The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Well it's over - actually well over - it finished on April 9th but I didn't go to any event in the festival. Which just proves that I'm really not a proper foody. This was the twenty fifth festival so sort of special and of course they had that big restaurant awards thing as the centrepiece. All those famous chefs gathering here in Melbourne - almost at the end of the world - to see if they made it into the top fifty. Our two favoured restaurants - Attica and Brae did - probably not to anyone's surprise and I think Quay in Sydney made it into the top 100 - but I've talked about that event before.

I had actually hoped to find some reviews, critiques even, of the event, but there is absolutely nothing of that nature. Merely a lot of articles written before the festival telling you what you shouldn't have missed. I can't even find any 'highlights of' post the event other than what the festival itself sees as worthy of mention.

It's a huge festival - there are some 250-300 events that attract around a quarter of a million visitors. Some events were sold out - mostly the big name ones I think, but I suspect that some might have been cancelled for lack of interest too. Well I got the occasional electronic newsletter and sometimes an event was cancelled. Most of the events were quite pricey, but some were not and some were actually free - like the Riverside Grazing event of the opening night, which some of the females in my extended family attended and enjoyed. Well if you wanted to taste the wine it cost you $10.00 but this was hardly a lot. And it does look like good fun, probably especially if you are young.

And I did read somewhere that it's basically a not-for-profit event designed to promote Victoria's food and wine tourism. Mmm - not sure that this is really true, but it might be. And they do try to cater for everyone. There were special things on for kids - there was even a dog-friendly wine tour. Dogs were welcome and looked after whilst you tasted the wine.

The big events though were the master classes - just to show you my ignorance - here are two of the offerings with the chefs - and I don't know who they are. Though I did see somewhere that that balloon is made of apples! Those who paid the most for this event got to sit down the front at tables and actually got to taste the food. But most of the audience just watched. Not the kind of thing you cook at home though.

The other big event was the longest lunches. Pretty expensive - this year the star longest lunch was in Lygon Street with a menu designed by the visiting Antonio Carlucci. I think osso bucco was the main dish.

But some of the other regional venues sounded tantalising - the ferry between Sorrento and Queenscliff, the Australian Garden at Cranbourne being two of them. I hope they had good weather! I can't find any pictures of it. Not sure what they would do if it rained! I mean you could hardly cancel it could you and there don't appear to be any umbrellas.

Because I didn't go to anything I wasn't going to comment on it at all, but this is a foody blog after all and so I should at least acknowledge it. So well done to all the organisers and I hope it was a success. Though I did notice that all the pre-publicity talked about 250,000 visitors and the current website says 200,000.

Maybe I really should make the effort next year. Organise my own long lunch in the garden perhaps! Don't think I shall be making apple balloons though.