I'm Rita Erlich, food writer and consultant. I write about food in its forms and meanings - restaurants, recipes, nutrition, history, culture, agricluture, wine - in newspapers, magazines and websites. The latest book is Melbourne by Menu, published by Slattery Media, publishers of More than French: recipes and stories, which I wrote with chef Philippe Mouchel. Melbourne by Menu is an irregular history of restaurants, people and dining from the 1980s onwards. A new edition of 50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes (published by Penguin) is also now available, revised from its earlier small format. I'm planning tours to France next year and the following year: think of a week in the Dordogne, staying in a renovated country house on the edge of a medieval fortified village, think of basing yourselves there and travelling no more than about 20 kilometres for a cooking class, for visits to producers, to markets, to winemakers. For more information, go to www.dordogne-country-house.com and look at Culinary Tours. We can also combine it with a barge cruise.
The first was Two in the Kitchen (with the late Dennis Pryor). Others include 15 Minute Food, Using Your Noodles, Around Melbourne (in a series on Australian wine regions), Color Me Healthy (with Dr Alice Murkies), and Regional Food: Australia's Health and Wealth (with Professor Mark Wahlqvist AO and Ruth Riddell). I co-edited The Age Good Food Guide for 15 years, from 1984-1998. There's broadcasting, demonstrating, lecturing and public speaking too.
I share this site with Alex White, who’s been making wine in southern Victoria since the 1970s, when he was the winemaker for St Huberts in the Yarra Valley. He helped to establish Lillydale Vineyards, which was sold to McWilliam’s in 1994. He is now a consultant winemaker, and makes the wines of Box Stallion on the Mornington Peninsula, and Lost Valley at Strath Creek. Over the years his wines have picked up more than 110 gold medals and 36 trophies. He loves a challenge – not to mention gewurtztraminer, riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay,arneis, cortese, pinot gris, moscato, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, merlot, dolcetto, tempranillo. He doesn’t mind a beer, either – his first job was in brewing research.