While most of us have our sights set on end of year festivities, the Food and Drink Victoria team is already thinking about March. The organsiation behind the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival today announced programming for next year’s 10-day event, which runs from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 30.

Headlining the festival is celebrity chef Curtis Stone. The Los Angeles-based Melbourne-raised chef will host and design the menu for the flagship World’s Longest Lunch event. (Curtis Stone Events is also the festival’s new catering partner).

The lunch – which is long in distance, not time – will take place in Treasury Gardens with hundreds of diners seated along 600 metres of table.

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Cookbook author Julia Busuttil Nishimura will host the sibling event World’s Longest Brunch in The Royal Botanic Gardens. Guests will stroll and enjoy Busuttil Nishimura’s menu which includes cinnamon buns, Persian herb frittata and a cake station.

The festival is known for importing culinary talent and this year will facilitate 27 events with overseas talent. Chefs from London’s St John will occupy French Saloon for a week; Daniel Calvert of Tokyo’s three-Michelin starred French restaurant Sezanne will cook two services with chef Dan Hunter at Brae; and chefs from two-Michelin starred Konstantin Filippou in Vienna will join Hugh Allen at Vue de Monde.

For those who don’t want to spend big at the festival, there are free dim sims from chefs Rosheen Kaul, John Rivera of Askal and Kariton, and Eun Hee An of Moon Mart at Emporium. And free tacos from Tom Sarafian and Raph Rashid at Wesley Place.

“Whatever you’re into, be it things fancy or casual, epic or intimate, there’s a whole lot in this festival for you,” creative director Pat Nourse says. The mammoth festival will include more than 200 events. Tickets go on sale this Thursday November 28 at 10am.

mfwf.com.au