Testimonials

For Botanical Café, a relatively new venue to Perth’s dining scene, Mushroom Mania helped to lift the profile and to let people know about us. The weekly Mushroom specials were really popular with our guests and it was nice to be able to offer them something different every week. Receiving an award at the end of the promotion was fantastic, it is great to know that there is so much support out there, we will definitrely be looking forward to next years Mushroom mania.
Melanie Gray, Botanical Café, Perth.

I found mushroom mania to be a great opportunity to stretch my creative side and try out new ideas. It brought excellent exposure to the restaurant and to my style of cooking, we also recieved a lot of positive feedback by consumers.
Matthew Clark, Head Chef, Frenchy’s Cabaret Restaurant

Mushrooms in their various forms have played a traditional role in Italian cuisine and as a consequence have done so significantly in our cuisine and menu. One of the reasons why we entered mushroom mania was due to the sheer uniqueness of the event and the distinctiveness of utilising a single ingredient in promoting our restaurant and enhancing our extensive menu. The feedback has been great regarding the meals and was accepted very well by our loyal customers. With so many different ways of cooking mushrooms, the chefs have enjoyed utilising their creativity.Being involved with mushroom mania has been a pleasure and we look forward to next year for some more exciting dishes.
Tony and Lennie RussoCaffe Buongiorno O'Halloran Hill

As a first-time participant of the renowned Mushroom Mania Competition 2007, I am delighted and proud to be the recipient of the Best Restaurant Menu Award for Excellence (South Australia). Mushrooms are such a wonderful, versatile food group – the mouth-watering dishes that can be prepared with them are endless! Mushroom Mania is a fantastic avenue to inspire and encourage Chefs and home cooks to use the wide array of mushroom varieties available. As a Chef (of Phore Seasons Restaurant, Semaphore SA), Mushroom Mania 2007, has inspired me to get creative with mushrooms, which in turn has benefited our restaurant as guests enjoyed all the extra mushroom dishes on offer. Using a Mushroom Menu has raised public awareness and interest in mushrooms and has cemented fantastic recipes for my ongoing menu, which keep guests coming back for time and time again.I thank all the Mushroom growers of Australia for their contribution to Mushroom Mania 2007.See you in 2008! BUON APPETITO!
Judyta Musolino, Phore Seasons Restaurant, Adelaide

Support from the public was excellent. They came from all over Sydney and commented on the variety of mushroom dishes, including both the mushroom desserts and mushroom bread. They were overwhelmed at how creative you can be with mushrooms and just loved the dishes.
Gae Kelly, Trentino's on George, Windsor, NSW

Mushroom Mania was extremely popular and people loved the menu using the whole range of mushrooms.
Willi Ehrmann, Axis Restaurant, Hunters Hill, NSW

Mushroom Mania was accepted very well by our patrons, especially those willing to break their regular eating boundaries and explore the flavours and textures of mushrooms. We look forward to next year's Mushroom Mania.
Clint Gregson, Keppel Bay Sailing Club, Yeppoon, Qld

Being involved in Mushroom Mania was fantastic. The availability of different mushrooms now on the market gives us great flexibility to create some wonderful mushroom dishes. They are so versatile and full of flavour that we love using them and the customers love them too.
George Abbott, George's Meze, Subiaco, WA

So many people were keen to try our signature mushroom dishes during Mushroom Mania, to get ideas to use in their kitchen at home. Mushroom Mania had made me appreciate just how many uses there are for mushrooms. I love to cook at home as well, and mushrooms are always in my fridge.
Jon Carapetis, Zak's Cafe, West Lakes, SA

I've always loved mushrooms. They are so versatile and you can cook button and field-style mushrooms in so many different ways. I do like simple dishes like mushrooms in garlic butter and fresh herbs, but I also like to use mushrooms with many different cuisines. Mushroom Mania is really easy to do and was awesome. We put a special mushroom menu on our tables and we received a lot of feedback. Our Mushroom Mania dishes were so popular that we had to keep some on the menu.
Justin Collier, Verona Restaurant, Notting Hill, Vic

In a hotel with many varying menus and meal requirements, mushrooms certainly are a product that can fit into almost every meal period. From our signature restaurant to our fresh daily buffet breakfast in the Terrace Cafe, or even the exotic Four Winds Revolving restaurant, we benefit from the use of mushrooms. For example, on our a la carte menus there are terrific opportunities for vegetarian creations or to add richness and finesse to a perfectly cooked steak. Then with some fresh herbs, good olive oils and balsamic, this grreat raw product can be turned into a classic Meditarranean salad. And everybody's favourite is freshly sauteed buttons in butter at breakfast. For Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise, mushrooms are certainly an all round favourite.
Donald Murray, Crowne Plaza, Surfers Paradise, Qld

Mushrooms are always good on our menu and this competition gave the kitchen a more creative atmosphere.
Michael Singleton, Calavia Ristorante, Kingsgove, NSW

At Sprouts Vegetarian Restaurant we feature a lot of dishes on our menu that involve mushrooms. During the Mushroom Mania competition we have been able to promote these dishes even more and showed people the versatility of cooking with mushrooms as well as informing customrs about their nutritious values for a vegetarian diet. In this time our sales of mushrooms were higher than other times of the year. Sprouts management feels that Mushroom Mania is a great idea to promote mushrooms whilst at the same time giving your own restaurant greater exposure.
Klaus Gutowski, Sprouts Vegetarian Cuisine, Adelaide, SA

Mushrooms are often viewed as a vegetarian ingredient but they are much more adaptable right across the menu. They add depth of flavour to a lot of dishes. To me, mushrooms are reminiscent of misty mornings and convey an earthy natural image. We enjoyed taking part in Mushroom Mania, especially the radio promotion - we were very busy at this time.
Simon Yarham, 2 Faces The Restaurant, Geelong, Vic

Mushrooms add a great dimension to the menu - Mushroom Mania went brilliantly.
Michael Fischer, Barnaby's Restaurant, Parramatta, NSW