Foodies, get ready to flock to the heart of Melbourne next year for not one but two huge events, with the 2017 heading to the southern capital, and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival moving its dates to match.
The highly esteemed World’s 50 Best awards will be held at Melbourne’s historic Royal Exhibition Building on the evening of Wednesday April 5, 2017.
Excited? So are we! It’s the international food world’s night of nights, and this is only the second time that the event has been held outside of London. Last year saw the awards night’s first foray overseas to New York - a hard act to follow, but we have no doubt that Melbourne will step up to the plate. 
Hurtling towards its 15th year as one of the world’s most revered food events, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants surveys food critics, chefs, and the food elite to decide on the best restaurants in the world.
The winners at this year's award ceremony. (Picture: Copyright The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.) Source: The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
As well as the 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony on April 5, events will be happening from Saturday April 1 until Friday April 7 at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building.
The events will bring hundreds of international chefs, restaurateurs, critics and foodies to Melbourne, and Tourism Australia says the week is an excellent opportunity for putting more of Australia’s food and wine stories on the international stage.
“Melbourne is well-known for being home to some of Australia’s best food and wine experiences,” Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan tells SBS.
“The awards provide Australia with an opportunity to bring the world’s most influential food and wine people to Australia to inspire, inform and earn their advocacy for the sharing with other stories of Australia’s food and wine scene.”
Eight chefs who have featured on the World's 50 best list will appear at the Food and Wine Festival's Masterclass weekend. Source: Mia MacDonald / Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
A dream week for foodies
To coincide with the event, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has pushed back the regular March event dates to ensure that punters can enjoy all the food and wine they possibly can within one week.
“It really was a big decision to change the dates,” Melbourne Food and Wine Festival CEO Natalie O’Brien tells SBS. “We felt that it was really really important to align the timing when the world's influencers will really be looking at Melbourne as the incredible gastronomical city that it is.”
The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival will be held from Friday March 31 until Sunday April 9, and there will be a massive hat tip to World’s 50 Best Restaurants with the festival’s Masterclass event.
The masterclasses, held over the weekend of Saturday April 1 and Sunday April 2, will be run by 8 chefs that have featured on the World’s 50 Best list. There’s no word yet on who the chefs will be, but it’s guaranteed there’ll be some huge names on the list.
“We have seen the week as an opportunity to celebrate all the amazing Australian talent that we have: the chefs, winemakers, growers and artisans,” O’Brien says.
A win for Australia?
Speaking of Australian talent, Melbourne’s Attica - headed up by Kiwi chef Ben Shewry - has made the four years in a row, taking out number 33 in .
Will 2017 see a fifth gong for Attica? And - as they were the only Australian restaurant in the top 50 last year - will we see a few more Aussie venues on the list in 2017? (The awards also published an list; this year Dan Hunter at Brae in Victoria came in at 65 and Sydney’s Quay, with Peter Gilmore, at 98). Only time will tell.
Tourism Australia expects hundreds of international visitors - both official and nonofficial - to descend on Melbourne for the event, and with one in five dollars spent by tourists going to Aussie food and wine, that’s a big win for the local industry.
“We’ll be offering the visiting chefs, influencers and media an opportunity to participate in unique food and wine experiences across the country,” O’Sullivan says.
“The awards align with Tourism Australia’s global focus on promoting the country's exceptional culinary experiences, through our Restaurant Australia campaign, and will assist us in further sharing Australia’s food and wine story with the world.”
On their way
Flood of world's best chefs coming to Australia
