THERE'S more than a little bunny business in Tooborac with this delicious concept, writes GENEVIEVE BARLOW

How much effort does your community put into promoting its attractions, food and people?

I witnessed recently a brilliant example of one-on-one marketing that does away with advertising campaigns, expensive budgets and even the word marketing.

And yet it connected farmers with one of Melbourne's most interesting and creative chefs, Greg Malouf.

It went like this.

Gourmands around Tooborac were remonstrating over dinner about how good each was at cooking rabbit and how one's dish was better than the next person's.

These are people who know how to grow, prepare and enjoy good food and a nice drop to go with it.

So they said they'd have a rabbit-cooking competition, open it up to others, have it in the local hall, get a judge or two in and generally have a nice time.

Any funds they might raise from raffles and entry fees would go to local causes.

Last year the hall got a little help and this year it's the swim program.

The Rabbit Ramble has been going about five years now.

I went there recently as one of this year's competition judges.

A gourmand, I am, but only in so far as I love to eat and I occasionally write about it, but I wouldn't take on Greg when arguing the finer points of cooking.

I am only one chop up from expatriate Aussie Kathy Lette who said recently she cooked by smoke alarm.

Anyway, through some local connection the genial Greg graced the Tooby Hall to judge the competition, alongside myself and Heathcote cafe owner and Tooby farmer Eleanor Dempster.

What a nosh up.

Three generations of the Veluto family turned out with a truck-load of food that included rabbit cooked in various ways by Maria Pollard, her brother Fred Veluto, her son Will and daughter Chiara.

The cake on their table was 30cm high.

For her dish, Maria made rabbit mousse, rabbit terrine, rabbit schnitzel infused with fennel seeds, and saddle of rabbit wrapped in prosciutto and cooked in egg white and hazelnuts, using different parts of the same rabbit.

Chiara made rabbit sandwiches. Delicious.

Andrew Jacobs who shoots rabbits at Murrabit, travelled with a colourful entourage including his wife, Kristen, from the Mornington Peninsula.

They saw the event promoted in a newspaper and have been attending for some years.

A previous honourable mention winner, Andrew this year made Royal Rabbit, Murrabit style, in honour of the Queen's visit.

Kristen, who wore a vintage frock also in honour of the Queen, said the event was delightful.

"It's such a beautiful community-based event and it's really nice the way people prepare their dishes and then go around and taste each other's," she said.

Picking the winners is getting tougher by year as the standard rises. Greg estimated we judges ate half a kilogram of rabbit (that's 30 dishes at 20g each).

After the shenanigans and fun of the day, winners were announced, Greg had a beer, Eleanor had a wine and I had a cup of tea.

Then the organisers - among them Tooby farmers Belinda and Jason McIvor who farm free-range pigs, vegie growers Andrew Wood and Jill McCalman and the Dempsters who produce lamb - swapped cards with Greg who expressed interest in following up, perhaps, to buy their produce for his restaurant.

This bit was unplanned, but what a delight that would be.

And all because a small community reached out to the heart of the city and found a receptive chef.