How Aussie film festivals are gaining serious food cred

If you think about heading to a local park to take in movies and a meal, do you expect to be noshing on a gourmet croque monsieur or a warm Nutella bombolone with vanilla bean gelato? Or wandering through an international street market to pick up dinner?

Probably not – but sounds nice, doesn’t it? Good news. If you’re in Melbourne or Sydney, that’s exactly what you’ve got to look forward to. And no matter where you are in Australia, you can work up an appetite with SBS On Demand’s free Feast on Film festival in March (more on that in a bit).

Food meeting film is nothing new – we’ve enjoyed Chocolat and Babette’s Feast and many other films where the subject matter makes us very, very hungry.

Now, bringing a new meaning to fusion, world cuisine and cinema will be blended during upcoming open-air events in Melbourne and Sydney that are guaranteed to work up a hunger for other cultures.

During the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF) in March, Caulfield Racecourse will be transformed into Gourmet Cinema, bringing together five of the city’s hottest restaurants – The European, Baby, Mamasita, Epocha and Le Bon Ton – and pairing their finest fare with movies capturing that spirit.

Ian Curley, executive chef of The European Group, is stoked they’ll be cooking up with Woody Allen’s whimsical time-hop Midnight in Paris, a perfect fit for their French brasserie approach.

Hailing from the UK originally, where special movie events are a little more prevalent, Curley says the team-up with MFWF is something he’s been hungry for. “I’d been trying to convince them to do something like this, maybe watching The Godfather while passing meatballs around.”

At Gourmet Cinema, Curley’s team will plate up The European’s beloved croque monsieur with house-smoked ham, gruyère and mustard (it also wins fans at the group’s other venues, Siglo and The Melbourne Supper Club), as well as their petuna ocean trout salade niçoise. They’ve even celebrated the film’s marriage of French and American culture with a boudin blanc hot dog served with spiced onions and dijonnaise Américain.

“There’s nothing better than going to a movie and having a hot dog, though this will be a little different,” Curley says. “It captures the classic idea of sitting street-side in a French bar, drinking Pastis.”

He isn’t perturbed by the practicalities of taking the kitchen mobile either. “It’s all about making sure that you’ve got the right stuff prepped before and using quality ingredients. There would be nothing worse than someone saying, ‘I’ve had this at The European and it’s not as good as that.’ You have to do it properly.”

Baby’s head chef Nicola Dusi may be a Milanese export but he’s nevertheless up for celebrating rival city Rome with a screening of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza). “It’s one of my favourite movies,” he says. “The most important thing about it is how deeply it describes the life in Rome and what that city is all about.”

The Richmond-based Italian restaurant will be offering two pizzas, Dusi says, a classic margherita and a salumi, as well as their rigatoni al ragu. Though all five restaurants will be present each night of the five-day festival, the Friday night screening of The Great Beauty will also see Baby offer a special treat in the shape of Dusi’s warm Nutella bombolone with vanilla bean gelato.

“If I think about my perfect night out, I would probably say a nice movie outdoors, enjoying a pizza with friends,” he says. “When you’re as confident with the food you offer as we are at Baby, where I work with an amazing team of people, it’s not that hard to offer it in a different set up.”

MFWF will also team up with the Melbourne International Film Festival to present a special screening of Pierre Deschamps’ Noma: My Perfect Storm, exploring René Redzepi’s revolutionary restaurant.

Also in March, food lovers will be able to devour a season of culinary docos over at SBS On Demand dubbed Feast on Film. The online pop-up film festival features a host of award-winning documentaries, including riveting French flick Kings of Pastry (read the review here), feel-good Danish film Good Things Await (review here) and inspiring film A Matter of Taste about chef prodigy Paul Liebrandt, who at 24 was awarded three stars by the The New York Times for his hyper-modern culinary creations. (Head here to find out more about Feast on Film, or jump onto SBS On Demand to start watching.)

April will see Sydney’s Prince Alfred Square in Parramatta transformed into PicNic Cinema, replete with inflatable beds for moviegoers to recline in while they watch a series of 16 award-winning international films. An attendant street food market will represent each of their national cuisines.

Frenchman Simon Ripaud is the brain behind PicNic Cinema and says he wanted to create an event that was a little special. “There are so many open-air cinemas in Sydney, but we wanted to do something a bit different, so you can chill out watching a movie and enjoy a gourmet food festival at the same time.”

Ripaud’s picks include a Bollywood-themed night accompanied with Indian curries and writer/director Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (Dabba), family-friendly screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo and Castle in the Sky as well as Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin).

With plans to expand to other cities, Ripaud says the marriage of movies and munchies is a no-brainer. “It’s a celebration of culture. There’s something for everyone.”