Every two years Womadelaide recruits a local culinary identity to helm its Taste the World Restaurant in Botanic Park. Here, festivalgoers can trade in paper plates and plastic cups for a sit-down meal with all the niceties: table service, crockery, cutlery and glassware.
Recent chefs in residence have included Jock Zonfrillo (Restaurant Orana, Bistro Blackwood) and Poh Ling Yeow (Jamface). Next year it’s Andre Ursini’s turn.
He’s the man behind Andre’s Cucina & Polenta Bar as well as the newly opened Orso and Willmott’s Gastronomia in Rose Park. “I suppose [Yeow and her team] are passing the baton on to us,” Ursini says. “So we’ve got some big shoes to fill.”
“[Womad] is one of my favourite events, and it’s a pretty special one for Adelaide,” he says. This is Ursini’s first time cooking at Womad, though his pop-up Mangia Mangia is a part of the furniture at other festivals across town.
“Orso and the Polenta Stars” is the name of his Taste the World Restaurant. “It will be a mix of all the different cuisine styles we’re doing across the two [restaurants],” he says. Home-style Italian comfort food meets contemporary European bistro.
He’s curated a six-course shared meal especially for the pop-up. Expect beetroot-and-gin-cured salmon, Gruyere croquettes, charred-chicken fattoush, crispy polenta “smash” with pork ragù, spinach-and-ricotta rotolo (a rolled-up pasta dish), and a summery berry trifle.
The team from Willmott’s Gastronomia, Orso’s next-door deli-bar hybrid, will run an on-site bar. They’ll be shaking up a cocktail with orange marmalade made at Ursini’s 20-acre agricultural property in Mylor.
Ursini anticipates a mammoth 1500 covers over the festival’s four-day run, with dedicated daily sittings for lunch and dinner. Pre-booking is your best bet. But there will be some spots reserved for those “who are just walking through the park and see that you can sit down and have a nice glass of wine – from an actual wine glass”, Ursini says.
Womadelaide runs from March 8 to 11 at Botanic Park. Book a place at Andre Ursini’s Taste the World Restaurant online. Diners must have a ticket to Womadelaide 2019.
