Culture

Ringing in the lunar new year, we talk the best of bao and the buns with the most fun in Wilson Chung’s beginner’s guide to the greatest hits of our Chinese bakeries.

For the thousands who answered the call of the West this November, the Margaret River Gourmet Escape more than lived up to its promise.

There are a lot of food shots on Instagram: the good, the bad, the partly chewed, the flash-flared. It turns out that quite a few top Australian chefs are also dab-hands in the amateur photography department.

From sunset beach barbecues in Margaret River to foraging expeditions in the central west of New South Wales, here's what Australia's best festivals of eating and drinking have to offer the happy (and hungry) reveller.

Marrakech came to Melbourne with a riot of exotic tastes at the Exposure Gala for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. Rock the casbah indeed.

At Cook It Raw Japan, 15 of the world's most creative chefs were asked to create dishes which both reflected the environment of Japan's Ishikawa prefecture, where the event was held, and were in harmony with the serving wares made specifically for each of them by local artisans. PHOTOGRAPHY ERIK OLSSON Read more about Cook it Raw 2011.

As if foraging in Japanese forests and netting your own ducks weren’t challenge enough, the latest Cook It Raw festival threw art into the mix, writes Pat Nourse. PHOTOGRAPHY ERIK OLSSON Read more about Cook it Raw 2011.

Things are looking up at Star City. The Star, as it’s now called, has invested heavily in offering bold new food and drink ventures, which means that for diners, the odds have gone from a crapshoot to blackjack. That is to say, the house still holds all the cards, but if you’re canny, you’ve got a shot at coming out ahead, and you’re sure to have plenty of fun along the way.

There’s no greater party to launch the festive season than the Melbourne Cup and there’s no more exclusive invitation than one to Flemington’s Birdcage.

Five of the country’s most popular chefs invite us into their home kitchens to share their insights into the must-haves (and the mistakes) of this most fundamental domain. Read the article here and launch the gallery to see more images of the home kitchens of some of Australia's top chefs.

Where do you take the world’s most fearsome restaurant critic for dinner when he comes to town? To his favourite Bondi restaurant, naturally, and the choice of Sean’s Panaroma, the venue for our reception for our columnist Adrian Gill, was a smashing success by any measure.

“From Paris with Love” was the theme of the recent Silver Ribbon Exposure Gala for the OCRF. And in true Gallic style, we had a ball. PHOTOGRAPHY DANIEL MAHON

We had a ball when fine Italian food and sparkling good company all came together for a good cause at the annual Exposure Gala. PHOTOGRAPHY DANIEL MAHON

WINE ★ ★ ★ Put simply, this restaurant offers one of the finest, most interesting and most mouth-watering. ★ ★ An outstanding, well-presented selection of wine that makes a significant contribution to overall appeal of the establishment. ★ A restaurant notable for the quality and sustainability of its cellar.