Perth’s Longest Lunch is the premier annual fundraiser for Brightwater Care Group. It’s an epic six hour dining affair and a perfect blend of delicious, entertaining and inspiring.
This is a networking opportunity with a difference – we promise an unrivalled ambiance; a jaw-dropping gastronomic experience and an outstanding line-up of unique entertainment that will continue to delight and surprise.
Brightwater is a not-for-profit organisation that supports people of all ages to live a better quality of life. The organisation’s services are extensive, from short and long-term residential accommodation and rehabilitation services, to assistance in the home and include specialist skills in supporting people living with Dementia, Acquired Brain Injury and Huntington’s Disease.
The internationally-recognised Brightwater Research Centre enables the organisation to keep innovating, to trial and measure outcomes to ultimately to deliver new ways to enhance the lives of our residents and clients.
Brightwater approaches care with a compassionate philosophy treating each client as a unique individual, and helping them to live the best life possible.
The lunch serves to raise much needed funds to introduce programs for residents to improve their quality of life. A beautiful example shown on the day was the story of Gracy and how Brightwater’s music program has had such a positive impact on her, a dementia sufferer. So a very worthwhile and rewarding afternoon when you focus on the true reason you are there. You can see Gracy’s beautiful story https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fperthslongestlunch%2Fvideos%2F726629710850790%2F&show_text=0&width=560“>here.
Crown Towers Perth Executive chef Sean Marco expertly crafted a creative and delicious menu, which beautifully showcased the amazing produce from the Southern Forests region. The plating of each dish was perfect and that is no easy feat when you are feeding a hungry group of nearly 900 people! So bravo to the kitchen team and the wait staff for such a polished experience. Courses arrived without lengthy interludes, plates were discretely cleared, glasses were not left wanting for a top up. The Crown team has larger functions down to quite the art, the flurry of constant activity seeming to be done with effortless ease.
While we enjoyed the beautiful food we were kept entertained by the ever charming MC Shane Jacobsen, back for his second year in the role. He kept the crowd laughing and expertly managed to hush chatter when it was time for someone to speak.
We then enjoyed the musical stylings of 2015 XFactor stars Jess and Matt, along with stellar performances by violinist Patrick Roberts and electro-cellist duo Hanna and DJ Chad.
Proof, the house band also had folks up and dancing later in the afternoon. The blend of entertainment kept the crowd animated and with constant smiles.
On the food front the tastebuds were kicked straight into action as soon as you arrived, with the entirely indulgent marron canapé – Olive oil poached marron, persimmon, finger lime, cucumber, accompanied by the Sittella Grand Vintage 2012 Sparkling, one of my favourite local wineries. The canapé was divine with fresh, lively flavours and each individual serve was a very decent sized piece of marron. If it was a sign of things to come, this gal was pretty darn excited.
After half an hour or so of happy chatting, the guests were ushered into the ballroom and it looked spectacular. Creative lighting enhanced the space and there were beautifully decorated tables, adorned with impressive greenery and abundant florals.
The scene was set and as guests took their seats, eyes eagerly darted around the room to see where the action would start, would it be the stage in the centre? Or the stage at the front?….Suspense built as glassware started to clink!
The first course honoured vegetables and veggies really should be showcased like this. Vegetable Course – Beetroot fondant, roasted carrot skordalia, grilled baby leek, rosemary crisp, green olive, purple spouts; Heydon Estate 2013 Chardonnay.
We are spoilt with an abundance of amazing fresh produce in WA and having a course focused on this was an inspired decision. And wasn’t it a vision with all the vibrant colours! I loved it! Long time beetroot fan over here so I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet beetroot fondant, along with the contrasting flavours of the slightly charred, though sweet baby leek and the punchy green olive.
Another cold course followed with the entrée of South West lamb, mountain pepper, rosella and baked onion puree, quandong curd, samphire; Houghton Small Batch Rojo Grande. The lamb was tender and well seasoned, but what I loved most about this course was that it featured so many wonderful native ingredients! It is not every day that rosella, quondong and samphire will appear on a menu so they are ingredients to be savoured and thoroughly enjoyed when they are. Their use with the lamb was considered and well executed and quite the taste sensation. Unique, native flavours that really stepped the entrée up.
The Main followed and it was venison. Beautifully cooked, perfectly seasoned, melt in your mouth venison. Main Course – Roasted venison, chestnuts, glazed kohl rabi, pumpkin, brussel sprouts, sweet and sour plum; Watershed Premium Wines 2010 Awakening Cabernet Sauvignon.
It looked delicious! Those three perfect little dots of jus had been carefully dotted onto the plate for dramatic effect and I thoroughly appreciated the effort.
Similarly the brussel sprout leaves had been so lovingly removed from the sprout and sparingly included for a splash of green. The venison itself was cooked perfectly and tasted like a dream. Trying to get a little of everything onto the fork made a really delicious mouthful. It rounded out four memorable courses on the savoury side. Perth’s longest lunch was kicking massive goals in the food stakes and dessert was up next!
Dessert – Chocolate sphere, hot chocolate, roasted hazelnut and fig ice cream; Talijancich Swan Valley Liqueur Verdelho. On paper the dessert sounded heavenly and the reality was even more impressive. A striking chocolate sphere was presented and then more chocolate was poured on top… because well if we are going to do chocolate let’s do it properly. It almost seemed a crime to crack into the sphere, but eager spoons were soon tap, tap, tapping to break into the treasures hidden within. And the decadence continued with that indulgently rich hazelnut and fig icecream. It was two thumbs up from this chocolate fan for such a special dessert…. If licking the plate was more socially acceptable I am sure you could have seen it happening around the room.
Our final course was a cheese course and any time you don’t have to choose between dessert or cheese, well that’s a very good day out right there. Again, colours and textures had been given considerable thought so that every assembled mouthful was a contrasting delight. Cheese – Camembray, Blackwood blue, SV pears, vanilla, port, pickled apricots; Leeuwin Estate 2012 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
And finally guests were offered tea and coffee and if they had a skerrick of room to spare then what looked like wooden boxes were placed on the tables and they were filled with Southern region themed chocolate box with handmade truffles. But as we discovered the box was chocolate too!
So yes… I did take a huge bite of the lid of the box because it felt like the right thing to do and as I happily munched on that giant mouthful of chocolate I had zero regrets…. and thank you to Morsels for capturing the magic 😉
What a day! It was a seriously good lunch. I said it before and I’ll say it again, to the kitchen team who expertly executed such an inspired menu my thanks to you, and to the team from DG Global who assisted on the event management side, just wow. I was hopeful that considerable funds would have been raised for Brightwater, both from the event being well attended to the generosity shown to the auction items throughout the day. It was announced post event that they raised an impressive $230,000!
Thanks to almost 1,000 guests on Friday 19th May 2017 Brightwater held a record-breaking Perth’s Longest Lunch which has given Brightwater the ability to keep dancing to a different beat by injecting more music and enjoyment into the lives of the thousands of Western Australians.
Mark the diaries for next year’s event on Friday, May 18th, 2018.
Note: I was the guest of Mills Wilson and Brightwater for this event. My thanks to them for the opportunity to attend. And thank you to Morsels and Inexology for the wonderful company.
perthmunchkin 
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