
And the second sitting of Fungi, Forest & Forage at Black Drop Café on Friday night still has seats available. Foraged mushrooms and native rainforest ingredients are front and centre, courtesy of small farmers growing endemic mycelium out at A Little Greener Farm.
For something altogether different, Basque to Tweed: Terroir and Fromage at Tweed River House pairs Dayron Concepcion’s kitchen with cheesemonger Kat Harvey for a six-course tasting menu built around French artisanal cheese inspired by the Basque region.
Standing in Potager’s garden in July, I would so like to still make it to Hinterland Harvest, partly for the long lunch itself, and partly to see what’s grown in those beds since July translate onto the plate, the same rows I stood in front of with a glass in hand back when this was still a program on paper rather than a festival with a date attached.
Aaron Teece is collaborating with chef sustainability champion Jez Wick. Most recently she was head chef at Oz Harvest’s Refettorio restaurant in Sydney. There her mission was transforming surplus ingredients from farms to supermarkets into meals for the vulnerable. Both Aaron and Jez are passionate fermenters – saving and preserving to ensure produce is savoured at its best.
While the shared plates menu focuses on plant based dishes, Bellingdale Farm Speckle Park Cattle will also feature. The four-course menu showcases the region’s distinctive produce from the hinterland to the rainforest, farmland and the coast.
The final word
This isn’t a festival importing a food scene from somewhere else; it’s built almost entirely from what already grows, swims or gets distilled within the shire’s own boundaries, with visiting chefs invited to get in on the fun.
Tickets for Savour The Tweed 2026 are on sale now, and the full program is selling fast. For ticket reIeases and program updates follow @savourthetweed on Instagram.
