Brisbane to welcome South Bank Seafood Festival in May
Expect caviar and champagne pop-ups, masterclasses and demonstrations. Star chef Matt Moran and renowned tuna master Narito Ishii will also be there.
South Bank’s first seafood festival? Really?
Brisbane’s iconic riverside precinct is making up for lost time by hosting a long-overdue celebration of all things ocean-going.
During the last weekend in May, the River Quay Green area will be transformed with seafood stalls, pop-up bars, live chef demonstrations and interactive masterclasses. Talent on hand will include star chef Matt Moran, Kyushu-born tuna master and seafood expert Narito Ishii, and former Otto head chef Will Cowper.
“This was planned, I think, a few months before I left Otto,” says Cowper, who left Italy’s riverside in March. “So I’m pretty excited to be able to come back.
“The South Bank was home to Regional Flavors, which was an excellent event and this feels like an updated version of that at a time when Queensland seafood and the local appreciation for Queensland seafood is really strengthening.”
The two-day program includes seafood stalls and beach bars (including a caviar and champagne pop-up by Otto), as well as special seafood dinners and festive food offerings at Otto, Popolo, Naga Thai and River Quay Fish.
Lectures and showcases elsewhere will include a tuna cutting demonstration by Ishii and a masterclass on different techniques for cooking fish fillets and seafood by Cowper and Fish Factory general manager Andrew Solomon.
“It’s just about opening people’s eyes,” Cowper says. “Showing them what they can do with a whole fish instead of just buying fillets, and even teaching them the questions they need to ask.”
Beyond Moran and Ishii, there will be plenty of Brisbane talent from outside the South Bank area, including Tillerman’s Shaun Presland and The Fifty Six’s Gerald Ong.
“South Bank has done a great job on this,” says Andrew Baturo, a partner at Tillerman and The Fifty Six. “It will be great to have Matt [Moran] When we return to the city; he is an honorary Queenslander.
“But these important cuisines that we love in Brisbane, whether it’s Italian at Popolo or Thai at Naga [both owned by Baturo] – all with a very strong focus on seafood.
“But River Quay Green is such a brilliant area and I think dynamically – with Queen’s Wharf opening across the river and the new theater at QPAC – it’s closer to the city in some ways than ever before, so it feels like a great way to celebrate that.”
Homeowners of River Quay Green South Bank Seafood Festival 30-31 May.
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
