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Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2026: The Full Program, Highlights and Unmissable Events
A Greek feast stretching 600 metres, a global cake phenomenon, and chefs flying in from every corner of the world — MFWF 2026 is going to be huge!
There’s a moment each March when Melbourne shifts into its favourite rhythm — the city loosens, the days brighten, and the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival settles in. For 2026, it arrives with a clear, steady energy, offering ten days and more than 200 events that trace the way the city eats and gathers. It feels less like a program and more like a snapshot of Melbourne revealing its food culture in full.
The festival opens in Kings Domain, where the World’s Longest Lunch stretches out in its sweep of white linen. This year’s table honours Greece, a community woven deeply into Melbourne’s palate. Ella Mittas begins with meze: dill-bright fritters, sour-cherry dolmades, fava sharpened with pickled shallots. Alex Xinis follows with slow-roasted lamb and chickpeas recalling Athens tavernas. The Christopoulos–Konis–Kafeneion trio closes with a radiant portokalopita — a menu grounded in lineage and the flavours the city knows instinctively.
Then comes the Southern Hemisphere debut of CAKE PICNIC. What began in San Francisco as a small exchange has grown into a global phenomenon selling out across London and New York. Its premise is disarmingly simple: bring one cake, share many. Bakers of every style will arrive with tiers, roulades, tarts and bold constructions balanced on buttercream and ambition. For a city that reveres pastry, it’s a moment of pure pleasure.
A quieter thread runs elsewhere. Helen Goh — psychologist, baker, Ottolenghi collaborator and author of Baking and the Meaning of Life — hosts an intimate lunch at Zinc. Her three-course menu, drawn from her book, leads into a conversation with Emelia Jackson about memory, ritual and the personal comfort of baking. In a program known for scale, her presence offers a thoughtful pause.
The Global Dining Series anchors the festival’s more exploratory side, shaped not by celebrity but by exchange. Le Doyenné — the French dining room critics cross oceans to revisit — appears at Brae with menus rooted in place and refinement. New York’s Bridges brings its Basque-leaning confidence to Cutler, a collaboration suited to Fitzroy’s appetite for edge.
First Nations and Pasifika chefs shape some of the program’s most resonant work. Mindy Woods brings Bundjalung technique and native botanicals to Residence; Monique Fiso reframes expectation at Farmer’s Daughters; Daniel Motlop joins Yiaga to continue an evolving conversation around Indigenous foodways. These events sit at the centre of the program.
Playfulness moves throughout the city. Andy Ricker turns Dessous into a laab-driven fever dream. Daniela Maiorano brings an Italo-street menu to Sunhands. Abi Balingit shares her New York Filipino baking sensibility at Musings & Merienda. Cariñito arrives in Carlton with Mexico City tortillas brightened by Southeast Asian notes. Melbourne shifts easily between Paris, Manila, Oaxaca, Chiang Rai and Valletta.
Our hot inter-Sitchu-city tip: Corner 75 — Sydney’s newly crowned Restaurant of the Year — lands at Tipo 00 for one night only, bringing its caraway-kissed, sour-cream-flecked brilliance to Melbourne. A loud, joyful, flavour-rich celebration of Hungarian cooking and its soulful ties to Italy.
When the festival returns to Fed Square, it does so with a focus on pastry. Baker’s Dozen, now in its fourth year, expands with more patissiers and interstate guests. Helen Goh collaborates with Mietta by Rosemary; Dröm joins Abi Balingit; lines form early for Lune, Amann, Monforte Viennoiserie, Raya, Tarts Anon and a new wave of bakers.
Beyond the city, the Regional Roadtrip sharpens Victoria’s sense of place. Across the Otways, the Macedon Ranges, Gippsland’s dairy country and the Peninsula’s vine-lined hills, the festival spreads into long tables, fire-led gatherings, coastal meals and collaborations anchored in local produce. Events range from Zoe Birch’s countryside pizza party to Phillip Island Winery’s forage-and-fire dinner with ethnobotanist Jess Moulynox.
Together, the 2026 program reflects a region intent on evolution. It honours memory without leaning on nostalgia; it respects tradition while embracing reinvention. Most of all, it affirms the simple pleasure of gathering at the table.
If the 2026 program has sparked your appetite, there’s plenty more on the table. Here are the new restaurants and bars adding fresh energy to Melbourne’s dining scene.
