Vivid Sydney is the city’s annual celebration of lights, music ideas – and, this year, food. For the first time in its 14-year history, a food program has been added to the line-up.

“Sydney has an amazing food culture, we love to eat,” says festival director Gill Minervini, who comes from a family of publicans. “And we’ve got incredible produce. So I thought [adding a food pillar] was a no-brainer.”

The debut Vivid Food roster combines dining experiences from local chefs and restaurants in collaboration with chefs from Cape Town, London and New York.

“This is a different kind of food offering,” Minervini says. “Yes, it’s a food program, but it also combines those elements of light, music and ideas. It’s been designed so you can go to these food events and just go onto the light walk, to introduce a food audience to Vivid Light, Music and Ideas, and to introduce those audiences to Vivid Food.”

Below, are 10 highlights of the Vivid Food program as selected by Good Food.

Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm takes over Aria

“We’re pro-planet, not anti-meat,” says Daniel Humm, the Swiss owner-chef of New York City’s three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park.

The fine-diner reopened after lockdowns in 2021 with a surprising new slant: it went completely plant-based. A bold step for a restaurant known for ingredients such as sea urchin, foie gras and duck.

Sydneysiders can judge for themselves whether the pivot is on-point when Humm and his team take over Matt Moran’s restaurant Aria for two weeks, using NSW produce to recreate the Eleven Madison Park experience on Sydney Harbour.

“I’m excited to bring our mission and our philosophy outside the walls of Eleven Madison Park, and show the world how exciting it is to cook and eat vegetables,” says Humm, who has fond memories of Australia – in 2017, his establishment was awarded the No.1 spot at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony in Melbourne.

A former cyclist, Humm says he previously took an athlete’s approach to his career. “It was a lot about winning, and winning awards. And in 2017, when our restaurant was the No.1 restaurant in the world, it was the last word of any award left. We reached this mountaintop.”

I’m excited to ... show the world how exciting it is to cook and eat vegetables.

Chef Daniel Humm

When the pandemic hit, Humm began cooking meals for people in need across New York – and in the process realised what his next mountain would be. “There was a responsibility to use my language of food, to use this platform … to show the world how beautiful it is to cook with vegetables. And this is the future.”

It’s that vision of the future he’s bringing to Sydney. With the help of the Aria team’s knowledge of NSW produce, he’ll be cooking local interpretations of dishes you’d find at Eleven Madison Park – including its bread and plant-based butter.

“People can’t get their heads around that there is no butter, that we are making this plant-based butter, which we will serve with our beautiful flaky bread.”

June 6-17, Aria

The ultimate barbecue

Festival director Gill Minervini calls Vivid Fire Kitchen “the best sausage sizzle you’ve ever had”.

Fifteen local and international fire-wranglers will harness the flames in Barangaroo’s cavernous Cutaway for a series of free cooking demos.

Different chefs will pop up in 30-minute slots each night for three weeks to spotlight a particular dish or ingredient; following the demonstration chefs will share samples with the crowd.

The Aussie contingent includes Lennox Hastie, of three-hatted Firedoor; Woodcut owner-chef Ross Lusted; Dave Pynt, of Singapore’s Michelin-starred barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends; and Masterchef 2021 runner-up Pete Campbell.

Plus, Aussie-born, Texas-based pitmaster Jess Pryles will show off her smoking and grilling skills, while Arizonian and 2022 World Barbecue Champion Sterling Smith will cook over coals.

Those big names won’t be plating up full meals – but punters can order dishes from Nola Smokehouse & Bar and Ovolo Woolloomooloo’s plant-based restaurant Alibi, and coffee liqueur-slinger Mr Black will be shaking up espresso martinis.

The Cutaway itself will be doused in 360-degree immersive projections of NSW nature scenes to dial up the Vivid experience as diners feast on their meat.

May 26 to June 17, The Cutaway, Barangaroo

Chefs, coupled

Top local talent will be paired with zeitgeist-y international names for the Vivid Chef Series, a chain of collaborative dinners spotlighting NSW produce and ingredients.

Kiln’s boundary-pushing chef Mitch Orr will get matey with Jeremy Fox, the owner-chef at legendary zero-waste LA restaurant Rustic Canyon (June 13-14), while we can expect fascinating things when Rishi Naleendra, from Singapore’s cuisine-hopping Michelin-starred restaurant Cloudstreet, gets back on the pans with his former mentor, Bentley Group’s Brent Savage, at Savage’s plant-based diner Yellow (June 6-9).

And new wine den Bar Morris will host Cape Town chef Mmabatho Molefe for four nights of African-, European- and Australasian-inspired feasting (June 14-17).

A ‘rewilding’ of the Ivy Ballroom

The success of last year’s Vivid Sydney dinner in the Ivy Ballroom, which coupled music and light projections with a meal from Merivale chefs Dan Hong and Mike Eggert, was a litmus test for this year’s food program.

The sell-out event returns with ex-Fred’s head chef and Good Food recipe writer Danielle Alvarez, and Merivale’s Ben Greeno leading the charge on a multi-course collaborative meal.

“We’re rewilding the Ivy Ballroom,” says Minervini.

Expect dramatic light projections, Eddie Perfect on hosting duties and performances by alt-pop singer Montaigne and Aussie icon Christine Anu.

3 June, The Ivy Ballroom, CBD

A First Nations feast

Salute 60,000 years of Indigenous food culture at Carriageworks’ Warakirri Dining Experience, spearheaded by the founder of Mudgee’s Indigiearth cafe, Ngemba Weilwan woman Sharon Winsor.

Winsor will build a five-course meal from ingredients sourced on Gadigal land; it will be complemented by entertainment, music and storytelling, all in the vast industrial chambers of Eveleigh’s former railway workshops.

June 14-15, Carriageworks, Eveleigh

Chefs on a boat

One of the best ways to see the Vivid light spectacular is by boat – and luxury super yacht The Jackson is stepping up to the plate to combine on-the-water sightseeing with five-course meals from a series of ace chefs, including Masterchef favourite Khan Ong (June 3), Nel owner-chef Nelly Robinson (May 27) and Indigenous chef Mark Olive (June 17), who will base his degustation on First Nations ingredients and traditional foods.

Plates on the pylon

Luke Mangan is revisiting his sell-out pylon pop-up restaurant for Vivid, offering a bird’s eye view from the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the light show unfurls below.

It’s sold out again – but the next-best thing is an ancillary event, also hosted by Mangan, also in the south-east pylon.

He’s putting together boxes of locally made cheese to enjoy with red wine from NSW’s Riverina (served in a sealable cup to avoid any spillages caused by overexcitement at the festivities).

May 26 to June 17

Maggie Beer gets talking

Cooking doyenne and verjuice fan Maggie Beer brings her advocacy for better nutrition for those in aged care to Vivid.

She’ll lead a conversation with a series of experts to unpick how the food served in aged care is failing our elderly, the benefits a good diet can have for ageing issues, and the elements of a well-rounded meal.

June 10

To market

Sustainability-driven chef Matt Stone, of Byron Bay’s Ciao Mate!, has collated a dream team of producers, restaurants, bars and more for a special edition of Carriageworks Night Market.

Redfern restaurant Bush will prep dishes using native produce, not-for-profit Two Good Co is pumping out vegan pies, Ricos Tacos will be crafting a menu around sustainable wild game and Brix Distillery is designing a special cocktail using rum infused with by-products from Bourke Street Bakery.

Other heavy-hitters, including Rising Sun Workshop, Cantina OK!, Three Blue Ducks and Jacoby’s Tiki Bar are getting in on the action, too.

June 16

Au naturale at Barangaroo House

Inspired by this year’s Vivid theme of “Naturally”, Matt Moran’s multi-level Barangaroo House is channelling its wild side with site-wide projections spotlighting conservation efforts, as well as a special menu, and cocktails at Smoke Bar crafted using kitchen offcuts.

May 26 to June 17

For Vivid Food tickets and information go to vividsydney.com