Fashions on the plate are just as important to food fans as fashions on the field are to style enthusiasts.
Menus and colour schemes are planned for almost as long and with as much fervour as matching outfits, shoes and handbags.
It took a bit of convincing but we’ve had a preseason peek inside the marquees in the Birdcage and Trackside at this year’s Cup. There are some secrets we can’t share yet but there will be plenty of colour, some big-name chefs and an impressive representation of Melbourne’s multicultural food scene.
In the Birdcage, the blue-and-white-themed Hilton Hotels & Resorts marquee will feature a nostalgic photography tribute to the winners of the hotel’s Stakes race over the past two decades. Hilton on the Park’s executive chef Hue-Man Lam will prepare dishes inspired by the 2013 theme Tastes of the World.
Read more Spring Racing Carnival stories:
SPRING RACING: Year of the Grey
SPRING RACING: Perils of the Punt
SPRING RACING: How to win the style stakes
SPRING RACING: Fashion trifecta
SPRING RACING: Arriving in style
Lam’s menu reads like a travel diary, starting with American cakepops and lemon-cured Ora King salmon from the waters of Akaroa Harbour in New Zealand, and journeying through China with slow-cooked sticky pork belly and pickled vegetables, to a British-inspired warm chicken and mushroom Wellington. French influences have inspired Lam’s Valrhona butter cube with violet cream and salted caramel ice-cream, and there will be a touch of Oz in her local rock oysters with coconut water and lime granita.
Freshwater’s Giovanni Pilu will create a signature dish in the Lavazza Birdcage marquee with its Italian café-inspired black, white and gold theme. Melbourne’s Cacao Fine Chocolates has created an indulgent pastry glazed in single-origin chocolate and decorated with gold leaf that colour-matches the marquee’s theme and complements Lavazza’s newly released Gran Riserva coffee blend.
This year’s Lexus marquee has been designed to reflect Japan’s 1830 Edo Period and will feature pale timbers and a soft colour palette of ocean blue. The food-fashion-conscious Japanese-inspired menu, designed by The Big Group, will include smoked goat’s cheese with a tomato and sherry jelly on spun pastry, beetroot and orange-cured tuna, and pork belly cooked in coconut caramel with crunchy iceberg lettuce, hot mint and fresh lime.
Simon Denton, of Bar Hihou, will create buckwheat crêpes with duck breast and mustard miso at his teriyaki bar, where nori cones will be rolled to order with fillings such as shiso-cured salmon and pickled shiitake mushroom.
Dishes designed by celebrity chef Neil Perry for Lexus guests will include stir-fried cumin lamb shoulder with pickled green chilli, black vinegar and mustard greens; Guangxi pork sliders with pickled shallots, salted chilli and soy mustard dressing; and, to finish, Rosetta Ristorante’s signature tiramisu.
More sweet treats in the Lexus marquee have been designed by South Yarra sweet studio Burch and Purchese and will include explosive raspberry and milk chocolate tubes; smoked white chocolate, coffee, lemon and anise baby cakes; and cracking gin and tonic marshmallows.
Dubai is the destination focus for this year’s Emirates marquee. The interior will be decked out in the ochre tones of the desert, balanced by the airline’s colours of red, gold and white, with furnishings sourced from Dubai marketplaces. The food, developed by Epicure Catering and Emirates’ chef Nasser Iskeirjah, will be Middle Eastern-themed. The marquee will be raised an extra metre this year, to offer guests an enhanced view of the racecourse.
The Myer marquee has been designed to be reminiscent of a handsome black horse. This year’s concept will feel sexy, strong, sophisticated and bold, we’re told. “The iconic Australian romance with horses is reflected in refined intricate details, sexy metals and fresh, crisp whites set against our ongoing love affair with black,” Myer tells us.
Crown Casino’s marquee will be trackside, “back among the action of the races”. Nobu restaurant will create salmon wasabi salsa tacos and scampi aji limo on butter lettuce, while Bistro Guillaume will impress guests with chargrilled king salmon; crispy pork belly, cucumber and herb salad; and zucchini flowers filled with chèvre on ProvenÇale ratatouille.
Dishes created by Crown’s newest restaurant, No. 8, by John Lawson will include jícama ravioli with avocado, chilli and pistachio; and braised beef cheeks with smoked potato puree. The British chef’s restaurant will open this month.
Food doesn’t get more fashionable than that.
