Melbourne Food & Wine Festival

12 - 23 March 2010

Moveable Feast

All across Victoria, people will be celebrating the culinary arts as the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presents chefs and winemakers from across the world

Since 1993, there’s been an event that has captured the imagination of food lovers around the country. And, as the program for the 2010 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival proves, the event just keeps getting bigger and, of course, better. From March 12 to 23, Melbourne will be awash in the sights, smells and tastes that come with being Australia’s culinary capital, albeit in a much more intense form than at other times of the year. More than 250 events, including a hundred that cost less than $100, will be held in the city and regional areas. Whether you want to engage the brain or inspire your tastebuds, there’s something here for you.

Eat

If you panic at the thought of cooking for friends, imagine the amount of preparation that goes into a meal for a thousand guests! That’s how many will gather for the long table feast for the Festival’s hallmark World’s Longest Lunch, set in an iconic Melbourne location each year. For three nights, Queen Victoria Market will look, smell and sound more like a scene from Hong Kong or Singapore as the Heat Beads Hawkers’ Market serves up noodles, dumplings and other street fare. See what some of America’s leading chefs can do with Victorian produce and wines at Earthly Abundance – The Dinner, a nocturnal feast at Prahran Market.

Drink

If you love the bean, check out Hotshot & Teapot, an event devoted to coffee, tea and cocoa. There will be roasting, cooking with coffee, tea and chocolate, tastings and education sessions throughout the weekend. If your favourite tipple is something a bit stronger, then the Cellar Door at Southgate might be more to your liking. One of the festival’s most popular events, it features more than 60 of Victoria’s boutique winemakers offering tastes of their latest offerings. Fuel up with a cheese plate and other offerings from local producers at the adjacent mini farmers’ market.

Think

Browse City Square and admire The Edible Garden, where produce-inspired events, such as a veggie swap, will take place. And if your kids fancy themselves as mini Masterchefs, they might want to join Stephanie Alexander at one of her Sunday sessions where she’ll teach them how to grow and cook their own vegetables. Find out what’s on the global food radar at the Langham Melbourne MasterClass. This year, Spanish gastro-guru Andoni Luiz Andoni, New York legend David Chang and South America’s most exciting chef Alex Atala are all on the program. It’s not all about international superstars though, with local favourites including Peter Gilmore, Neil Perry and Adam D’Sylva also on the bill. This year also sees the introduction of the Miele Hands-On MasterClass where small groups get to cook with a world-class chef and then have lunch with them. If, by the time you read this, the session you want to attend is sold out try the MasterClass Chef and Winemaker Dinners, where the chefs and wine identities on the program will team up with city restaurants to create one-off dinners using Victorian produce.

Travel

If you thought the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was only about the city, think again. There are dozens of events taking place throughout country Victoria, including almost 20 Regional World’s Longest Lunches as far afield as Gippsland and Marysville. Some will take place in bushland settings, others by the sea. Fanged immortals are all the rage in popular culture, so the Festival is getting in on the act. At Sunnybrae Restaurant in Birregurra, you can join an evening called Fearless Vampire Killers. There’s no chance of any vampires actually showing up though, since it’s a celebration of Australian garlic. Start the night with a Gartini, followed by a five-course meal with special wine matches. Beef lovers should head to the Gunbower Hotel, 30 minutes outside of Echuca, for what are promised to be Victoria’s Best Steaks. Still on the topic of meat, sustainable farming will come under the knife in Lethbridge when chef Peter Ford hosts Go the Whole Hog. During a weekend at an historic sheep station, he’ll give hands-on demonstrations of nose-to-tail eating (and how to make terrine and sausages in the process).

Blue Holidays is pleased to be able to offer you flight and accommodation packages where you can also choose to add tickets to The World's Longest Lunch, Theatre of Ideas with Matt Preston & Hawker's Market.

Holiday your way!