The Fast and the Glorious at MFWF 2016

MFWF World's Longest Lunch Credit: Daniel Mahon

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF, 4 – 13 March) enters its 24th year in 2016 with a smorgasbord of more than 290 food and wine events across Victoria.

The opener to this 10-day worship of all things epicurean is the World’s Longest Lunch, held in Melbourne and across the state. This year, for the first time, all longest lunches will take place at the same time across Victoria, with events vying for the most creative setting. Melbourne’s flagship longest lunch will see more than 1600 lucky guests dine at one long table outdoors; involving 150 wait staff, 6000 glasses and 16,000 pieces of cutlery. This year the 500m table will run along the main straight of the 2016 Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix track in Albert Park just weeks ahead of the international race. Gippsland is offering a 91-metre Spanish banquet perched atop a National Trust trestle bridge overlooking a sandy beach at Kilcunda, while in Daylesford guests will don vintage outfits and enjoy their longest lunch settled along the banks of Lake Daylesford. A total of 24 regional longest lunches will be held across Victoria.

Spirits will soar at the festival, quite literally, as New World Whisky Distillery founder, David Vitale, takes guests on a whisky tutorial at 20,000 feet with Whisky in the Sky. Welcomed by whisky tasting and matched canapes at the aircraft hangar, participants will then board an historic 1940s era DC3 to fly over Melbourne and Victoria’s significant whisky heritage sites. Upon return to Essendon Airport, guests tour the New World Whisky Distillery, located by the airport, and get to sample whisky cocktails.

A professional kitchen can be a competitive place and the MFWF line up includes a series of light-hearted battles across Victoria to see which food and drinks reign supreme. North vs South Street Food Feud puts up a Melbourne souvlaki vs burger showdown, while the Trans-Tasman: Beer vs Bubbles contest pits Aussie against Kiwi tipples and the Battle of the Regions has Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula put forward their best wines for participants to vote on.

MFWF 2016 will also explore partnerships between gastronomy and cultural areas such as architecture, fashion and design. The Brutalist BBQ will takeover Melbourne’s Total House, a heritage listed example of Japanese-inspired Brutalist Architecture that impacted Australian design in the 1950s and 1960s. Guests will take in great views of Melbourne from the 60 metre balcony and enjoy a Japanese hibachi BBQ. The evening will include guest chefs and DJs, and guided tours of Total House with its current custodians. Fashion lovers, meanwhile, can head to Design Bites, an interactive dinner hosted in partnership with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival to explore food through the design themes of cutting, covering and wrapping.

Melbourne’s arts precinct will also embrace the celebration of food and wine. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) hosts Close to Home, an intimate twilight dinner under the NGV’s colourful outdoor  Summer Architecture Commission and incorporating produce from the NGV Kitchen Garden. Guests are taken on a tour of the grounds by Garden Design firm, Oculus, and the NGV’s head chef, Nuno Gabriel. At the neighbouring Arts Centre, a new musical called Banquet of Secrets celebrates Melbourne’s two great loves – food and music theatre. Four long-time friends gather at their favourite restaurant for their annual dinner and, over the course of their elaborate meal, each agrees to share their deepest secret. With an on-stage menu designed by celebrity chef Philippe Mouchel (PM24, Déjà Vue), the play is followed by a five course meal inspired by Mouchel’s acclaimed French cooking, served with matching wines.

No Melbourne culinary festival would be complete without a nod to the city’s reverence to the coffee bean. This year, the MFWF program includes the Australian Latte Art Championships which highlight artistic expression and challenge baristas with an on-demand performance. Each barista creates two cappuccinos, two macchiattos, and two “signature beverage” designs. Baristas are judged based on visual attributes, creativity, identical patterns in the pairs, contrast in patterns, and overall performance. The national winner will go on to represent Australia at the World Coffee Championships.

For session times and more information about the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2016 visit the festival’s Media Centre or contact Holly Formosa, holly@foodfest.com.au.  Ph: +61 3 9823 6109.