When the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival was cancelled earlier this year, the organisers vowed they would be back – but nobody expected it to be quite this soon.

One of the world’s top foodie events will make a dramatic return next week, with a completely new online format. Melbourne Food & Wine Festival: The Online Edition will feature a brand new line-up of live-streamed talks, tours and demonstrations hosted by renowned chefs like René Redzepi, Massimo Bottura, Ben Shewry, Neil Perry, Dan Hunter, Kate Reid and more.

Food + Wine Victoria Creative Director Pat Nourse said: “This is not a replacement for the March festival, it’s just something we’re doing in the meantime that we hope will support and stimulate the hospitality industry.”

“We would have liked to have run the world’s longest socially-distanced lunch, with 1,600 people spaced 1.5 metres apart, but that would have taken us from Melbourne to Sydney.”

Melbournites can experience The Online Edition in 3D with many of the participating restaurants, cafes and bars offering special pick-up and takeaway food and drink to complement the program. The rest of Australia – and the world – can tune in online for free.

Program highlights

Baking with Mike Russell, Baker Bleu
Monday, May 25 at 5pm (AEST)
Starter not starting? Fumbling with your crumb? And just how sour should your dough be, anyway? Mike Russell, Melbourne baker extraordinaire, is here to answer your questions and solve your home baking dramas.

What I’ve Learnt in Lockdown: René Redzepi, Noma
Monday, May 25 at 7pm (AEST)
What’s been happening at the world’s most famous restaurant while the world has been on lockdown? How has one of the most creatively-minded chefs been keeping limber in the meantime? Take a walk with Noma chef and co-owner René Redzepi and find out.

Lessons from Lockdown: Ben Shewry, Attica
Wednesday, May 27 at 1pm (AEST)
Baking. Cakes. A soup kitchen. Cooking online with Hamish Blake and Senator Briggs. A collab between Attica and Lune. It hasn’t been business as usual for just about everyone these last weeks, but Ben Shewry has taken it to the next level. Here’s what he’s learned along the way.

La Vera Lasagne with Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana
Wednesday, May 27 at 7pm (AEST)
When lasagne turns out to be one of Australia’s poster-dishes in lockdown life, there’s no better time to turn to the master, the maestro, the one and only Massino Bottura, live from the lasagne heartland of Emilia Romagna, to talk about the real thing.

Lune Croissanterie behind the scenes
Friday, May 29 at 1pm (AEST)
Just how does she do it? We can’t promise that you’ll walk away from this behind-the-scenes tour of Lune’s kitchens making Kate Reid-grade croissants, but we can say you’ll get to know the ins and outs of this highly original and brilliantly polished Melbourne institution like never before. Lune will also bring back one of its greatest hits – the Lune Reuben, stuffed with pastrami, cheese and sauerkraut with a pickle on top – for one week only.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival: The Online Edition will run from May 25-30, 2020. For the full program, head to melbournefoodandwine.com.au.