DOMESTIC goddess Nigella Lawson is "as excited as a kid at Christmas" to be the headline act of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. The festival starts on Friday with the Herald Sun's World's longest Lunch.
"I feel like a small child just before Christmas, I'm fairly bouncing up and down in excited anticipation," Lawson said. "Melbourne is a city that crackles with life, and the MFWF reflects and celebrates that. To be a part of it, to be able to breathe at all in, feels like such an expensive joy after all this confinement". Lawson is hosting a sold out intimate afternoon tea tomorrow and one off Sunday lunch at Federation Square. In Saturday's V-Weekend, she reveals the Melbourne restaurants she's itching to try and why she's determined to eat widely while in town. I came to Melbourne in 2011 and that was my first time, so that means a lot. "I am so excited to see old friends, make new ones, and, of course, eat is widely in the city as time affords," she said. "I have to try and make myself not just return to places that I know I love, as there is always so much that is new in Melbourne".
Ben Shewry, of Australia's top restaurant Attica, will bring his world-class cooking to the masses at the flagship event on Friday, the Herald Sun's Worlds Longest Lunch. It launches a two-week food and wine extravaganza in our city for the first time since 2019. Food and Wine Victoria chief executive Anthea Lucas Bosha said she was thrilled to see the festival return and the city come back to life. "We are so thrilled to be back with our 30th anniversary Melbourne Food and Wine Festival program", she said on Thursday. "We have the amazing Nigella and 12 incredible international chefs in town, Ben Shewry cooking for 1800 people in the Treasury Gardens plus super-fun events taking over the Queen Victoria market including Maximum Chips happening Friday night, and next week Welcome to the Jungle, groundbreaking and plant-based party. "There's something for everyone, and we are looking forward to snacking and raising a glass with tens of thousands of event goes over the next 16 days".
Lawson is among the many big-name international on local shops in this year's lineup, which includes LA comedian and winemaker Eric Wareheim, Sichuan food expert Fuchsia Dunlop, London chef Skye Dyngell, and Melbourne's own George Calombaris, Karen Martini and Guy and Carlo Grossi.
Kara Monssen
Herald Sun, Friday March 25, 2022