It looks like hundreds of people are keen to return to Forbes for a foodie adventure on September 21 this year with Grazing Down the Lachlan "friends" packages selling out in one day.
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Creative director O Tama Carey, key to the original Grazing event, was in Forbes this week walking the stock route and meeting with local caterers.
Iconic Australian eats with an Indigenous twist will be the inspiration behind the Grazing Down The Lachlan menu in 2019, with renowned Sydney chef O Tama Carey announced as this year's Creative Director.
"Dishes that are tasty, familiar yet with a twist and which hopefully they can giggle at a little too," O Tama hinted.
"I'm approaching the food like I would a menu in a restaurant, giving a balance of flavours to create something that's appropriate for the setting, using local produce and native ingredients.
"This year, I'll also be loosely basing some of the dishes around slightly daggy Australian-a from my youth."
O Tama was key in the first Grazing and both she and Grazing Down the Lachlan chair Wendy Muffett are thrilled she is back on board this year.
Last year she opened opened her highly-anticipated hopper restaurant in Darlinghurst - earning a chef's hat in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide.
This week she was back in Forbes to walk through the event location, the stock route along the Lachlan River, discussing the food stations and entertainment.
O Tama was also cooking up a storm to share the dishes with the local caterers and discuss beverage matching.
While the menu is fresh and the natural landscape is changing with the seasons, the Grazing ethos remains the same.
Ninety per cent of the plates, cutlery and other items were returned last year, a financial saving of thousands that can be poured back into funding the Somewhere Down The Lachlan sculpture trail but also part of their zero-waste vision.
They continue to prioritise sourcing regional produce farmed in an environmentally sustainable way.
It must be a recipe for success as "friends of Grazing" packages, which give friends early purchase opportunity for up to four tickets, sold out within 27 hours of going on sale at the start of this week.
Last year, about 60 per cent of attendees were visitors to Forbes.
