Ms Smyth said they are hoping to be triumphant again this year with two fritters - a roasted pork apple and fennel fritter with chilli crackling using fresh chilli, local apples and New Zealand pork; and a flat white fritter with salted espresso cream.
"We're land and sea and our mantra is you should eat from the land and from the sea. We love Northland, we're all about fresh flavours and robust flavours. We want to do a fritter that represents us and who we are."
The Old Stone Butter Factory won the hearts of the people at last year's festival, winning people's choice for their paua fritter. They too will be back to defend their title with an apple crumble fritter with Keen Kitchen's salted caramel sauce.
The Land and Sea Cafe Bar and Eatery first entered the fritter competition in 2015 with a hapuka chilli and lime fritter. Ms Smyth said she went to the festival in 2014, shortly before she purchased the restaurant, and decided she wanted to compete the next year.
She said winning last year was "exciting".
"We were so stoked. We're a pretty young team - last year we were all under 30. So to take it home year two was a high achievement for us."
Ms Smyth said coming up with new flavours for fritters was a "team effort".
"We throw some ideas around the month before and then our senior chef will start chucking things together. We only tried three fritters last year before we knew what was 'the one'," she said.
The attendance at The Fritter Festival has grown each year with 5300 heading along last year compared with 5000 in 2015 and well up on the 3500 who went to the first Fritter Fest in 2013.
Dannii Vallely-Te Kani, events manager at Venue and Events Whangarei, said tickets were selling strong this year.
The Fritter Festival is being held at Toll Stadium from 11am until 7pm.
Other vendors and fritters at the event include:
● Absolute Caterers: Dirty banana fritter and a smoking bull - smoked brisket, watercress and chipotle mayonnaise
● Cafe Jerusalem: Levivot (spicy veggie fritter)
● Cafe Divine: Vegetable fritters
● Fat Camel Cafe: Churro fritter
● Jimmy Jacks: Smokey mussel fritter
● Killer Prawn: Island style mixed seafood fritter with Indian inspired coconut curried sauce garnished with fresh coriander
● Melt: Zesty plum eskimo fritter
● Nectar Cafe: Slow braised pulled lamb shank fritter with herb crusted garlic potato & a plum and cranberry cream
● Petra's Raw Cakes: Raw apple crumble fritter
● Salt Cafe: Salted peach and salted caramel fritter and a zucchini and feta fritter
● Shiraz Indian Restaurant: Potato, kumara and chickpea fritter
● Split Bar & Restaurant: Shrimp, Appleton rum, lemon and caper fritter with shredded iceberg, house made thousand island dressing and smashed avocado
● The Apprentice, Northtec: Bacon and kumara fritter with pineapple and carrot, served with wasabi and garlic mayonnaise
● The Cafe Helena Bay Hill: Pulled-pork and kumara fritter topped with a tasty apple sauce and a prawn fritter with apricot and chilli coulis
● The Little Kitchen: Kumara ginger noodle fritter with a sweet and sticky Szechuan pepper sauce and chocolate chip matcha fritters with cashew cream
● Vintage Distribution: Sweet corn fritter with hot smoked salmon, crispy slaw salad and a dill and caper creme fraiche and a sweet corn fritter with sizzling bacon chunks, crispy slaw salad and a sweet chilli sauce
