I was lucky enough to score an invite to an "intimate" lunch with Matt Preston & Gerhard Feiner.
5 food bloggers were chosen from Melbourne, by Nuffnang. It was a great opportunity to meet Matt Preston, and learn about salamis of the world.
It was also a great setting to meet fellow bloggers, Adrian from Food Rehab, Sarah from Sarah Cooks, Penny from Jeroxie, and catch up with Rilsta from My Food Trail.

We arrived together, picked up are nametags, and waited a short while before we went up to the Tea Room at The European. This gave us all time to prepare our cameras, and get comfortable with our surroundings. We were soon brought up to meet Matt and Gerhard. We were introduced as "the bloggers", and Matt immediately started talking about blogging and twitter. It wasn't too much longer after that, that we were talking food, and where the best dim sims in Melbourne were.

We began with a few canapés whilst mingling with the other guests:

I passed on the oyster canapé as I just can't seem to swallow them, but the salami canapé was delicious! Spicy capsicum and tangy vinaigrette was just an amazing combination.

After formal photos of Matt & Gerhard with everyone, we were seated and the "Salami Summit" began.
Matt spoke for a bit about salami, and often spoke about methods and ingredients he uses when he makes his own salamis. He then introduced Gerhad, the Fleischmeister. Fleischmeister is a German word for meat maker. The Fleischmeister qualification can only be obtained in Europe. Gerhard was originally Austria, but has been in Australia for 10 years. He has been working for Don for quite some time, and when I asked him if he had a favorite salami, he couldn't put is finger on just one. Dealing with salami is like dealing with numbers for an accountant; it's just what you do every day.

After much discussion about salami, we started with our first course.I was imagining we would be sharing a platter of antipasto, but we were all served an antipasto work of art each:

A very generous serving, we were all fairly full just after this. It was washed down nicely with a nice glass of wine too. Gerhard spoke about a salami that burns twice... once on the way in, and once on the way out. We all had trouble distinguishing, which was this one, perhaps because we are all, used to spicy foods. Who knows. All the salami was delicious; the vinegary mushrooms were my favorite from the accompanying vegetables.

After more salami discussions we were served the main course. There were two options for mains listed, fish and steak. I was hoping I would get the steak, but I figured, since I normally don't get what I want when the menu is served alternating each personI wouldn't get my hopes up.
I was so happy when I received the steak:

I did trade some steak for fish with Rilsta & Sarah and it was amazing. The beer cream was just so flavoursome, and the kabana chips were something I wouldn’t mind trying to recreate myself.

My steak was cooked just how I like it, medium rare. The apple rosti was a fantastic accompaniment, but the chorizo was substituted for pancetta, but still delicious.

Some people then left, and the rest of us were ready to tackle the hard task of dessert. With two options on the menu, I was hoping for the sticky date pudding. I got lucky, and my wish came true:

Sarah was telling me how she really wanted the sticky date pudding instead of the panacotta, and the lovely waitress overheard and brought her over one. The butterscotch sauce was moorish. So thick and tasty, to go with the pudding. The pudding was served with real vanilla ice-cream, you could see the specs of vanilla. The perfect end to the Salami Summit.
We tried the panacotta Sarah was originally served, and were so relieved we weren't served it. It really wasn't my thing. It looked pretty, but give me sticky date any day!

At the end of the luncheon we all received goodie bags to take home. Filled with salamis, an apron and other random goodies.

Don't forget to check out Rilsta's review, and awesome photos. Adrian's review has videos of Gerhard & Matt talking sausage and interview with Matt. Sarah's review here, & Penny's review.
Don't forget, Celebrity Masterchef starts Wednesday 30 September & Matt's book, 'Cravat-a-licious' comes out on Thursday 1 October 2009.