On the 8th of October 2009, The Country Trader and Katering created the perfect fusion: French-Vietnamese Gastronomic Feast in the extraordinary antique furniture showroom.

It was the first time The Country Trader, well known for organising magnificent events, was open to the public for dinner and set up as a chic French restaurant for a hundred guests.

Geoff Clark knew exactly how to blend the European antique furniture with Kate White’s Vietnamese-French cuisine. Shallots, bok Choy, baby capsicums and candles mingled over French rust coloured linen sheets, and combined Asian and western tableware; it was the perfect arrangement for the fourteen different styles dining tables with mismatching elegant chairs.  

Guests were welcomed with a glass of Peteluma Croser Non Vintage Sparkling wine and walked through the various spaces of the antiques showroom.   Dinner started with a degustation of prawn rice paper rolls, quail salad, mussels with lemongrass, chilli and garlic, caramelized silver perch and other entrees that evoked the French colonies in Indochina.

Katering had prepared a table banquet including, braised duck with shitake mushrooms and wok seared sirloin with soy and sesame For dessert, guests were asked to walk to the main area where they could find an elaborate display of fruit with a variety of mangoes, banana, coconut, papaya and lychees. They collected a glass and filled it with fruit of their choice, tapioca, ice cream flavoured custards and syrups.  

The evening was fabulous. All the guests enjoyed the sophisticated dinner at the sumptuous showroom. Back