Celebrity chef demos are big drawcards at Australian food gigs. And floating around the Good Food and Wine Show in Brisbane this weekend (at the Convention Centre) were Masterchef celebs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan.

There is trumpet, there is fanfare and decibels of entertainment wrapped around chefs slicing, grilling, patting and plating – all the way with cute dialogue to keep 800 aspirant entertaining stars of tomorrow totally enthralled. But the onlookers cannot taste the demo dishes – just two invited guests from the floor. Cost? AUD 2.50 entry on top of the AUD 20.00 at the door.

As you get the hunger pains there is the nearby Wild Oats Restaurant serving the stage dishes of Alastair McLeod (Bretts Wharf), Matt Moran (Aria Brisbane), Tobie Puttock (Fifteen Melbourne) and Gary Mehigan (Masterchef).

Most of the noise is focussed around the Lifestyle FOOD Channel Celebrity Theatre. The wine section progressed quietly with hordes of tasters in the queue for the 70-seat Riedel Wine Theatre touching on the standard subjects – regions, how to understand the drop, modern styles, traditional styles and general wine practicalities.

For more select engagement 25 people gathered in Riedel’s nearby Decanter Bar for some predictable subjects: shiraz, chardonnay, bubbles, author Matt Skinner pairing food, burgundy, pinot and Mediterranean newbies.

The last class each day (the Show went three days) was Riedel the glass people’s turn with decanting talks – very fitting though not very essential these days with so many young wines drunk soon after bottling.

Not all wineries exhibit at this show but there was good regional coverage. And given that Australia’s future sales image has been cast at the higher value, perceptibly better wines generally made in non-industrial quantities, then the regional groups are better at underlining the site-specific produce of this land.

The demographic: mainly females expecting to have a day out, 25-54, staying 3-5 hours at the Show. If they wished for any recipes, a touchscreen menu gave free entry to a post-show service dubbed accessallareas for 50 recipes from the celeb theatre, cooking school, restaurant, demo videos, wine tips and interviews plus backstage footage.

So that’s how to relive the experience!

More info at www.goodfoodshow.com.au . The visitor expectation is 20,000.

But if organisers wish to find a greater attendance, then throw in controversial “bad boy” chef Gordon Ramsey as a leading star.

At past Good Food and Wine Shows this year in Melbourne and Sydney his media coverage swelled the crowds to 42,000 and 44,000 respectively. Aspirant masterchefs just had to see what the fuss was about.

The air was heady with freshly roasted curry spices contained in blue swimmer crab. I had walked into David Thompson’s up close and personal cooking classes at the James Street Cooking School in uptown Brisbane, in Fortitude Valley yesterday.

David has been visiting the country to support his third cook book release Thai Street Food (pictured) Penguin Lantern (AUD 109.99); although his original and wonderful restaurant Darley Thai in Sydney’s Newtown later moved to Kings Cross, setting the scene for his depth of knowledge on Thai culture and cooking habits.

David says, “The Thais are the most compulsive eaters – we call this grazing – that you could imagine. They are always eating, and as street food is so accessible, their eating habits follow the rhythm of the day – are not always just in the morning, at noon and at night – as the way this book is segmented. Their eating is a compulsion.”

I quickly learnt that David had now let go the reins of his fab Michelin-starred Nahm London restaurant to Matthew Albert at the Halkin Hotel in Belgravia. He has always spent 5-6 months of each year in Thailand, researching more food styles and updating knowledge whilst incumbent head at Nahm.

It would be eventual that he open his own gig in Bangkok, and this may well occur in a few months. David was understandably noncommittal on the detail as contracts had not yet been settled.

I pressed him on his wine list aspirations. “Without doubt I will employ a sommelier to give the restaurant the kind of edginess that flatters the detail which I take with my food preparation.” But when asked on his opinion of Thai wine he was most dismissive of the quality not being there, giving me the impression it would be some time before a Thai origin bottle will make it to his table.

That will happen! Several Thai nationals have now studied winemaking in Australia and elsewhere; and with better site selection for vineyards some good drops will emerge. David has the perception that such high temperatures and high humidity are not good connections with grape growing.

That early Thai wines have been made from table grape varieties which crop twice a year gives connotations of thin flavourless wine. Vines which sit around in pools of water and incessant rain clearly cannot produce highly flavoured wine expected in a fine dining establishment.

When Thai vineyards are planted specifically for wine varieties (and there are some already under way) in areas with rain shadows we can expect a top Thai drop.

Thai Street Food as a book is truly beautiful in pictorial (and is weighty) with full double pages of food scenes – in the markets, on the street and in canals.

He has captured the pulse of the cooking, then produced 400 recipes of his own design after interviewing many street cooks. This has taken him away from the typical region cuisines which are quite style-specific to a mélange from other races – Indian and Chinese which have made indelible food style influences in the last 400 years.

Street food has not been part of Thai lifestyle for too long. Only since the 1960s did we see sales vans spill out into the street. It has been associated with the rural migration to the cities and increased affluence where eating out affordably is ideal for a time-poor worker.

Don’t forget Thompson is a fundamental chef – so his recipes present with all the basics so don’t count on buying a tube of green curry paste or your version and his version of any dish will be totally different.

That was his theme at his Brisbane cooking class – and I cannot wait to blend the curry powder for seafood.

This week will have a historic auction evening in Hong Kong when both 750 ml and 1500 ml (magnums) of Penfolds Grange go up for sale.

There are ten known 750ml sets of Grange (1951-2004) around with the most recent acquired in an Australian auction in 2007 for AU$250,000 (HK$1.75 M, excluding the auctioneer’s premium). This will be Lot 2.

Lot 1 is also a first – that of magnums of Grange (1979-2004) which clearly age slower than their classic warm area equivalents in 750ml.

The sale is at the Langham in Kowloon; coinciding with the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair, and the wines have been displayed at the Langham since the October 26 in their pretty Transtherm wine cabinets. Bidders can register at www.cellarlink.hk for the evening auction, accompanied by dinner.

At 10am that morning, to get in the swing of what Grange is and why the great Aussie red can last so long, my esteemed colleague Nick Bulleid MW will hold a tasting of ’85, ’90, ’95, ’98 and ’02 Grange. Trot along and see if the ’90 is still a young classic – it regularly changes hands in Oz for around the AUD 500-600 mark and is top value after the 2004 hit the streets this year @ AU$695.

Cellar Link is the inspiration of Australian Eamon Egan who has established an online presence this year with sales of classic, rare and exemplary Australian wines around the globe.

On Oct. 4 Reuters reported that Hong Kong took the top spot among the major wine markets for fine wine ahead of New York and London when Sothebys sale peaked at USD$7.9 million. Late the previous month the US wine merchant Acker, Merrall and Condit sold US$6.4 million of top shelf wines in their First Asian event.

London-based Christies report that 61% of their global sales in London, New York and Hong Kong are to Asian buyers; and while Hong Kong sales are improving, they think the market is overheated. The top lots are mainly Domaine de la Romanee Conti burgundies which are historically produced in tiny quantities for the world, and resold on the secondary markets. Cases that are turning over include 90 DRC (12) HK$242,000; 99 La Tache (6) for HK$154,200; 99 DRC mixed (12) HK$202,300 and 05 La Tache (6) for HK$178,500.

Last weekend the New York-based Zachys held its October Sale 30-31 at the Mandarin Oriental. The buyers frenzy to date has been essentially for top Burgundy and Bordeaux; let’s see what blue chip Aussie delivers.

As Spanish cuisines have been such hot items in the last five years I was not surprised to locate Piperade (meaning Basque sauce) not far from the tourist Mecca on the wharves. But even more so to discover essentially Basque style food in an establishment run by a Frenchman from Biarritz. Even with memories of Paradour resort dishes such as suckling lamb and the Spanish never-ending romance with peppers, Piperade is a refreshing reminder of a special northern Spanish cuisine.

The menu has traditionalism in a Californian style – small plates (tipiak) and big plates (handiak) with a Bacalao salad small plate chosen. As the white wine of Rias Baixas, albarino is so heavily mis-introduced to Australia and is rapidly being re-named savagnin, and in the absence of a Californian I chose Vina Cartin 2008 (AUD 10.35 / glass). The wine is quite oily and a little dull (skin shows which accelerates browning/aging) but the salt cod was brilliant, served rolled out carpaccio-style with four plump but small local oysters, finished in an amazing mayo using special egg ingredients. The albarino paired well texturally by balancing the mayo consistency with its chewiness – which was relieving.

Next was lamb chop; three quite large bone-in loin pieces, defatted, served rare with lamb sausage and a moorish relish (a pun on the original inhabitants of Spain really); of course it was based on red peppers which are adorable. Wine came from Parador Cellars Tempranillo 2004, Rancho Chimiles Vineyard in Napa (AUD 65.50), 14.5%, unfiltered but not bretty, medium colour, robust but correct for the tempranillo palate, French oak but not too much, (90). www.calwineries.com

Piperade gets a tick with its Iberian accent in a part of the world which very much understands its language and aspirations in life. Score 15/20, fair value, AUD 140 px, a different Basque classic dish is served each night, ribs, shellfish soup etc; 1015 Battery Street. www.piperade.com