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Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

200 events over 16 days: Festival showcases Melbourne's iconic food & wine scene

Delivering a giddying feast for the senses at over 200 events across 16 delicious days, the 2009 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age will take place from 7 - 23 March 2009.

Offering something for every level of epicurean enthusiast, taste and budget, Melbourne's globally acclaimed celebration of food and wine attracts over 300,000 attendees each year.

Events range from starlit alfresco dinners in the city's iconic Laneways and Rooftops and unfathomably long lunch tables set in the most surprising places for World's Longest Lunch, to a bustling riverside wine market at Cellar Door at Southgate and one of the most alluring line-ups of international and local chefs the world has ever seen.

Sizzling barbecue cuisine
Celebrate Australia's culinary hero - the backyard barbecue - and at once its universal nature, when top chefs apply Australian and international flavours as they take the tongs at Connex Sizzle! Picture a grassy green lawn sprawling across Federation Square and expect sizzling barbecue cuisine - both on the main stage and at the new global chargrill barbecue plaza - from the likes of Matt Wilkinson (Circa, the Prince), Paul Wilson (The Botanical), Shane Delia (Maha) and Teage Ezard (Ezard).

World's Longest Lunch
A Festival classic and ever a hot-ticket event, World's Longest Lunch will this year stretch along the banks of the gorgeous Yarra River, while 1,200 guests enjoy an Italian-inspired feast of food and wine.

Dine with the stars
Another sight you'd surely only see in Melbourne is the transformation of the city's treasured Laneways and Rooftops - an integral part of the city's history and culture - into restaurant dining rooms and parties under the stars, throughout the Festival period.

Alternatively, dine among other stars Jean-Paul Jeunet, Luisa Valazza, Alain Alders and Dieter Muller - to drop a few names - and indulge in a four-course Saturday evening of glamour and spectacle. Expect to be enchanted when Docklands' Shed 4 morphs into a moonlit forest for this A Midsummer Night's Dreaminspired Stars of Europe - The Dinner.

Deliciously 'Wicked Sunday'
Or, indulge your depraved alter ego in a day of decadence at Wicked Sunday in Federation Square, where the temptation of all things extravagant beckons from the chocolate playground (a highlight being Melbourne's most exquisite pastry chefs, from The Press Club, Sweet Source and elsewhere, demonstrating their best chocolate dessert recipes), Oriental Teahouse, Middle Eastern Coffee House and other enticing spaces. Celebrate the coffee bean in myriad ways, or sample artisan cheeses, ice cream and boutique wines.

The best of wine country
Without leaving the city, travel the best of Victoria's wine country on foot in the charming surrounds of the Yarra riverbank at Cellar Door at Southgate. From the latest vintages, savour familiar drops, discover new favourites and stock cellars from 60 of the State's boutique vineyards.

Has pinot noir grown up? What does the future hold for shiraz? Festival-goers will satisfy these and other vinous curiosities when The Global Wine Experience returns in 2009, uniting international winemakers and aficionados such as Michel Chapoutier (Rhone Valley) and Pierre and Sophie Larmandier (Champagne Larmandier-Bernier).

Culinary icons
In 2009 Langham Melbourne MasterClass has a stellar cast of international chef talent hailing from traditionally recognised gastronomic quarters the UK, France and the US - including The Fat Duck's Heston Blumenthal (UK), Le Chateaubriand's Inaki Aizpitarte (France) and The French Laundry's Thomas Keller (US) - but also greats from quieter culinary giants Denmark (global top ten chef Rene Redzepi) and Germany (three Michelin-starred Dieter Muller). Be dazzled by these and other global luminaries when they join home-grown culinary icons including Frank Camorra (MoVida), Dan Hunter (Royal Mail), Shannon Bennett (Vue de monde) and Raymond Capaldi (Locarno 150).

Taste the creations and learn the secrets of top chefs during these exclusive cooking demonstrations, or share in their food philosophies and ideas in an engaging new lecture and discussion-based MasterClass strand, Theatre of Ideas.

Tastes of tomorrow
One room, three sessions, millions of great ideas. Victoria's food and wine community will join for an afternoon of provocative and informative discussion about the future of food, restaurants and the media that cover them in The Global Trends. Barbara Fairchild, Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appetit, will deliver a keynote address, joined by other leading thinkers on the day.

For others looking to escape the urban grind, the Festival is the ideal time to plan a gastronomic getaway as Victoria's regional locations come to life with a satiating program of almost 70 events. From intimate gatherings on the banks of the Murray River to wine celebrations held in the Yarra Valley, let the Festival help you plan your regional itinerary.

For program and booking details, visit www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au.