Food Master Nick Reynolds had the job ahead of him, serving a lunch to about 40 members following the AGM which concluded about 12 noon. The intervening hour was filled by a succession of wines from the generous Wine Master, along with plenty of canapes from Nick and Bill Alexiou: the result was an unusually boisterous crowd sitting down at 1pm.

Nick and Bill took it all in their stride, however. For starters, Bill produced some wonderful pork and beef Greek meatballs and a zingy beetroot paste on bread crisps, while Nick came up with a lemony homemade hummus under a nicely done coffin Bay scallop topped by a piece of grilled bresaola, or air-dried beef, on ceramic spoons. Accompanying them, the wines included, but were not limited to, a 1997 Tyrrells Stevens Semillon, a 1998 Steingarten riesling, a 1998 Vat 1 semillon from Tyrrells, a Picnic pinot from Central Otago in NZ and a choice of amontillado and manzanilla Lustau sherries. Space, and an increasing blur, do not permit notes on each.

As previously stated, Nick faced the hordes at table undaunted. Sundry sous vide tanks on display indicated what was to come, and some wonderfully bright pink fillets of ocean trout duly appeared, sprinkled with a dusting of Middle Eastern spices and served with an appropriately slightly pickled salad of fennel and crumbled fetta cheese, boosted with intense fennel pollen. With the rich but not oily fish appeared a 2009 Ocean Eight chardonnay from Mornington Peninsula, with crisp stone fruit characters on nose and palate but lacking depth; and a 2010 Port Phillip pinot noir from the same area, plenty of sweet fruit on the palate in the lighter Oz style but needing a bit more time to develop depth.

The cheese was, as ever, great, a Secret de Scey semi-hard cows' milk cheese from the Franche-Comte region of France, with a distinctive vein of ash and a salt-washed rind, showing good mild creamy flavours and soft chewy consistency. Some salted mixed nuts were an ok accompaniment, as were a 2006 Epsilon shiraz from the Barossa, showing typical overripe fruit and big bricky characters but some strong tannins to give it a degree of elegance; and a 1998 Bowen Coonawarra cabernet, light and elegant for a Bowen, mature and better with the cheese.

An El Salvador (Central American) medium roast bean was the basis for a smooth, relatively soft coffee in the US style to bring proceedings to a final halt.