Retro food favourites make a comeback at an immersive Sydney dinner party

Consomme mikado, steak Robert and other long-forgotten dishes are back on the menu this month as part of Dream Feast, a history-led dining experience running from June 2 to 5 at The Mint as part of Vivid Sydney.

Tobi Fox and Cal Fernie, the duo behind Sydney-born, New York-based culinary project Arlo Communal, spent weeks combing through old restaurant menus, faded brochures and trade publications and other cultural artefacts for inspiration from the Caroline Simpson Library Collection – a rich archive of Australian life stretching from the 1700s to now as part of the Museums of History NSW. “It was like a big puzzle, and we wanted to piece it together in our own way,” Fernie says.

Drawing on menus from long-closed dining rooms – among them Mark Foy’s Express Dining Room in Sydney’s CBD, Sid’s Restaurants in Carramar and the Village Nightclub in Fairfield – the four-course menu takes diners on a culinary journey through mid-century Australia.

Highlights include consomme mikado, a clear chicken soup created by chef Auguste Escoffier in 1903; bay lobster vol-au-vents in a coconut vadouvan curry; and steak Robert, a 17th-century dish that had a notable run on menus in the ’60s and ’70s, served here with a sauce of caramelised onions, mustard and bacon. The dinner closes with a meringue-encased bombe Alaska filled with Neapolitan ice-cream.

The archival documents shape other details too – from the menu wording (canapes are listed as “initial indulgences” and desserts as “the sweet summit”), to the silverware, cutlery and lighting. “We’re getting really granular with it and I think diners will appreciate that,” says Fernie.

Archival photos and footage will be projected throughout the evening, while a live music experience mixed by Munasib (an Australian-born Bengali DJ, radio host and curator) builds as the night progresses.

While Dream Feast looks at the rituals of Australian dining and domestic life, a second history-led experience turns to the country’s political history. On May 28, An Evening at Parliament House features a three-course dinner with native ingredients from the building’s rooftop garden paired with wines by Hunter Valley vineyard Tyrell’s, and accompanied by a talk by Clarence Slockee, the Gardening Australia presenter and director of Indigenous cultural landscape and design company Jiwah.

Also new to Vivid this year, The Wine Bar at The International is hosting Cult & Classic, a NSW food and wine party with Mike Bennie from P&V Wine (and Good Food drinks writer). The Martin Place venue – which took out Drinks List of the Year at the 2026 Good Food Guide Awards – will be transformed into an urban wine cellar for the day, with more than 30 winemakers from across the state and 100 wines on pour.

“The range is pretty wild, honestly,” says Bennie. “You’ve got benchmark bottles and cult classics alongside younger producers making vivid, experimental, sometimes slightly left-of-centre wines.” The $45 ticket provides access to an unlimited tasting of everything on offer. “Effectively, you could taste around 100 wines if you had your A-game on and a good spittoon as a helper.”

Hey Rosey from Orange – the acclaimed regional wine bar awarded one Chef’s Hat in the 2026Good Food Guide – is collaborating on the menu.

No ticket is required for Fire Kitchen, the festival’s nightly food hub, which has found a new home this year on the Stargazer Lawn in Barangaroo. Seventeen vendors take over the gently sloping greens, among them, Marrickville’s Greek grill-house, Olympic Meats. Chef-owner Timothy Cassimatis will serve chicken pitogyros: chicken marinated in garlic, paprika and bukovo (dried northern Macedonian chilli), cooked on the spit, and carved hot into fluffy sourdough pita with tomato, onions and herbs.

Open-fire cooking demonstrations and tastings are held nightly at The Pit, an open, immersive arena led by top chefs and pitmasters including Mark Best of Infinity by Mark Best, Annita Potter from Thai restaurant Viand, David Moyle from The Salty Mangrove, MasterChef’s Julie Goodwin, and Lebanese-Australian cook Karima Hazim from Rosebery cooking school Sunday Kitchen.

A Shared Table with Yotam Ottolenghi is the only internationally led event on this year’s Vivid Food program. For the rest of the line-up, new festival director Brett Sheehy has turned the spotlight on NSW with the hope it encourages exploration around the state.

“In a vast program of events, for me, the standout series is the Regional Dinner Series,” says Sheehy. “Having had the opportunity to travel widely, nationally and internationally, it’s clear that NSW food culture and produce are incomparable.”

The Regional Dinner Series pairs Sydney chefs with regional chefs for collaborative dinners at some of the city’s leading restaurants.

Kicking off the series is a partnership between restaurateur Alessandro Pavoni and Frank Fawkner, whose Hunter Valley restaurant, EXP., was named the 2026 Good Food Guide Regional Restaurant of the Year. Held at two-hatted a’Mare on May 24, the dinner promises a fusion of Fawkner’s regional ingenuity and Pavoni’s signature elegance, transplanting the heart of wine country to the city.

Other collaborations include Troy Rhoades-Brown from Hunter Valley restaurant Muse with Nicholas Hill at his Paddington eatery Porcine; Southern Highlands chef Stephen Santucci from Moonacres Kitchen will join Scott McComas-Williams at his city eatery Palazzo Salato; and Tweed Coast chef and author Christine Manfield cooks with Sander Nooij at his Potts Point venue, Yellow.

The series also includes Culture in Motion, a multisensory dining experience held at Sydney Opera House’s Yallamundi Rooms on May 22 and 23.

Bundjalung chef Mindy Woods has teamed up with the venue’s culinary director, Danielle Alvarez, for a deep dive into the flavours and traditions of the NSW North Coast, complemented by Indigenous art and live music. The menu features Bundjalung foods Woods has grown, gathered and sourced.