Crave Sydney International Food Festival 2012

Overview

If you consider yourself a little bit food obsessed, then Crave Sydney International Food Festival is most likely already in your iCal. Complete with reminders going off every week. For everyone else, it’s a food festival that runs in October with almost 500 events going on. There are tours, talks, tastings, cooking classes, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (some with secret locations) and more foodies than you can poke a stick at.

Not to be missed is Breakfast at Bondi on Sunday, October 14, from the nippy, seize-the-day hour of 5.30am. Imagine watching the sunrise over Bondi beach in time to a full symphony orchestra with soprano Lorina Gore, from Opera Australia, joining in. Now picture this scene with your own BYO breakfast (or having grabbed something from one of the surfside food stalls), alongside a few of your closest thousand friends. You could bring some fruit salad, sip coffee in a thermos, or plate up a full English breakfast with all the trimmings from tupperware to give food envy to all around you. Or you could just pay to get into the VIP area to have Bill Granger make you brekkie.

In one of the year's most popular events, Hyde Park gets its Asian hawker-style market on (complete with authentic massive crowds) during 13 nights in spring. Get to the Night Noodle Markets as early as you possibly can (even with extended hours) after work and grab some noodles, dumplings, and Asian desserts. There are three bars to quench your thirst and entertainment including something to do with a lucky Chinese lion. And if lines aren't your thing, you can book the Noodle Box, a rustic pop-up Malay village cafe, created by Chinta Ria (which luckily has its own bar).

Other highlights of the festival include the World Chef Showcase, where you can have Terry Durack tell you what's what when it comes to food, Matt Moran will add fun to your fine dining, and Giovanni Pilu will cook up a storm of Sardinian dishes for you. There will be stacks of barbecue events (hopefully some that will teach certain people how to not turn sausages into charcoal), including one at Sydney Grower’s Market where chefs like Kylie Kwong will be holding the tongs.

The pop-ups and parties also aren't to be missed, including a Mad Hatter's Tea Party from the Studio Neon team, involving a three-course themed dinner in a secret warehouse location. Paris's Diner en Blanc will allow you to get your best whites on with a glamorous public picnic. This is no ordinary picnic, as they insist that you bring a feast, to be eaten off white linen, with silverware, napery, glassware, and proper chairs. White bow tie anyone?