Garlic Bread Festival held at Welcome to Thornbury in Northcote this Saturday

Pack your appetite and breath mints — a festival dedicated to our favourite side is coming to this Melbourne suburb on Saturday.

Attention garlic bread lovers.

A Northcote food truck park is throwing an all-day fiesta to celebrate our favourite side on Saturday.

Welcome to Thornbury will serve bucketloads of garlic bread, alongside steak, burgers and arancini. The garlicky delight will even squeeze its way into a Bloody Mary cocktail – drink if you dare.

Welcome to Thornbury is hosting a Garlic Bread Festival this Saturday. Picture: Tony Gough

Melbourne restaurants Nuggies, Chef Calamari, Sparrows Philly Cheese, Mr Burger, Porcupine Eatery will be there, while producers Wylee Garlic and Lardass Butter will be on hand to sell takeaway bread, butter and garlic. Entry is free, but table bookings (and breath mints) are encouraged via: welcometothornbury.com

Welcome to Thornbury, 520 High St, Northcote

French flair

Fusion restaurants may get a bad rap, but this new French-Asian restaurant in Windsor aims to please.

Xi Restaurant (which means “double happiness” in Chinese) is founder Lu Gan’s first major play in the restaurant game.

Expect a mash-up of Asian hits with French flair by Canadian head chef Michael Fudge-Armitage, such as black truffle dumplings and sticky rice-stuffed quail, at the 80-seater, which opened last week.

Xi Restaurant is the first restaurant by 25-year-old entrepreneur by Lu Gan, pictured with chef Fudge. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

At 20, Gan opened her first Lanzhou Beef Noodle Bar (now Master Lanzhou) as a university student and now owns 11 restaurants Melbourne-wide.

She said Xi Restaurant would be more elevated than her casual eateries.

“It will be semi-fine dining, so we’ll use a lot of special ingredients with traditional Chinese spices and French cooking styles. Everything has been well thought out,” she said.

Duck & Truffle Potstickers. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

“I always wanted to run my own business and getting into food is where I found my passion. For the noodle restaurants, it was about efficiency and productivity, but with this semi-fine diner, it’ll be about the attention to detail.”

The confluence of cultures does not stop at the food, and French wine and Japanese sake will be on the list.

Gan grew up in Lanzhou, China, before moving to Australia with her family when she was 12.

The idea for her first business came after struggling to find a place to eat the noodles she enjoyed as a child.

Xi Restaurant, 172 High St, Windsor

Chef on top

Matt Boyle started out as a 20-year-old apprentice at Attica and has since become the restaurant’s head chef. Picture: Aaron Francis.

Matt Boyle is used to taking a punt. The Rowville footballer went from tearing up the field for the Scoresby under-18s Colts and Mazenod Old Collegians to asking for a gig at one of the world’s top restaurants.

Attica was at the time, and still is, one of Australia’s best restaurants, but that didn’t stop the 20-year-old handing in his resume.

“I’m the type of person who, if I’m going to do something, I’ll put in 110 per cent effort,” Boyle said.

“They let me in and gave me a trial. That was 10½ years ago.”

He now leads the kitchen at the Ripponlea fine diner with star chef and owner Ben Shewry.

He also played a hand in the Herald Sun’s World’s Longest Lunch at last month’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

“Ben and I have done countless events in Australia and overseas and that one was by far the biggest and smoothest we’ve done,” he said.

Despite his kitchen cred, Boyle has no plans to leave Attica.

“I’m at a really awesome workplace with low staff turnover,” he said.

“Ben is an awesome guy and gives everyone a voice in the kitchen – plus we have fun.

“I’m not too sure what the future holds, let’s wait and see.”

Pinot Palooza is back next weekend.

Palace of pinot

Raise a glass to the comeback of your favourite pinot noir party.

Pinot Palooza will return to Melbourne next Friday and Saturday, for its 10th festival, with dozens of wineries, drinks producers and restaurants invited.

Sip vino from Victorian wineries, including Red Hill Estate, Bass River and Paringa with Tassie favourites from Tamar Ridge, Domaine A, Devil’s Corner and Moorilla thrown into the mix.

Burn City Smokers and Taco Truck will feed the masses.

Sommelier and wine communicator Dan Sims held his first Pinot Palooza in Melbourne’s Ormond Hall in 2012 to a few hundred people.

Ten years later, the event is held across 14 cities and six countries, features more than 550 producers and has poured 175,000 bottles.

Tickets start at $65, via: pinotpalooza.com.au

Pinot Palooza, May 6-7, The Timber Yard