Jake Kellie at Sunda
Jake Kellie, from Singapore’s Burnt Ends, teams
up with Sunda’s Khanh Nguyen at a one-off dinner
where contemporary Southeast Asian and modern-
Australian techniques will be fused with indigenous ingredients,
all cooked over specialty woods.All The Chickens
Morgan McGlone from Belles Hot Chicken has put
together a night where the only thing on the menu
is chicken. Chicken-loving chefs Matt Abergel
(Hong Kong’s Yardbird), Palisa Anderson (Chat Thai), Paul Carmichael
(Momofuku Seiobo), Thi Le (Anchovy) and Trisha Greentree (ex-Brae)
will be exploring new takes on traditional chicken dishes such as
yakitori, jerk chicken and Hainanese chicken rice. McGlone will
be eschewing his famed fried birds for a take on the Hawaiian dish,
huli-huli chicken.MFWF The Village Feast
The tiny Gippsland town of Jindivick (population
500) will be transformed into a culinary village for
one day. Chef Matt Moran will be cooking lunch
at the local Jindi café while Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook) will run a
Chinese restaurant, Shannon Martinez (Smith & Daughters) will
set up and run The Green Grocer and Pastuso’s Alejandro Saravia
will be behind the counter at The Butcher. There’ll also be The
Deli and Smokehouse, The Pub, The Bakery, The Milkbar and The
Dispensary, featuring cocktails from Loch Brewery & Distillery and
Melbourne’s Bad Frankie.Filipino Feast at Rice Paper Sister
Jordy Navarra (of Toyo Eatery in Manila), Nicole
Ponseca (Maharlika, in New York), and cookbook
author Yasmin Newman (7000 Islands) join Rice
Paper Sister chef Ross Magnaye in a dinner that will journey
through the variety and diversity of Filipino cuisine.Daniel Puskas at Laura, Pt Leo Estate
Sydney chef Daniel Puskas (Sixpenny) heads to the
Mornington Peninsula to join forces with Laura chef
Phil Wood in a six-course lunch that will highlight
greatest-hit dishes from both restaurants.For more information and tickets: mfwf.com.au“There were many things inside that book that I didn’t
understand: proteins that I didn’t have access to, the
fish are different, the oysters are different. There were
glimpses of Aboriginal cooking, of Italians in Australia,
of the Asian community. It was all outside of my
comfort zone and I thought it was brilliant. It’s still
one of the most dog-eared books I have in my library.”
The trip is also about his desire to see something
totally new. “When the invitation came to come to
Australia I wasn’t going to miss it. It’s a place where
I always wanted to walk through the markets,” he
says. “There’s nothing in New York for me. It’s
just rich opulence – that doesn’t interest me. But
Australia is an opportunity to be put out of my
comfort zone a little bit.”
“We cook a certain way. The sauces are the
sauces are the sauces. But this is about adaptation.
We can take our skill set and we take a good look at
the Australian market, and whatever is it that makes
us most excited, that’s what we’re going to cook.”●David McMillan is appearing at the Melbourne Food and
Wine Festival on Saturday 9 March. Hear him speak at
Theatre of Ideas (day pass $65) or enjoy dinner cooked
by the Joe Beef team and Derek Dammann for Kings of
Québec, supported by Destination Canada (7pm to 10pm,
$185 including snacks and a three-course shared menu
with matching wines). For more information and tickets,
visit mfwf.com.auM
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SMore Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
events to keep on your radar.PHOTOGRAPHY JENNIFER MAY (JOE BEEF), JAMES MORGAN (MFWF VILLAGE FEAST) & ROB SHAW (DANIEL PUSKAS).
GOURMET TRAVELLER 79