What’s happening around town

• After 11 years with Nomad Group, chef Jacqui Challinor has joined Andrew McConnell’s Trader House restaurant group as a development chef, where she’ll collaborate with McConnell and head chefs at venues including Hot-Listed spots Cutler & Co and Gimlet.

• Stop by Madonna Electric this Sunday February 9 and get dine-in pizzas and Margaritas for $9.20 each.

This week in food and drink news

• Coming soon: Simone Watts spent four years building her dream restaurant. Barragunda Dining finally opens this month.

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• First look: Breadtop meets Scandinavian bakery at Collingwood Yards’ Dua Bakehouse.

• How to choose your first – or next – Melbourne omakase.

• Eight Melbourne chefs – including Rosheen Kaul and Jung Eun Chae – share date spot recommendations.

• First look: Box Hill was a dry zone for decades. It finally has a neighbourhood bar.

• Melbourne has waited 25 years for Bakery Hill’s cellar door to open.

• This one thing: this underrated Thai cafe has some of the best cakes in Melbourne.

• New hire: former Cutler & Co head chef Juan Lantadilla Tapia now leads the team at Antara. And he’s rethinking what the venue can be.

• Journalist Lee Tran Lam’s new podcast brings Aussie food stories – including the origin story of the goon bag and truffle hunting with drug-sniffer dogs – to the front.

• Victorian distillery Marionette is hosting an 11-day fruit and flowers pop-up in Fitzroy with chefs including Mark Harnell of Reed House and Charlie Duffy of Small Batch, starting next Thursday February 13.

• After a sold-out debut season last year, Nongkrong Festival – an Indonesian cultural celebration run by Indonesian Australian siblings Moira and Darryl Tirtha – is returning for its second run from February 9 to 23.

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• 12 healthy dinner recipe ideas – from rice bowls to a gingery prawn omelette.