Food Drink
The latest from Food Drink on Lifestyle Desires.
The prickly plant changing Australia's pour
Australian agave spirits are moving from curiosity to regional ambition, as growers, distillers and bars turn a spiky crop into a local pour.
Horchata slips into the café script
Horchata is slipping from regional staple to café lifestyle signal, and Australian counters already look ready for the cold, creamy version.
Guzman y Gomez could conquer Australia. America was another story.
Guzman y Gomez's US exit shows how an Australian fast-food hit can feel singular at home and strangely generic in Chicago.
Melbourne's new Italian rooms want you to stay
Melbourne Italian restaurants are swinging back to meatballs, late pours and family-room warmth, a clue to what diners want in 2026.
The tomato that makes summer taste real
Heirloom tomatoes in Australia have a short, glorious season. Here is how to buy them, cook them and understand the growers keeping flavour alive.
More
Steam cooking myths Matt Stone wishes home cooks would drop
Steam cooking myths persist because home cooks still confuse moisture with blandness. Matt Stone argues steam is about control, flavour and nerve.
Steam isn't the problem. Our kitchen folklore is.
Steam cooking myths keep home cooks stuck on soggy-broccoli panic. Matt Stone says the real story is moisture, crust and better control.
Matt Stone takes the fear out of steam
Steam cooking myths keep home cooks wary of soggy veg and bland fish. Matt Stone says the real mistake is fearing moisture instead of learning control.
What supermarket shortbread gets wrong when it forgets the butter
Supermarket shortbread turns waxy and strange once butter gives way to oils, starches and fancy tins, which is why the best biscuits still taste plain.
What Pizza Studio Tamaki says about Sydney
Pizza Studio Tamaki's Sydney debut is less about the line than a city chasing specific, high-low dining with an actual point of view.
Three bars opened on Tuesday. The saké one is the keeper.
Bar Kaeru, Bar Ferdinand, and The Florence all opened their doors on the same Tuesday night. Henry Macarthur visited all three — only one made him want to return before the week was out.
Sfogliatelle at 7am, Mussels at Midnight: Bar Bruno Is the All-Day Italian Diner Sydney Actually Needs
Odd Culture Group's Bar Bruno opens 21 May on York Street, serving pastries and Genovese coffee from dawn before shifting to handmade pasta, seafood, and negronis past midnight — a bet that the Sydney CBD still has room for a restaurant that never closes.
Mott 32 picks Crown Melbourne. I keep thinking about Lee Ho Fook.
Hong Kong-founded Mott 32, with its 42-day applewood duck and Michelin recognition, opens at Crown Melbourne in March 2027 as part of a $200m Riverwalk redevelopment. It will be magnificent, and I am still working out what it is for.
The cochinita pibil lands. You're already planning your return.
Papalote in Newcastle West does Mexican cooking that's personal rather than thematic: a brick pit, house-made tortillas, and a king prawn tostada worth a three-hour drive.
Last Course: Quay Closure and the Crisis in Australian Fine Dining
Quay held three Good Food Guide hats for 24 years before closing on Valentine’s Day this year. I spent a week talking to chefs, owners and regulars about whether haute cuisine in Australia has an expiry date.
What this year's Time Out awards say about how Australia is eating in 2026
Time Out's Food and Drink Awards landed Tuesday with the largest public vote it has ever run. The list, fifteen years deep, reads less like a leaderboard than a set of field notes from a quiet realignment in how Australian hospitality is operating in 2026.
Vivid Sydney 2026 Goes Big on Food — Inside the Barangaroo Fire Kitchen
Vivid's culinary program moves to Barangaroo Reserve this year with the Fire Kitchen as headline act, an Indigenous-led D&D experience and a long-table Pearls and Plates dinner. The full food guide to Vivid 2026.
The Lifestyle Desires brief
Style, food, travel and wellbeing — weekly in your inbox.
Subscribe