With food festivals now commonplace across the nation, it’s a fair question, though probably not a comfortable one, to ask on what basis South Australia can justify calling its food festival Tasting “Australia”?

When it began nearly 20 years ago in 1997, invented and run by Ian Parmenter and David Evans through their company Consuming Passions, it stood alone as Australia’s first major food festival.

That relationship ended in 2012, somewhat bitterly from Parmenter’s point of view, and TA slowly forged a new path once it was handed to its present co-directors, chef Simon Bryant and wine marketer Paul Henry. They’ve had to drill deep into the DNA of what had become the nation’s definitive food event to take it to another level.

“It is a huge issue,” Bryant concedes, “but I think it (Tasting Australia) has earned that brand, and I also think that if you had to pick a city for a national food festival, and you had to balance the quality of produce on the ground, the care that people in general have taken about their patches, fishermen included, the quality of chefs, government policy and accessibility of the food bowls, I can’t think of a better home for a national food festival.

“I know it’s a bit out-there to say it, because Melbourne would be regarded as our food capital at the moment. It could be called Tasting Adelaide or Tasting South Australia, but I think it’s earned the right for that brand.

“It was the first and the name’s just stuck.”

Bryant and Henry, supported by TA ambassadors and mentors such as Maggie Beer and Cheong Liew, have also set a different and very clear agenda for the festival, which begins this weekend.

Tasting Australia creative directors Simon Bryant and Paul Henry and patron Maggie Beer. Photo: Tasting Australia

There’s the usual array of eat sessions, even think sessions, imported chefs and culinary savants, plus popular consumer events – from a roving regional lunch in the Barossa to plodding through the Adelaide Hills in search of wild mushrooms and a fungal feast.

But although it’s a description neither Bryant nor Henry would prefer, this is really the thinking foodies’ festival, designed to have people think more deeply about the sources and origins of their food, the way it’s produced – ethically, sustainably or not – and the ways it can best be used. It’s much more than just bringing in a raft of celebrity chefs.

“When Tasting Australia started in 1997, because it was the first it had no model to follow. It focussed a lot on produce and its potential, and it was a game-changer and always ahead of the game,” Bryant says.

“And when I look at the names that were brought out, they were always ahead of the curve. It was always someone who was truly innovative.

“It wasn’t just for the name – it was because they were doing something truly interesting. That ensured that Tasting Australia was always a relevant festival.

“We’re not mesmerised by big-name chefs. It’s quite a complex thing but first of all I think farmers and food writers, and thinkers and academics, artists and mums and dads are more interesting than chefs. We’re a dull mob.

“There are some fascinating chefs, but some of the people around the edges of food, who don’t get the spotlight, I think deserve it more. I say that with a bit of a challenge, but I really believe that we get given a beautiful picture and all we have to do is put a frame around it.”

Appointed in 2014 with Bryant as co-creative director, Paul Henry shares equal responsibility for Tasting Australia’s vision, philosophy and programming – in that order, he says.

“The idea was to create a show that was about eating and drinking rather than the conventional orthodoxy, which is about food and wine,” Henry says.

“It was conceived around experiences that we think are unique and specific to SA and, more importantly, its products and producers.

“The intention was to really invert the normal hierarchy of food festivals, which tends to be around chefs and celebrity, and to look at the other end of the supply chain and value equation, which is about farmers and produce.

“That remains still very much our guiding philosophy and principal point of difference. It’s really about farmers, bakers, fishermen, distillers, fermenters, winemakers, brewers and so on.”

If you look through the TA program for 2016, there are plenty of big names in the food world, but the clear focus is on South Australian produce, its regions and the people who grow the food.

“I spend half my day talking to producers and in my mentality it all starts with the produce,” Bryant says. “But I’d go further back than that and say it starts with provenance, landscape, climate – and then how the farmer forges those elements and works in harmony with them to produce that product.

“The chef’s job is to get it on the plate in the least destructive way and to honour the work of the farmer. I put chefs way down in the hierarchy and I feel I have a right to say that because I’m a chef. So I’m more interested in attracting people who are farmers, writers, thinkers.

“Sure I’ll bring chefs, but not to march into town and take over the joint for a week. But our guys deserve to be on the pedestal, too. They’re not the B-team. We can collaborate with them – most of my own cooking is collaborative now, because I’m homeless (as a chef).

“SA had its time in the ’70s and ’80s, when SA was considered a real state of importance in food, and I think the timing now is perfect – we’re just coming back to that.

“I think we can really be proud of what people in SA are doing now. But we can always do better and we can learn from these chefs, just as they can learn from us.”

Although his background is entirely in wine, Henry absolutely gets the point of it all.

“I see wine as a food and my food heroes tend to be winemakers, as well as farmers and bakers – I don’t make a distinction in that regard,” he says. “I think it’s all about what we produce from the land and how we try and coax the elements to our favour, and ideally in a way that is ethical, profitable and environmental.”

Henry says that, for him, Tasting Australia is unapologetically a celebration of a place, or a series of places, very much anchored to South Australia.

“But that’s not an exclusive vision; we also have winemakers and distillers, farmers and producers from around the world and from other states.

“If people find the title Tasting Australia misleading, remember that it was the original international food and wine event back in 1997 and someone had the foresight to call it Tasting Australia, not Tasting South Australia – and I hope we prove that this is not a disingenuous claim.

“Certainly we demonstrate that in this year’s line-up and talent, but it is very much about what I call the real food heroes, whether they be the people, places or produce of SA.”

Henry recalls a quote he once heard that sharing food must have been the original act of diplomacy: “I don’t want to sound too grandiose but I hope that’s what Tasting Australia is about, that it challenges us to think about that what sort of contemporary, modern food culture we’re building in Australia, and that’s a big conversation and potentially a profound one.

“In terms of culture, economics and community, it’s entirely relevant.”

Tasting Australia opens in Victoria Square on Sunday and runs until May 8. The full program is available here.