Hamilton event Gourmet in the Gardens is starting to become a staple part of the  community’s summer activities. It kicked off for this summer on the October 15 and is running every Sunday until the end of March next year on the Rhododendron Lawn in the Hamilton Gardens.

Ex-bank manager Tania Simpson created Gourmet in the Gardens back in 2015. Tania managed the Hamilton Night Markets for 18 months before starting Gourmet in the Gardens. She became involved in this to help develop her “kids’ social skills”, and to create a community event for the people of Hamilton.

Tania won business awards and worked with vendors in Auckland while managing the Night Markets. While being involved in the Hamilton Night Markets, she noticed an ethnic gap in the crowd. Wanting to reach into this untapped market, Tania came up with the idea to create a food event that highlighted a more diverse range of ethnic foods found locally in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty region.

In 2015, Tania managed to gather 18 food trucks and stalls to cater for the new event. This year there are about 30 food stalls and trucks in attendance. Tania, when going through applicants for the event, make sure there was a good variety of food options on offer.

This year, with the growing number of people eating a vegan diet, Tania wanted to bring one or two vegan options to appeal to a wider market.

Tania has also started another project, as well as working full time. She has started up a food-truck organisation, Curbside Cuisine. This is a organisation that allows people a large range of options in food trucks that can cater at events such as weddings and school events. There are roughly 70 different vendors available to hire from Curbside Cuisine. They have been seen at events such as Balloons over Waikato and the Garden Place Christmas Tree lighting.

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For Tania, being involved in these two projects has created a full circle moment. When she was younger she would sell fish with her family on Tamaki Drive, Mission Bay, Auckland. The road has not always been easy but Tania has been determined tosee the event succeed.   “I am glad I stuck with it, this year we are coming back with more for people to do, see and try.”

“It was a full circle moment for me.”

Tania has a few goals for up-and-coming Gourmet in the Garden events in the summers to come. She wants to increase the attendance at the event. They are planning on having a system up and running shortly that will accurately count the foot traffic on each night. This system will allow the vendors to have a more accurate idea on how many people they will be feeding, and what peak times are. In the first year, vendors ran out of food 50 minutes in as the event was more popular than first thought.

Gourmet in the Gardens is also wanting to reduce the amount of waste the event is producing, and is working with the council on  waste reduction techniques. At this stage, the Hamilton Gardens do not have a recycling plant, so hopefully bringing this option to Gourmet in the Gardens will help set this in motion.

Gourmet in the Gardens is  every Sunday until March 2018 between 4pm and 8pm.  This  family friendly event has free entry, with live music.

On Sunday October 22, I attended the second night of the upcoming season of Gourmet in the Gardens. 

Upon arrival, you are greeted with the sounds of children laughing and playing, and the amazing mix of aromas of all of the ethic food available.

On this particular night, it was not overly busy as it was an overcast day and judging from the Snapchats I had been receiving, a lot of people were out at the beach for Labour Weekend.

This gave me the best opportunity to do a few laps around the stalls and trucks to decide out of all of the amazing options, what to have for dinner.

I ended up going for the seafood paella from newcomers Paella Pan. It was amazing, everything tasted fresh and flavourful, and I received a big serving for $10.

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Because there was not as big a crowd as normal, there was no long queues, and I got to see all of the other dishes Paella Pan had on offer without having to hurry out of the way, and they all looked just as delicious!

Every time I have been to them, they deliver the same high standard of food and are always so chatty!

One of the people that came with me that weekend goes to a favourite every year: Southern Fries. He said: “Southern Fries is my favourite place to go to for Gourmet in the Gardens. Every time I have been to them, they deliver the same high standard of food and are always so chatty!”

Now of course being at an event like this, and having the massive sweet tooth that I have, I had to get one of the sweet options that was on offer. I decided to go for an Epiphany donut as it was not the warmest evening. I was not disappointed in the slightest! Epiphany lives up to all of the highly rated comments I’ve heard about them. Super fluffy, fresh and full of flavour, the snickers donut satisfied my sweet tooth amazingly.

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Other sweet option that is available is real fruit ice creams from The Strawberry Farm. I spoke to a young man, Aaron, who purchased a boysenberry ice cream from this food truck; “The ice creams from here are so good, sweet and tangy, it’s a real treat!”

Besides all of the delicious food that was available at the Gourmet in the Gardens, there was also live music, and activities for the kids to play on like bouncy castles, and zorb  balls with which kids can roll around  and run into each other.

There is such a great environment when attending the Gourmet in the Gardens. Everyone is smiling and laughing, and enjoying spending time outside, relaxing, surrounded by friends and family.

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If you are planning on staying a while at this event, and soak in the atmosphere and eat to much food, I would recommend bringing a blanket or chairs to sit on as the grass can get rather uncomfortable. But if that doesn’t both you then come down and enjoy everything that the Gourmet in the Gardens has on offer!

This event is a great event that you can go to every Sunday if you wanted to and not get sick of. (Which I would recommend if you are wanting to try all of the food that is on offer from all of the stalls and trucks before its over!)

Starting this Sunday (5th November), there will be a professional photographer going around the event taking photos of everything on offer and people attending.

More information can be found of the Gourmet in the Garden’s Facebook page, or on the event pages which you can find on their main page. They are also working on a website, and have kept up with their Instagram account which they started last year, to reach everyone that is interested on different platforms.