It’s not every day you see your mother on television. Well, when your mother is a CWA judge of national renown it almost is every day.
Baker extraordinaire and pastry chef Nelleke Gorton last night appeared on the latest episode of Family Food Fight on Channel 9 where she was one of the CWA women passing judgement on the contestants’ best effort at a high tea and in particular their Lamingtons.
It was her Lamington recipe that the contestants used and she even had to bring 40 of her own ready-made Lamingtons on the plane down to Melbourne for the show.
Click here to watch the CWA high tea episode of Family Food Fight
She has also appeared as a CWA judge in an episode of MasterChef and was also a regular on River Cottage Australia that was filmed at Central Tilba.
She has been appearing quite regularly on television as River Cottage Australia is currently being rerun on SBS Television. Coincidentally, this author is also appearing regularly on the reruns as he was the main fishing contact for the show.
The series of MasterChef that Nelleke appeared on also had another Far South Coast connection as it was won by Julie Goodwin, whose parents live at Narooma where she now has own holiday house.
Nelleke is a member of the CWA Bega branch and is also on The Land State Cookery Committee that entails her organising the cookery competition at the CWA State Conference every year.
On last night’s Family Food Fight episode, she had with her, her favourite measuring RFS “Firewise" ruler that she has used on MasterChef and also at all her state and local judging.
She said she enjoyed the filming of the show down at Melbourne, meeting all the other CWA ladies and some of the contestants and noted that they all did really well with their high teas that were delicious.
“The families were genuinely respectful of the CWA and came around with seconds and talked about their food, it was just beautiful,” Nelleke said.
Nelleke continues to be involved with the CWA at a state level, although she is planning to step down to focus on her own business at her Tanja home called Nelleke’s Culinary Adventures.
We can only hope that this episode encourages other to join the CWA as the organisation is in need of some new, younger members. It was heartening to hear at least one contestant say that she wanted to join the organisation!
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Stan Gorton
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
