Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2018 ultimate guide
THE Melbourne Food and Wine Festival promises a feast of fabulous flavours from around our state, the country and, indeed, the world. Here’s the ultimate guide to making the most of every mouthful this weekend.
Melb Food & Wine Festival
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THE 26th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival starts on Friday, promising a feast of fabulous flavours from around our state, the country and, indeed, the world.
While there’s more than 250 events to get stuck into over the 10 days of the event, the opening weekend starts the party in the most delicious way.
Here’s the ultimate guide to making the most of every mouthful this weekend, from Friday lunch until (very) late Sunday night.
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FRIDAY
1pm — Start the weekend’s feasting in a fabulously squishy way with the Melbourne Tomato Day. At the CBD’s Alfred Place, Rosetta head chef Angel Fernandez will show how to squash the best of the late-summer crop into sugo and passata, before serving up an Italian tomato-based feast. Bellissimo!
5pm — The signature River Graze gets under way from 4pm along the Southbank river walk and it will be the place to be for foodies and families alike throughout the weekend until 8pm Sunday. Get a slice of the action at the Gradi AVPN Melbourne Pizza Festival, where our world-beating pizza maker Johnny Di Francesco will welcome a line up of the best pizzaioli, all cooking authentic Napoletana-style pizzas. There’ll be gelato and vino and live music, with heaps for the kids, too.
7pm — As the sun sets, meet friends at City Cellar, where the best drops from Victoria’s brightest wine makers will be poured, all accompanied by live music and beautiful river views. Transport yourself to Paris with a rendezvous at the inaugural St-Germain Spritz Bar and put yourself in the hands of the team of coiffeurs offering complimentary
French braids. Oh la la!
8.30pm — They’re the cult ice creamers flying in from New York for the festival. Co-founded by former wd~50 pastry chef Sam Mason, Oddfellows Ice Cream Co will be serving up a custom menu of wildly inventive scoops at River Graze’s Sweet Alley all weekend. Along with ice cream, there’ll be treats galore from The Crux & Co, Short Stop Donuts and Smoothie Planet. Life is sweet.
SATURDAY
10.30am — This morning it’s time to feed the mind, with the first Theatre of Ideas session exploring the concept of “community”. Food has always had a critical role in bringing people together, so this is a great chance to hear from those making their communities better through food. From the USA, there’s Ron Finley whose strong vision for community gardening has led to the kname of “Gangsta Gardener”. From the UK, meet Stephen Harris, who transformed the pub near his childhood home on Britain’s Kent Coast into the UK’s No. 1 restaurant, and Bronwen and Francis Percival from Neal’s Yard Dairy, who are tireless advocates for “real cheese”. Closer to home, Monique Fiso uses her pop-up dinner series Hiakai to give Maori cuisine a platform in her native New Zealand. At Deakin Edge at Federation Square.
1pm — Feeling inspired is the best way to work up an appetite, so now go for lunch at one of Melbourne’s top eateries. Restaurant Express is a much-loved annual feature of the festival and is back again this year. Every day of the festival, more than 80 restaurants around the state are offering two courses and a matched wine for $40. Always wanted to eat under the famous Grossi Florentino mural dome, or at George Calombaris’s Press Club? Here’s your chance to eat luxe for less. Bookings essential.
4.30pm — Head back to the Yarra and walk off lunch, and then learn how to grow your next meal. At the River Graze Market, an urban farmers market will showcase the best local produce and producers, while the edible garden will provide a verdant oasis along with handy hints for growing produce at home.
6pm — Six o’clock is beer o’clock and the best brews will be on offer at the Stomping Ground Beer Garden. Collingwood’s cult brewer will transform Queensbridge Square’s Red Stair amphitheatre into a beer garden where they’ll be pouring their favourite frothies fresh from the brewery. If you’re feeling peckish, grab a snag from one of the local butchers taking part in the River Graze Sausage Sizzle or sample barbecue styles from around the world thanks to Hoy Pinoy and Bluebonnet Barbecue.
8.45pm — George Calombaris fell in love with butter chicken on his last trip to India and now we can, too, as he brings the world’s best butter chicken chef, Saransh Goila, from Mumbai to Melbourne. Meet Saransh, taste his famous butter chicken and drink cocktails specially designed for this unique event at George’s Press Club Projects (running nightly throughout the festival at 52 Flinders St).
10pm — For the 10 days of the festival, Hotel Lindrum (26 Flinders Lane) becomes the House of Food and Wine Hotel. Pop into the bar for one of mixologist Sebastian Reaburn’s signature house cocktails. Enjoy a blackcurrant negroni or the limoncello spritz, which uses
a special “trash-cello” he is making throughout the festival using the citrus husks left over from fresh juice. The cocktails are best enjoyed with Jo Barrett and Matt Stone’s bar menu created exclusively for the festival. Top Melbourne bars will also pop up in the House of Food and Wine Hotel for two nights each over the festival, so there’ll always be something going on when you drop in for a drink.
SUNDAY
Noon — After a sleep-in this morning, take the kids down to Brighton for a celebration of all things watermelon. Hellenic Republic’s Watermelon Festival (25 Church St) will be a feast of watermelon mocktail and dessert stations, watermelon carvings and face painting and more. Best of all, it’s free!
2pm — Don’t miss this Sunday afternoon garden party in Duckboard Place, with Garden State Hotel’s Secret Garden Laneway Party. There’ll be decadent canapés (thanks to chef Ash Hicks), music, wine and afternoon good times.
5pm — Journey back in time at the bar at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, where drinks are as magical and fantastical as Heston’s famous food. Take in this spectacular setting as you’re led through a cocktail journey, each drink with its own innovative story. These cocktails will be matched by snacks from the kitchen (5pm nightly, bookings essential).
7pm — Finish this best-ever food weekend at CBD dive bar Spleen (41 Bourke St), where VICE’s food channel, MUNCHIES, is hanging out during the festival. Book a table at Rich Homie Sichuan, where Lee Ho Fook’s Victor Liong will pair spicy Chinese food with a rap music soundtrack — or take a seat at the bar that will be open until (very) late.
