The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa closed its doors in June to replace roofs damaged in the hail storm in 2008, undergo a maintenance program and refresh the resort.

The resort reopens its doors on July 7. To celebrate, The Byron at Byron Resort is launching year round happy hour from 4:30 – 6:00pm every Sunday to Thursday (excluding Christmas holidays), a share plate menu from Head Chef Gavin Hughes from midday to 6:00pm, a new signature Spa menu and a new rainforest meditation walk.

“These are big changes for us” said John Parché, General Manager of The Byron at Byron. “We’ve been here for five years now so we needed to refresh the resort. We really wanted to open up more to locals, to be a place where people come every week rather than every month or three.

“Happy hour should be a lot of fun. The new share plate menu offers dining flexibility and the locals card is about acknowledging and welcoming our local community”.

Restaurateur James Lancaster, who ran the highly regarded Johnson Street eatery “Olivo” for eight years, joins the resort team as Food and Beverage Coordinator this month.

No bookings are required for Happy Hour, which will offer a selection of $10 cocktails, $6 wines and $5 beers.

Voted #2 Spa in Australia by the Luxury Travel Gold List Awards 2010, The Spa and Wellness Centre at The Byron at Byron Resort launches a range of new journeys for the body and soul in July. The Spa offers result oriented facials and signature treatments such as the Rainforest Body Ritual and Native Flora Journey, using 100% natural hand made products from the iKOU eco spa range as well as continuing to work with Pevonia Botanical spa range. Conceptualised by Spa and Wellness Centre Manager Naomi Quarrell, the new menu takes inspiration from the surrounding rainforest.

For restaurant or spa bookings or to receive your complimentary 10% discount locals card, telephone 1300 554 362 or emailinfo@thebyronatbyron.com.au

Victoria Cosford, a 20-something Australian language student in Florence, meets and falls for the charismatic and volatile Italian chef Gianfranco, who teaches her to cook. So begins a love affair with Italy and Italian food that stretches over 30 years and several visits as Victoria is tugged repeatedly from her Sydney life back to Gianfranco’s restaurants. It is an addiction fraught with challenges and difficult to shake.

“Amore and Amaretti”, Victoria’s first book, is a disarmingly vulnerable autobiographical account of growing through love’s seasons. Structured as a diary spanning 22 years, the book is interspersed with humour, heartbreak and mouth watering regional recipes – the signature dishes of Gianfranco’s restaurants.

Amore and Amaretti will be launched at the Byron Bay Writers Festival. An intimate dinner with Victoria Cosford will be held at 6:45pm on Tuesday August 31 at The Byron at Byron Resort, where Head Chef Gavin Hughes will cook recipes from Victoria’s book and guests will hear first hand of her Tuscan adventures. Two courses and a glass of Italian wine will be $45 and reservations can be made by telephoning 6687 5674 or emailing caroline@carolinedesmond.com.au

“It is very exciting and tremendously relieving to have finally managed to get my story out, which I have so wanted to tell, into book form” said Victoria Cosford. “Most of the recipes are fairly simple and I do hope that they bring some pleasure”.

“Victoria’s marvellous descriptions of restaurant life take us behind the scenes to a Tuscany rarely seen by tourists and travellers” said Joanna Savill, Director of the Sydney International Food Festival. “She’s an immensely talented writer and cook”.

Outside of cooking in Tuscan restaurants, Victoria’s adventures and achievements to date include achieving a BA in languages at ANU in Canberra, many years selling advertising space for publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Italian newspaper ‘La Fiamma’, teaching Italian cooking at community colleges for 20 years and working extensively in the hospitality industry in Sydney including three years’ co-running a cafe on the Northern Beaches. She has lived in Byron Bay for the past ten years, working at The Byron Shire Echo for the past eight. Victoria is currently leader of the Byron Bay convivium of the Slow Food Movement and for the last few years has worked as a reviewer for the annual Sydney Morning Herald ‘Good Food Guide’.

Amore and Amaretti is available now at Mary Ryans book stores for $24.95.