With a whopping 400 occasions on this yr’s program, it’s laborious to know which pop-up restaurant or one-off chef collaboration to prioritise. This information will assist.
Melbourne Meals and Wine Competition right now added an additional 250 occasions to its 2024 program, taking the tally for its March competition to greater than 400 occasions over 10 days.
The 250 further occasions are, for probably the most half, designed by the town’s food and drinks neighborhood, who dream up boundary-pushing concepts equivalent to a dinner with menu and wine pairings designed by AI. Others are unlikely collaborations, equivalent to hit pasta bar Tipo 00 teaming up with hit cocktail bar Caretakers Cottage for a celebration in a non-public members’ membership.
To assist navigate such a wide-ranging program, the Good Meals crew right here share their prime picks of what’s on from March 15 to 24 throughout a variety of ticket costs.
Tickets for the 2024 competition go on sale to most of the people on Thursday, February 1. As a part of its partnership with Melbourne Meals and Wine Competition, subscribers to 9’s mastheads can entry pre-sale tickets from Monday, January 29. melbournefoodandwine.com.au
Good Meals’s picks of this system, from splurge to price range
Andrea McGinniss, digital editor
Vern’s and Capitano, from $150
Carlton and Charleston come collectively ultimately, with Dan and Bethany Heinze from South Carolina restaurant Vern’s (named one of many 50 greatest eating places within the US by The New York Instances) bringing their low-country appeal to our very personal Italo-American favorite, Capitano. Right here’s hoping they create their caramelised apple tart with toasted lime meringue, too.
March 18 and 19, Capitano, 421 Rathdowne Road, Carlton
La Volta – Caretaker’s Cottage and Tipo 00, $33
Discuss a cool method to shut the competition: cocktails, pasta and Italo disco on the Kelvin Membership, from the crew behind my two favorite cosy metropolis haunts, Caretaker’s Cottage and Tipo 00. For simply $33 you get a cocktail and a snack on arrival plus a coveted spot at what I think about would be the carb-fuelled, dimly lit little disco of my goals.
March 24, Kelvin Membership, 14-30 Melbourne Place, Melbourne
Annabel Smith, deputy digital editor
Lauren Eldridge x Di Stasio Carlton, $153
Sydney pastry chef Lauren Eldridge (Berowra Waters Inn) has a knack for highlighting Australian components in restrained creations, and her elegant, sculptural desserts served within the gallery-like surrounds of Di Stasio Carlton seems like a simpatico combo. I’m wanting ahead to dwelling la dolce vita in Melbourne’s Italian heartland.
March 20, Di Stasio Carlton, 224 Faraday Road, Carlton
Sunday Shawarma Get together, $30
Sydney restaurant critic Terry Durack described Aalia chef Paul Farag’s lamb shawarma as “not a lot a dish, then, as an occasion”. The MFWF crew should’ve been studying as a result of Paul is flying south to host a shawarma shindig within the shiny disco-era Beirut setting of Aalia’s charcoal hen spin-off sibling, Henrietta. As an alternative of lamb neck, it’s a alternative of hen, mushroom or smoked beef tongue. I’m hoping the tarator and pickles of the unique (pictured) make the journey, too.
March 17, Henrietta, 75 Chapel Road, Windsor
Emma Breheny, Melbourne reporter
Sarah Cicolini’s Santo Palato pop-up, from $135
Studying Sarah Cicolini’s comforting but intelligent pasta recipes in an Australian meals journal years in the past, I knew I needed to go to her restaurant in Rome at some point. That also hasn’t occurred, so I’m pumped to have the ability to strive her amatriciana in Melbourne’s Italian heartland, in addition to the extra ingenious dishes she retains in her arsenal.
March 15-24, Seven Seeds, 114 Berkeley Road, Carlton
Dan’s Diner, March 15-24, $50-ish*
What when you put a diner in the midst of Fed Sq., requested three gifted cooks referred to as Dan to cook dinner eggs and waffles, and served some nice native drinks by one other Dan? I wish to know the reply to that query, so I’ll be there to strive what Dan Hunter (Brae), Daniel Puskas (Sixpenny), Daniel Wilson (Yakimono) and Dan Docherty (Commis) are placing up.
* Menu is a la carte
March 15-24, Fed Sq., Melbourne
Roslyn Grundy, deputy editor
A Thai-Chinese language Feast with Sungeun Mo and Palisa Anderson, from $189
Holy basil, Batman! I’m excited to see what occurs when one in every of Sydney’s main Thai meals exponents, Palisa Anderson, groups up with Sungeun Mo, who heads the kitchen at Melbourne restaurant BKK, to discover an arcane subgenre of Thai-Chinese language delicacies: congee store cooking. I’m calling it dinner and an schooling.
March 17-18, BKK, Stage 3, 270 Lonsdale Road, Melbourne
Sake and Beer Fusion Masterclass Tasting, $46
I’m a long-time fan of Preston brewery Tallboy & Moose, so I’m intrigued to pattern the outcomes of their collab with Melbourne Sake, a sake-beer hybrid. The night consists of snacks, plus tastings of two totally different sakes and a Japanese-style beer. Kanpai!
March 16, Tallboy & Moose, 270 Raglan Road, Preston
Sarah Norris, head of Good Meals
Take a Journey to Malta, $195
The little Mediterranean island of Malta hardly ever will get its time to shine, however this shared feast with matching wine ought to reveal its superb meals. It’s hosted at Nomad by its Maltese chef Jacqui Challinor and writer Julia Busuttil Nishimura.
March 20, Nomad, 187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
A Hector’s x France-Soir sandwich occasion, $44
A collab for the ages. Head to Hector’s Deli and get a France-Soir-inspired sando, fries and a glass of beaujolais poured by France-Soir’s wine purchaser Philip Wealthy. Enjoyable!
March 21 and 22, Hector’s Deli, 111 Moor Road, Fitzroy
