Autumn Celebration of Food launch offers a sweet treat for hospitality industry

Local hospitality leaders gathered at The Country Club St Georges Basin on Tuesday evening (May 2), for the industry's night of nights.

In launching the festival's second year, Shoalhaven Food Network founder Di Laver said she was delighted to have so many from the region's hospitality industry in one room.

She also gave a nod to the next generation: local students who would be gaining valuable work experience during the Celebration of Food.

"This is our only industry event that we have in the year, where we can all come together, and join in networking and collaboration; it's so lovely to see so many this evening," she said.

"For the whole six weeks of our autumn celebration of food, students are going to be working with industry mentors at the majority of events... I'm really proud of them."

While Ms Laver gave credit to the locals who had joined the network and Celebration of Food, they put the spotlight back on her.

Aaron Singh and Emily Stevenson run Taj Indian Restaurant in Huskisson.

They said they were grateful for the chance to collaborate and connect - usually the hectic schedules of hospitality professionals would make that difficult.

"To be honest, it was Di who motivated us to be part of the Food Nerwork," Ms Stevenson said.

Mr Singh added "it's also a sense of community... it's really important to have a community network within hospitality [because] it's a hard industry."

To put the cherry on top of the tasty celebrations, South Coast MP Liza Butler announced a funding boost for the Celebration of Food.

A state government grant of $25,000 would go towards the next event.

Having visited Nowra TAFE cooking school earlier in the day, Mrs Butler said the funding boost was about backing local training, and cementing the Celebration of Food as a way to boost local business outside of the regular tourist season.

"The food they are producing there is first class... it was really great to see how many students are in the cooking school and what they're doing at Bomaderry TAFE," she said.

"We really need to get behind out education facilities that train our young hospitality workers.

"Shoalhaven Food Network is supported by Shoalhaven City Council and Tourism New South Wales, but usually they have a shortfall of funding, and I'm proud to announce the NSW Labor Government is contributing $25,000 to assist."

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