BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS website review by Irina Ivanova photos: Ina Parakhina
Better Homes and Gardens Show 14-16 October @ Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Last week the much-loved Better Homes and Gardens magazine welcomed its fans for the live show in Melbourne. There were hundreds of exhibitors, from orchards and household brands to investment consultants and security specialists. Some gave away testers of their yummy goodies, others – great advice. The atmosphere of excitement filled the air. There were deals hard to resist, so visitors were happily indulging themselves with the running promotions.
Meanwhile the 4 stages and Learn&Share tent were busy brewing their special tricks. At Decorating and Craft Stage Johanna Griggs and Tara Dennis showed the audience how to revive old furniture, make Christmas decorations and accessorize your home as a pro. On DIY and Building Stage some lucky visitors were making crafty projects that they then took home. Dr Harry Cooper and Graham Ross at the Gardening and Pets Stage shared the latest green thumb ideas. And at the Food Stage, where we actually hanged out for quite a while, Fast Ed and Karen Martini impressed the crowd with some fresh recipes and original concepts in meals serving.
After all presentations fans could take photos with their favourite show hosts. We’ve actually got a chance to catch up with Fast Ed, right after in 30 minutes he’d prepared from scratch 5 meals for 4 happy volunteers from the audience. The quirky names of the dishes tell a lot about Ed’s great sense of humour and love to experiment with food. There was ‘Shark bait’ with splashes of ajvar – blood – around the poor baked whiting, and ‘Lost in the forest’ with pine needles vinegar seasoning and real smoke. The culmination of all meals was, off course, the desert, which Ed called ‘About that time you’ve dropped desert’, and he actually did drop the mousse, on purpose, having it smashed all over the plate on top of the previously smudged chocolate sauce! Surely the viewers had lots of fun and left full of positive emotions. And so did we, grateful for the chance to be part of this super-entertaining event.