Melbourne Food and Wine Festival facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Melbourne Food and Wine Festival |
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The World's Longest Lunch 2015
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| Genre | Food and beverage |
| Location(s) | Melbourne, Australia |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Attendance | 225,840 (2019) |
The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is a super fun event held every March in Melbourne, Australia. It started way back in 1993! This festival is all about celebrating the amazing food and drinks from Melbourne and the wider Victoria region. It's run by a group called Food and Wine Victoria Ltd., and their main goal is to show off how delicious and exciting the food scene is in Melbourne.
The festival is a not-for-profit event. This means it's not trying to make money for owners. Instead, it works to promote local produce, talented chefs, and the cool lifestyle of Melbourne and Victoria. It even helps Melbourne be known as the "food and wine capital of Australia"! Over the years, the festival has grown a lot. It now includes awesome cooking classes and huge, banquet-style lunches that are really popular.
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Festival History
The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival began in 1993 with just 12 events. Since then, it has grown bigger and better every year! The festival brings together food and wine experts from all over the world. This includes famous chefs, winemakers, farmers, authors, and food critics.
Matt Preston, a well-known food critic, used to be the creative director for the festival. His last festival was in 2009.
In 2020, most of the festival events had to be put on hold. Some parts of it even went online!
Festival Fun in 2011
The 19th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2011 was a huge success! More than 350,000 people attended over 250 events during 11 days.
The festival started and ended with two very special events:
- On the first day, about 4,500 people took part in 26 "World's Longest Lunches" happening at the same time across Victoria. The Melbourne lunch alone used 10,000 broad beans, 1,800 cherry tomatoes, and over 200 kilograms of veal!
- On the last weekend, more than 2,600 people joined 100 chefs and wine experts for a giant cooking class. Imagine learning from so many pros at once!
Many famous people from around the world came to the 2011 event. These included Nigella Lawson from Great Britain and Elena Arzak from Spain. Lots of Australian food stars were there too, like Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, and George Calombaris.
Melbourne hosts these food and wine festivals every year to attract visitors. It's a great way to show how diverse and exciting Melbourne's food scene is!
Festival Highlights in 2010
In 2010, the big cooking class, called the "Langham Melbourne Masterclass," featured amazing chefs. These included David Chang from Momofuku in New York and Massimo Bottura from Osteria Francescana in Italy.
The festival's main event, the "World’s Longest Lunch," celebrated Melbourne's Chinese heritage. It also welcomed back the Heat Beads Hawkers' Market to Queen Victoria Market. At the same time as the Melbourne lunch, the town of Marysville hosted one of 19 "Regional World’s Longest Lunches." This was just one year after the terrible Black Saturday bushfires. This event was part of more than 70 regional events held during the festival.
The festival also created an urban food garden called the 'Metlink Edible Garden' in Melbourne's City Square. This showed how food can be grown right in the city!
Festival Stars in 2009
The 2009 festival welcomed some of the world's most famous chefs. These included Heston Blumenthal from The Fat Duck, Thomas Keller from The French Laundry, and Rene Redzepi from Noma. Imagine learning from these culinary legends!
Festival Awards and Recognition
The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has won many awards!
- In Australia, it won the 2010 RACV Victorian Tourism Awards for "Major Festivals and Events." It was even added to their Hall of Fame! It also won the Melbourne Airport Victorian Tourism Awards in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, it won a Melbourne Award for its "Contribution to Profile" in the community.
- Internationally, it won a Gold award in 2008 from the International Festival and Events Awards for having the 'Best Festival Program'.
