Variety on King William will kick off this year’s Adelaide Fashion Festival on Friday 23 October. A part of King William Road will be closed off to showcase fashions on Adelaide’s longest runway.

Guests will enjoy a three-course lunch, which I was lucky enough to preview with a progressive lunch along King William Road.

We began at Ichitaro dining where we tried two canapés: fresh local vegetables finely sliced and wrapped in quinoa and rice with a seaweed sauce; and crispy South Australian chicken medallions marinated in Yuzo and soy, topped with cream cheese and an edamame soy bean paste. These were lovely fresh canapés with different textures. Wicks Estate Sparking Chardonnay Pinot Noir and Tomich Sparkling M NV Chardonnay Pinot accompanied this course.

As Mercedes Benz are a sponsor of the Adelaide Fashion Festival we were lucky enough to be driven to our next destination, Bottega Rotolo, in a white convertible. Such style!

At Bottega Rotolo we enjoyed another round of canapés: a tartlet filled with crème fraîche topped with Tasmanian smoked salmon, with a sprig of dill; also, vegetarian quiche filled with locally grown leeks and a layer of gooey Swiss Gruyere cheese. Both of these were the perfect one-mouthful size and the flavours were perfectly balanced. Wicks Estate Sparking Chardonnay Pinot Noir and Tomich Sparkling M NV Chardonnay Pinot also accompanied this course.

We then walked to Faraja, which I have now visited on more than one occasion and enjoyed it every time.

Here we tried the first of the two courses, which will be alternately served for the lunch: chicken breast with spinach and hazelnut stuffing served with orange hollandaise, fresh asparagus and potato galette. This was a large meal, with the chicken breast cooked perfectly, still moist and tender. The orange hollandaise was a surprise accompaniment and wasn’t too overpowering. This was matched with Wicks Estate 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and Tomich 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

We then jumped into another Mercedes and drove to our next destination, Parisi’s, to finish off the rest of the lunch.

The second main course we tried is the spring lamb salad with a pastry tart of roasted vegetables, served with black olive and yoghurt tower. This was a smaller dish, and full of flavour! The lamb was so tender and the vegetable tart just melted in your mouth. But what was most impressive was the black olive and yoghurt tower. It really made an impression on the plate and was a nice accompaniment to the dish. With this course we enjoyed Wicks 2014 Estate Shiraz.

And finally, there will be two alternate desserts.

“Le Printemps” – ganache-filled chocolate tart, topped with almond crumble and pistachio, filled with edible flowers, from By Blackbird. Surprisingly, this was not too sweet and had good texture from the almond crumble and pistachios.

And the alternate dessert is fresh lime custard on pâte sucrée and coconut base, served with coconut macaron and a strawberry coulis from Mulot’s Patisserie. The pastry was light and crumbly, with specks of coconut and a smooth, cool lime custard – it was zesty and perfect!

Both desserts were matched with Wicks Estate Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir and Tomich Sparkling M NV Chardonnay Pinot.

We also enjoyed coffee from Cotto, San Pellegrino sparkling water, Acqua Panna still water and McLaren Vale Beer.

This Spring Menu is a delight. Variety on King William supports Variety SA the children’s charity, so for anyone interested in booking to support this worthy cause, here are the details:

Date:   Friday 23 October 2015, 12:00-3:30pm

Venue: King William Road, Hyde Park, just a few minutes south of Adelaide

Tickets: $140pp or $1400 for a table of 10

Click here to book.

**I was an invited guest. With thanks to LittleLion PR