Vivid Food's 2025 Menu Is Jam-Packed, Including Chefs From Michelin-Starred Restaurants and a Celebration of Fire-Based Cooking
If you're most excited about the culinary side of this festival, take note — both the Vivid Chef Series and Vivid Fire Kitchen are on the lineup.
When we say that Vivid is dishing up a taste of London in 2025, we mean it literally: chefs from two of the English capital city's top restaurants are on this year's Vivid Food lineup. From Lyle's, James Lowe is heading Down Under. From Josephine, so is Claude Bosi. One is spending three nights joining Mat Lindsay at Ester, the other has a two-evening date with Brent Savage at Eleven Barrack — and both are serving up must-try menus.
Lowe and Bosi are part of the festival's 2025 Vivid Chef Series, which brings famed culinary names to the Harbour City for bucket list-style dining experiences. If you're keen on the Lowe and Lindsay combination, they're reteaming after the latter went to London for the former's game series, this time joining forces in Sydney to showcase Australian produce — fish and shellfish included — over eight courses. From Bosi and Savage, expect a mix of French gastronomy and Aussie creativity across six courses, complete with Bosi's camembert soufflé with winter black truffle, plus duck liver choux au craquelin from Savage.
"I'm really excited to bring the food from my hometown in France to a new country. This is the first time Bistro Josephine has been outside the UK, and it means a lot to share something so personal with a new audience," said Bosi about his component of the Vivid Food lineup.
"The dishes we serve are inspired by the flavours I grew up with, and I'm looking forward to seeing them reach beyond where it all started. I hope people here connect with the heart and simplicity of what we do."
Neither Vivid Chef Series experience comes cheap. Taking place across Tuesday, May 27–Thursday, May 29, the Ester x James Lowe menu starts at $250 per person, with wine pairings $150 on top. You'll pay $185 for lunch and $285 for dinner — plus either $90 or $180 for vino — for the Eleven Barrack x Claude Bosi collaboration on Tuesday, June 10–Wednesday, June 11.
Vivid Food has also locked in the return of Vivid Fire Kitchen, which will be easier on bank balances given that it's free to attend (but, of course, you will pay for what you eat). Running across 23 nights from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14 — so for the full festival dates — this celebration of fire-based cooking will again take over The Goods Line in Ultimo. Expect pop-ups from a range of eateries and food trucks, including Ogni, Brazilian Flame, Plate It Forward, Flyover Fritterie, Hoy Pinoy, Burn City Smokers, Pocket Rocketz, Mapo Gelato, Mr Spanish Churro and Miss Sina Korean Donuts, alongside live fire cooking demonstrations.
Jess Pryles and Nyesha Arrington are among the chefs on Vivid Fire Kitchen's program, as are The Apollo Group's Oscar Solomon, Firedoor's Lennox Hastie, Viand's Annita Potter, Aalia's Paul Farag, Sunday Kitchen's Karima Hazim and more.
Barbecued seafood will score its own stand, a dedicated wine bar will hero New South Wales vino — and host Mike Bennie-led masterclasses — and First Nations nights will see Indigenous chefs take centre stage.
Elsewhere, Vivid's edible spread for 2025 also spans Neon Dreams, with Shannon Martinez paying tribute to American diners of the 1950s with a plant-based menu and a roller rink; Hollywood Dreaming, a 23-night roster of events in the Hollywood Quarter in Surry Hills; and Nigella Lawson curating dinners in the Muru Giligu pedestrian tunnel.
Vivid Sydney 2025 runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14 across Sydney. Head to the festival website for further information.
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