• Hunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano drizzled with chestnut honey, mac’n’cheese with prosciutto baked into it, and tricked-up tiramisu scooped tableside: Chris Lucas’s ritzy Italian steakhouse, Grill Americano, is a knockout.

• Want to be first to try it? Sign up to Broadsheet Access for an exclusive dinner this Friday night, before it opens to the public.

• It’s sugo season. And Guy Grossi is running a free passata-making workshop at King & Godfree. Keen?

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• A Melbourne chip lover is ranking packets from around the world – here’s the verdict so far. She says one Aussie chip “lights up every taste bud in your mouth”.

• Introducing Hip-Hop Hibachi, where yakitori and the likes of Ye (fka Kanye West) come together at Richmond’s National Hotel.

• I can’t stop thinking about: 1800 Lasagne’s show-stealing, logic-defying cos wedge with velvety anchovy cream. Aka the most seductive lettuce dish I’ve ever had.

• Recipe: the secret ingredient – and other simple tips – for perfecting a top Italian diner’s signature pesto pasta. Consider this the only pesto recipe you’ll ever need.

• Here’s a throwback: Vodka Cruiser is giving away limited-edition 3.1-litre double magnums of the sweet, sweet teenage-party elixir.

• First Look: Brunswick’s notorious Railway Hotel makes a triumphant return as a 965-person mega-pub, with an eastern Mediterranean diner, a late-night vinyl-only bar and a sprawling beer garden.

• Get your fingers ready for licking: KFC is bringing an 11-course fine-dining degustation to Australia. (That’s a sentence we never thought we’d write on Broadsheet.)

• First Look: It’s all-out Italiana at Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca, the Poodle team’s nostalgic new trattoria – serving saucy meatball subs and fried-bologna sangas till late.

• You can now find the celebrated plant-based “meat”, Impossible Beef, at your local supermarket. All the details.

• Watch: comedian Merrick Watts shares his fave food-and-wine pairing – and it’s a divisive one.

• A hotdog festival is coming to Melbourne this weekend. There’ll be two comps: one to find out who can eat the most hotdogs, and another to find the longest sausage dog. Gird your (and your four-legged friends’) loins.

• Now open: a new location for Kelso’s, which does some of the city's best sandwiches. For a limited time, grab its popular classic chopped-cheese sangas (and more) alongside beers by Collingwood microbrewery The Mill.