The Ten Best Events at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2014

Melbourne, clear your schedule — it's time to make some dinner plans. Melbourne's biggest gastronomic event starts this week, with food makers, wine tasters and cocktails shakers descending on the city, with you in the middle of it all.

Running from February 28 - March 16, the 2014 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is celebrating the bounty of the water and all its delicious offerings, accompaniments and possibilities. Centred around the theme of water, the festival hub will take leave from solid ground and feature as a three-storey barge anchored on the banks of the Yarra, and a range of masterclasses, street parties, dinners, lunches and wine tastings are sure to keep you busy. With over 200 events poised to take place all over Melbourne and Victoria, we've taken the liberty of picking out our top picks for the 17-day food frenzy that haven't already sold out.

Cocktail Olympics at The Immersery

Built onto the disused Sandridge Rail Bridge, The Immersery is perhaps the most innovative festival hub this food festival has ever seen. Tying into the theme of water, the multi-level temporary structure features a restaurant, bar and raingarden right on the banks of the Yarra. Open every night of the festival, food will be served by local chefs Florent Gerardin (Silo), Daniel Wilson (Huxtable and Huxtaburger) and Jesse Garner (Añada and Bomba), and the country's best bartenders will converge to create cocktails inspired by the three states of water — solid, liquid and gas. With the likes of Daniel Gregory from The Everleigh and Sydney's Shady Pines, the team from Lily Blacks, Eau de Vie and more, this is one bar you can't miss.

February 28 - March 16, 8am-11pm, $110, Queensbridge Square, 1a Queensbridge Street, Southbank, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Race Around Footscray

If you like high intensity grocery shopping, then this is the event for you. An interactive event that allows you to make your soup and eat it too, The Footscray Race will have you rummaging through market stalls, visiting specialised grocers and talking to locals as you race around the suburbs to find the missing ingredients to some seriously good Vietnamese, African and Indian soups. As well as learning all about the fine art of three culturally diverse soups, you'll get to slurp them up at the end as well.

March 8, 10am-2pm, $30, Lentil As Anything, 233 Barkly Street, Footscray, bookings: 0413 273 957, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Matt & Andrew McConnell Host a Gertrude Street Party

Brothers who dine together, wine together – or something like that. In a unique event for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, chef brothers Matt and Andrew McConnell are holding a blood-inspired food and wine event, Blood is Thicker Than Water. Moving between their neighbouring venues, Casa Ciuccio and Cutler & Co., and spilling out onto Gertrude Street, the party will be fuelled by blood-inspired dishes and imported Spanish wines from The Spanish Acquisition.

March 13 at 6.30pm & 8.30pm, $95, Casa Ciuccio & Cutler & Co., 15-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, bookings: (03) 9419 4888, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Taste Now at NGV

Combining art and food is a discerning Melburnians dream, so it makes a lot of sense the the NGV's Melbourne Now exhibition is collaborating with MFWF to create a mixed media event. Combining Melbourne's best contemporary art with food from some of the city's best chefs, the dishes will be matched to and inspired by the artworks in the exhibition. So you get to eat food inspired by art while being surrounded by said art — like I said, a discerning Melburnians dream.

March 1 & 2, 12-2pm, $75, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, bookings: (03) 8662 1555, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Tea Cocktails with Storm in a Teacup

Because tea and vodka were meant to be drunk together, it's no surprise that tea cocktails mix the best of both worlds into one punchy, refreshing drink. However, if your idea of a tea cocktail is a swig of gin into a cup of peppermint, then you better get yourself along to Storm in a Teacup's workshop, where they'll teach you how to best use tea as an ingredient in your liquid gold concoctions. While experimenting with the subtle flavours and spirits, you'll create three cocktails and get to drink them too.

March 5, 7-9pm, $45, Storm in a Teacup, 48 Smith Street, Collingwood, bookings: (03) 9415 9593, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Food Photography with Per-Anders Jorgensen

Photographing food is a lot bigger than just Instagram, and no one knows that quite like Per-Anders Jorgensen. Founder, photographer and co-editor of the cutting-edge gastronomic Fool Magazine, Jorgensen will be running an intimate, hands-on photography workshop exclusively for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. We haven't heard of him doing this anywhere else before, so you better snap up a place stat.

March 11, 10am-4pm, $325, The Essential Ingredient, Elizabeth Street, South Yarra, bookings: (03) 9827 9047, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Water Tasting with St Ali

If you thought that coffee beans were the only important factor in the taste of your latte, think again. Apparently water has a distinct impact on how well your morning cup of joe goes down as well. With St Ali's head barista Matt Perger, see how water such as Evian and San Pelligrino combine with coffee and compare the taste of tap water from Melbourne and London. This is a good one for coffee afficionados, aspiring baristas or just those looking for interesting talking points at their next coffee date.

March 8, 10-11.30am, $25, Sensory Lab Roastery, 706 Lorimer Street, Port Melbourne, bookings: (03) 9686 2990 or [email protected], melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Box Hill Asian Seafood Graze

Sunday morning seafood is how they do it in Box Hill, so do as the locals do and sample local, fresh produce right from the source. On this particular Sunday chef James Tan will join the sea of colour and smells, preparing seafood dishes, dumplings, soups and fresh fish. The event is free, with tastings and dumpling making demos happening throughout the morning. There are also $10 seafood grazing dishes available for a taste of everything.

March 2, 11am-1.30pm, free, Box Hill Central, 1 Main Street, Box Hill, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Saigon Sally's Rooftop Yacht Club

Unfortunately this event doesn't quite warrant the use of 'I'M ON A BOAT', but it does take place on a rooftop, giving you ample Instagram bragging rights. Replicating Vietnam's Nha Trang Yacht Club, Saigon Sally and Hanoi Hannah are hosting an afternoon of Vietnamese snacks, coconuts and St Kilda sunsets. As well as the familiar rice paper rolls and beef cigars, chef Adrian Li will be preparing a range of seafood dishes — perfectly complemented by drinking coconuts and a crisp, cold lager. Your $35 will get you entry and a coconut, with other food and drinks available for purchase.

March 16, 1-9pm, $35, Rooftop at Harbour Room, 2 Pier Road, St Kilda, bookings: (03) 9939 5181, through Saigon Sally or on the door, melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Juicy Jay's Low Country Hoedown

Head straight to the deep, deep South with a traditional crab boil. Dr Juicy Jay — brought to you by the boys behind Chingnon— is no stranger to the crab, and you can rest assured that this doctor knows exactly how to treat his crustaceans. The crabs, crays and cornbread will be served directly onto communal tables — leaving you to get your hands dirty in good old crab boil style. Using both hands, this delicious mess will be washed down with beer, sweet tea and Lynchburg lemonade. Hell yeah!

March 1, 2, 8 & 9, 12-2pm, $110 including 2 hour drinks package, Le Bon Ton, 51 Gipps Street, Collingwood, bookings: [email protected], melbournefoodandwine.com.au

Immersery image courtesy of Roberto Seba, dumpling image courtesy of avlxyz.