The kitchens of Melbourne’s best restaurants are busily working overtime in order to prepare for the ultimate culinary experience that is Taste of Melbourne – now only two weeks away.

Our beautiful friends at Taste of Melbourne are giving away 2 general admission tickets to a lucky Spread My Butter reader if you can answer the following question:

Which of the following participating restaurants is your favorite in Melbourne – and what did you order that blew you away?

(simply answer by leaving a comment below – easy!)

Your answers will be featured in a Best Of Melbourne post at a later time. Don’t forget to use a valid email address when you comment, or we won’t be able to contact you if you win!

Winners will be drawn at 5pm, August 25th (Tuesday) so get your entries in quick!

Congratulations to Adski - I hope you have a fantastic time at Taste of Melbourne!4xpykw2q7i

After last year’s success, Taste of Melbourne is returning to Carlton for another tasty event perfect for food-lovers. After my visit to the recent Taste of Sydney, I can assure you that having the ability to forage through freshly prepared dishes (in tasting portions) from the city’s top restaurants all in one day is a dream come true.

Participating chefs include Frank Camorra from MoVida, Jacques Reymond from Jacques Reymond, George Calombaris from The Press Club, and Hellenic Republic, Shane Delia from Maha Bar, Matthew Wilkinson from Circa the Prince, Ping Yan Yeung from Silks, Tobie Puttock from Fifteen, Dallas Cuddy from Verge, Philippe Mouchel from the brasserie by Philippe Mouchel, Joseph Vargetto from Oyster Little Bourke, Jocelyn Riviere from The Court House, Stuart McVeigh from The Botanical, Tadashi Takahashi from Nobu and Gary Mehigan from The Boathouse.

For all you Master Chef fans, George and Gary will be there serving up their signature dishes – perhaps you can give them a cheeky pointer or two!

Masterchef Judges

To get a good idea of what delectable dishes are on offer, check out the menu here

WHAT: Taste of Melbourne – The Ultimate Dining Experience

WHEN: August 27-30, 2009

WHERE: Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens

HOW MUCH: Entry tickets from $27.50 – special offers available

Tickets on sale now!

A highlight though, was a dish I had at the wedding – and I rarely eat anything amazing at weddings, due to everything being luke warm, dry and overcooked.

Shark fin soup, served on a layer of steamed egg (chawanmushi style) with crab meat. You can’t see the steamed egg in the photo as it rests on the bottom of the plate, but the silky egg and crab meat complements the thick, rich soup. Garnished with a full piece of shark’s fin, goji berries and “silver” bean sprouts. Decadent and divine!

I wish I could’ve stayed longer! I did stop by a restaurant named “Devi’s Corner” which was recommended by the hotel concierge to have really good Nasi Lemak, thought it really wasn’t anything to write home about, as the Malaysian place down the road from my office in Sydney would’ve done an equally (if not better) job.

Every foodie’s dream come true – to have the top restaurants in Sydney serve sample sized signature dishes in a beautiful outdoor setting. The autumnal weather was crisp and perfect last evening… and so begins the adventures of Miss Pac Man (where you go around a maze and eat continuously… until you win!)

But the first stop – Flowing chandon inside the VIP Emirates Lounge, to wet the whistle.

And here’s just a few (ok so we had a lot, don’t judge me) dishes we sampled yesterday. Check out the rest of the restaurant menu’s here

Yellow fin tuna with ruby grapefruit and sweet crackling pork by Flying Fish

Tempura ricotta filled zucchinni flower with basil pesto sauce (left) by Jonah’s, Spicy pork betels leaves with pickled ginger (right) by Longrain

Gundooee organic grass fed wagyu beef burger, eton mess with summer berries by Becasse

Arancini of truffle rissotto and buffalo mozzarella, spinach and fennel sauce by Berowra Waters Inn

Fagottino di carne – homemade sausage bound with parmesan and truffle egg, finished with lemon EVO by Buon Ricordo

Vanilla panna cotta with lavender honey and fresh pomegranate by Jonah’s – here’s the video!
  
It is hilarious, the way it moves!

There are also amazing food stalls from providores (I bought some amazing straccino from Pasenella!), butchers, organic farmers, so there is plenty of time to walk off your full stomach while you’re… buying more food to eat for later. I picked up some incredible wagyu steaks (marble score for $30 each! The cute staff member gave us a discount. Now who doesn’t love a good looking man who knows his beef – and then proceeds to let you sample them.

  
I want to treat him like a piece of meat.

Hopefully you Sydney siders will get a chance to attend this amazing event!

Events I have booked so far:

An Evening with Ferran Adria – State Theatre

Good Food Month and Phaidon Press presents the world’s most celebrated chef – Ferran Adria, from the world’s best restaurant – Spain’s elBulli.

Hennessy Cognac Dinner at Claude’s

Where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Claude’s Restaurant presents a menu inspired by contrasting French regional cuisine historically touched by the exotic influence of spices.

the(sydney)magazine Food Hall of Fame Dinner

To celebrate Good Food Month and to honour our 2008 Food Hall of Fame winners we would like to invite our readers to a very special dinner at one of Sydney’s finest restaurants, Guillaume at Bennelong. Tickets on sale from September 25.

Young Chefs’ Dinner – Coast Restaurant

The Young Chefs’ Dinner showcases the cooking of Sydney’s best young chefs including James Parry from Oscillate Wildly, winner of the 2009 Josephine Pignolet Award. Other chefs include Luke Powell (Tetsuya’s), Josh Davidson (Coast), Michael Urquhart (No 2 Oak St, Bellingen) and Marc Williams (Foveaux Restaurant and Bar).

Chocolate classes – Adora Chocolates

Learn to make butter truffles and chocolate shavings.Learn to make chocolate baskets with fruit dipping and cluster making.

Bentley Restaurant and Bar – Vegetarian

Brent Savage prepares a ten course vegetarian tasting menu. The optional wine match for this menu will feature leading organic and biodynamic producers.

It was a crisp, sunny Saturday afternoon. You could sit by the window alcove with the weekend papers and watch the world go by without a worry in the world, and every once in a while our dreamy-eyed waiter David will stop by for a friendly chat.

The tarts were exceptional – the menu done by Greg Burge (ex Aqua Dining and Rockpool catering), the layers of pastry so light and buttery, incredibly flaky when you bite into it, accompanied by sweet flavours such as caramelized onions and fig. The pizza was mediocre, it would’ve been better if it were prepared fresh upon ordering. The salad I loved, with my biased opinion because fig and prosciutto are one of my favorite combinations of flavours. The polenta muffin was very special, and a god-send to anyone with a wheat allergy – the texture was crumbly but the favours were sharp and the saltiness of bacon perfectly well balanced.

Tart of caramelized onions, fig and walnut

Prosciutto, fig and walnut raddichio salad

Gorgonzola pizza with olives

Polenta muffin with bacon & cheese

And on the house from our favorite waiter: Pear, honey and hazelnut mousse cake – just delectible, David.

How Saturdays should be – now if only I could pair this with a glass of Louis Roderer rosé…

Sunshine, Swimming, Bloody Mary’s, Boats… Life is perfect! However, I’m a tad terrified of all the events to come in November and December – it is going to be non-stop and my liver is going to hate me. I think I need those Korean sachets Deb is talking about as well!

By special request from Cakalusa - who wants shots of the nudie beach we sailed past:

One more thing – Another girlfriend of mine whom I was out with last night got her drink spiked at a bar in Kings X. Girls, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful these days as the drink spikers are obviously making their rounds in Sydney. It was onky 4 weeks ago that I got spiked!

Young Chefs Dinner Menu:

Tom Walton, Moncur Terrace

Blini, scallop carpaccio, apple cider mayonnaise, pig’s tail

Hare sausage, daikon cake, beetroot puree

Globe artichoke, pea and reggiano tartlet

2004 Brown Brothers Blanc de Blanc, Brut, Whitlands Vineyard, King Valley, Victoria

(canapes photo unavailable)

Hamish Ingham, Billy Kwong

Salad of line – caught King George whiting with pickled Chinese mushrooms, fennel and Sichuan chilli oil. 

2005 Albert Mann, Cuvee Albert, Riesling, Alsace, France

Philip Wood, Tetsuya’s

Butter poached spanner crab with consomm?noodles and sauce American

2006 Wild Rock Wild Ferment Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, NZ

Damien Heads, Pony Lounge & Dining

Roasted Redgate Farm Jurassic quail with it’s own tortellini white asparagus, broad beans and tomato

2005 Waitiri Creek, The Drummer Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand

Brent Savage and Daniel Hong, Bentley Restaurant & bar

Smoked veal tenderloin, tonka bean mayonnaise and confit maron

2005 Waitiri Creek, The Drummer Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand

Daniel Puscas, Oscillate Wildly

Cheese – woodside fresh chevre, illation, gorgonzola piccante

1992 Geoff Merrill Museum Release Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra, South Australia

Jacqueline Bourke

Chocolate and almond, Raspberries and almond milk

Petit Fours

Chef’s Speeches