Melbourne Food and Wine Festival plates up 25th helping of delicious treats
POP the champagne and let them eat cake — the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is turning 25.
Melb Food & Wine Festival
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POP the champagne and let them eat cake — the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is turning 25.
Restaurateur and MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan is celebrating the milestone, having been involved with the event since its inception in the early ‘90s.
“I go back with the festival to about 1993 with the various restaurants I’ve been involved with,” he said.
“It’s been interesting to see how it’s snowballed into one of the world’s best food festivals.
It’s a great platform to hang a restaurant and our hospitality industry on.”
From March 31, the 10-day festival offers more than 250 events across the city and state for foodies, families and everyone in between.
“There’s so much to choose from with special guests, international chefs, on a boat, in a vineyard, up in the sky,” Mr Mehigan said.
“The festival can tick all your boxes. Every year people wait for the guide to come out and call their friends and decide where they want to go.”
The MFWF guide can be found in today’s Sunday Herald Sun, with Aussie-born Thai food guru David Thompson — who this week opened his Long Chim restaurant at Crown — on the cover.
On the festival’s opening weekend, he will be joined by seven other internationally renowned chefs for masterclass sessions from $35 at Federation Square. All have had restaurants featured in the World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards, which will be held in Melbourne this year for the first time during MFWF.
As part of the free family-friendly River Graze event also on MFWF’s opening weekend, MasterChef alumni will cook up a storm at stations along the Yarra while on April Fool’s Day, Mehigan’s fellow TV judge George Calombaris will host Hoaxed at his city fine diner The Press Club with a surprise five courses that promises to be “beyond what you’d expect to find” there.
The MFWF runs from March 31 to April 9. For bookings or more information, visit MFWF.com.au.
25 FEASTS UNDER $50
Good taste and fun times needn’t drain the hip pocket. Here are 25 events under $50 at next month’s 25th annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, compiled by Dan Stock and Megan Miller.
WHY DID WE EVER STOP DRINKING THESE?
April 5, Fed Square, $48
It was the time of Café del Mar, caesar salads and Cosmo cocktails.
Yes, it was the ‘90s, and as part of the 25th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, for one night only the team at Taxi will be bringing back and celebrating the best food and drink of that era. Think Sex on the Beach and Cowboy shooters, prawn cocktails other “hors d’oervres” popular at the time.
Taxi Kitchen executive chef Tony Twitchett said Melbourne in the ‘90s was an exciting place for a young chef from the country to explore.
“They were fantastic, wonderful times. Eating at Luxe in St Kilda, drinking at the Melbourne Wine Room, dancing down at the Docklands. I loved it,” he said.
“So we’re going back to where the food festival began.”
Five ‘90s cocktails will be offered and paired with on theme foods at the rooftop event. Sun-dried tomato focaccia anyone?
RIVER GRAZE
March 31-April 2, city, free
Head to the river on the festival’s opening weekend when a kilometre-plus stretch from Fed Square to South Wharf becomes a foodie playground. Find producers, winemakers, chefs and food trucks at various pop-ups, with artisan pizza, French fare, the City Cellar, top-end sweet treats and a Spanish market. Plus cooking demos from former MasterChef faces. Great one for families.
MASTERCLASS
April 1-2, Fed Square, $35
Teaming up with the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards, this year’s masterclasses feature eight chefs whose restaurants have featured on the prestigious list. At Deakin Edge, learn from the best in their game such as Aussie-born Thai master David Thompson and Heston Blumenthal’s first-hand man Ashley Palmer-Watts as they prepare two signature dishes and talk shop.
KIDS IN THE KITCHEN
April 4-6, St Kilda East, $35
Start the burger love early at the Grosvenor Hotel with classes run by head chef Paul Tyas teaching kids the art of cooking delish and healthy buns.
DANDENONG WORLD FARE
April 2, Dandenong, free entry
Step into a hawker-style pop-up market with 40 food trucks and street stalls within the Dandenong Market, with food from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, plus cooking demos, global tunes and rides for the kids.
SMORGASBURB BY SAND HILL ROAD
April 2, Richmond, $29
The Sand Hill Road boys do good pub. In the cobbled laneway of their Bridge Hotel, six of their venues come together with their signature offerings such as Richmond Club Hotel’s parmas, Garden State’s oysters and Holliava’s cocktails.
CARNECOPIA
April 9, South Wharf, free entry
Play the flame game at Meat Market with Flinders Island Meats cooked low and slow or grilled over coals to entice Melbourne’s devoted barbecue lovers.
GETTING CREATIVE WITH ASIAN CUISINE
April 8-9, Box Hill Central, Box Hill, $33
Learn how to cook delicious Taiwanese and Japanese cuisine using beautiful, garden-fresh ingredients direct from the source at Box Hill Central Fresh Food Market. With cooking demonstrations by the head chefs of the Centre’s best restaurants, as well as special celebrity guest appearances, you'll master the art of everything from vegan dumplings to sushi, giving you key techniques to cook and experiment using interesting ingredients at home.
FLEMINGTON GRAZING TRAIL & CELLAR DOOR
March 11, Flemington Racecourse, $25
One of the tastiest reasons to hit the track. At this MFWF preview event, set against the backdrop of Group 1 racing, sip and savour wine, beer, cheese, meat and more from a
great selection of Victoria’s boutique wineries, breweries and producers.
HOTTER THAN ANYTHING
April 1, Footscray, $13
Feel the heat at charity restaurant Lentil As Anything with a feisty competition to see who can keep it together to win the vegan chilli con carne eat-off.
THE B. EAST’S LOWCOUNTRY COOKOUT
April 1, Brunswick East, free entry
Live it up at a southern-style cookout with smoked meats, boil-ups, cornbread and chorizo beans washed down with Hurricanes and Mojitos as R & B, jazz and rock’n’roll bands play.
BURGER BLOCK PARTY
April 9, city, $25
Close the festival at its HQ, The House of Food & Wine, with beer-fuelled bun fun from top burger builders nationwide, including Melbourne’s Raph Rashid of Beatbox Kitchen fame.
ITALIAN YUM CHA
April 1-2 and 8-9, Richmond, free entry
Aim for quality as well as quantity with lots of Italian dishes (think rabbit tortellini and swordfish carpaccio) served yum cha-style in small portions in steamer baskets at The Grand.
FARM FOOD FUN
April 8, Red Hill, free entry
Educate junior foodies about farm life and sustainability at Green Olive at Red Hill, with top food and wine from the Mornington Peninsula on offer.
HARVEAST
April 9, Ringwood, free entry
Go east to feast at Eastland’s one-day food and wine event with goodies from the region. There’ll be a cellar door, masterclasses and live entertainment.
A VENETIAN CARNIVALE
April 8, Hawthorn East, $13-$35
Wood-fired pizza, pastas, cured meats and spit roasts washed down with Italian-style Victorian wines highlight this family event at Firechief restaurant where a laneway will become Carnivale central with roving singers and musicians and Venetian dancing classes.
SOUTH WHARF CRAFT BEER WEEKEND
April 1-2, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, $20 entry
Jeff’s Shed turns fancy beer hall, with award-winning craft brews and ciders to try, plus gourmet food and live music.
SPANISH STREET FIESTA
April 8, South Wharf, $21
Come for the sangria bar and giant paella station, stay for the flamenco dancing, roast pork barbecue and sherry tastings at Bohemian Bar & Restaurant.
PIG PICKIN’ PICNIC
April 4, Caulfield South, $38
Go the whole hog at Big Boy BBQ where pit master Lance Rosen will smoke a whole pig over wood, served with Southern sides — candied sweet potato, slaw, corn bread and banana pudding for afters.
TWO BECOMES ONE
April 7, city, $28
Rose and ramen turn happy bedfellows for the night at Soi 38, the city’s noodle shop tucked into a carpark, with Clever Polly on the wine list.
COFFEE, BEER AND PROSCIUTTO CELEBRATION
April 9, Collingwood, $33
Discover more about three of this town’s big loves at The Craft & Co workshops. Book for one or all three for a day of learning, tasting and appreciating all the good things.
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLANC
April 6, Abbotsford, $38
Combine a four-course Asian barbecue, natural wines such as orange vin, and disco beats in Dr Morse Bar & Eatery’s cure-what-ales-you beer garden.
PIZZINI POP-UP BARREL ROOM
April 7-9, Collingwood, $28
Have all your pressing wine questions answered and enjoy drops straight from the barrel when the Pizzini family from the King Valley take over new wine bar Project 49, complete with a prosciutto bar.
YARRA VALLEY WINE AND FOOD FESTIVAL
April 1-2, Coldstream, $15-$25
About 40 wineries and local beer and cider producers will descend on the lawns of Rochford Wines with food trucks, tutored tastings, cooking demos from Yarra Valley chefs, live music and entertainment. Plus more special activities for the kids on Sunday’s family day.
SOUTH EAST ASIA FESTIVAL
April 8-9, Carlton, free entry
This free festival at Argyle Square unites communities from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam through food, music and dance. Order from stalls specialising in cuisine from each region as you enjoy traditional music, contemporary performances from ASEAN students studying in Melbourne, games, social clubs and kids’ activities.