10 x 25
Series 1 - Australia’s most feared restaurant critic, Matthew Evans, has chucked in his city life for small farm living in Tasmania, that small triangle at the bottom of Australia.
Having spent most of his life writing about what is good food, he now wants to go to the source; to find the best local produce, and to rear and grow it himself; to get pigs, chooks, sheep and a cow; to grow things for the plate, to have the farmhouse table groaning under platters of food; to have people over to share in the spoils.
Having thrown in his career, he also plans to earn a living out of it by creating his own artisan food products.
He doesn’t know how to chop wood, he knows nothing about growing plants and even less about rearing animals. However, he does know how to eat -how hard can it be?
Series 2 - In the return series of Gourmet Farmer, produced by Essential Media & Entertainment, we’re in for a surprise. Once a single man trying his hand at farming and experimenting with making artisanal produce, Matthew’s now a fully fledged family man with partner, Sadie, and son, Hedley. Time to get serious about bringing home the bacon.
Matthew sets about upscaling his farm, which goes from being home for 2 pigs to 22 and coming up with ways of preserving and selling the extra pork produce from more than just his market stall. An invitation to Slow Food’s Salon in Turin affords him the opportunity to go to Italy and France and learn artisanal ways of preserving meat which might help even out his ‘drought or glut’ issues.
With his mates Nick and Ross, a new business idea is born – A Common Ground. The aim is to go to remote locations around Tasmania, set up a long table, and cook multiple course menus from produce sourced solely from the area. Will locals and mainlanders travel the miles and pay the price for a genuine locavore experience?
But it’s not all hard work. Matthew continues his boy’s own adventures with a Kayak trip down the Picton River with his mates Nick and Ross.
