This year the annual Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival features a week-long program of more than 35 events including dinners, seminars, and hands-on workshops.
The festival is unique; tapping into the food traditions and sustainable food philosophies of the culturally rich residents of Melbourne’s inner north, to create a program that is demonstrative of the municipality’s buoyantly beating and diverse foodie heart.
The hero events of this year’s festival celebrate the wellbeing power of community. The ‘Local Legends’ series honours Darebin’s resident culinary champions – four individuals who have helped shape the vibrant local food scene – Angela Nicolettou (Northcote’s Greek cooking guru), Silvio Serpa (Preston’s own World Pizza Champion 2016), Maria Echevarria-Lang (Thornbury’s Spanish cuisine trailblazer) and Yoko Inoue (Northcote’s raw and vegan food philosopher).
Each Legend will share their insights, food journey and edible class notes in a series of masterclasses held at the Preston campus of Melbourne Polytechnic.
Thornbury-based social enterprise pop-up cooking school ‘free to feed’ presents the Sri Lankan Pop-Up Dinner with asylum-seeker and former chef/restaurateur Charu creating authentic heart- (and belly-) warming dishes from her family kitchen. The Syrian Supper sees fellow ‘free to feed’ chef Nayran recreate dishes from the menu of her former bustling Damascus restaurant.
Grab your grandma and nosh with the Nonnas of the North in a morning tea filled with scones and food story-sharing at the Grandmas of Melbourne Talk Food.
Come, Eat II: The Art of Homemade Sambal uncovers the web of social histories that come with each differing recipe of this beloved Asian hot sauce, through an exhibition, or stories told over a meal. From kolache to copa colla, okonomiyaki to roti, pancetta to paella and daal bhaat to sholezard – if all that sounds Greek to you, a program of over twenty masterclasses and seminars allows attendees to expand their gastronomic glossary and deep-dive into traditional recipes and techniques of incredibly diverse and authentic local food wisdoms.
Sustainability and self-sufficiency remain a key tenet of the festival, and DIYers can sharpen their skills with workshops on quail-keeping, veggie garden optimisation, olive preserving, wine and beer crafting, backyard trout rearing and smoking, and the very on-trend yet ancient art of vegetable fermentation.
Ahead of the festival itself, local residents are encouraged to submit their homemade red wine, white wine, country wines (grain, mead, fruit), tomato passata, preserved olives, and ajvar into the festival’s annual competition, with winners announced at the Meet the Makers Showcase. The showcase, held on the final weekend, champions the homegrown produce created in the garages and kitchens of Darebin, and features homemade wine tastings alongside cooking demonstrations, information stalls, coffee, and music.
The festival ends with a welcome; The Welcome Dinner Project will connect newly arrived migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and international students with established Australians over a shared meal; a wonderful bookend to a festival that heartily embraces the importance of food in and of community.
Meet the Maker competition entries close: Wednesday 24 May 2017
To find out more go to darebinarts.com.au/foodandwine or follow Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival on Facebook
When: 29 May – 4 June
Where: Various locations in Darebin (Northcote, Preston, Reservoir, Thornbury).