Thanks to Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt for hosting Nuffnang’s first food blogger meetup, at their lovely Collins Kitchen restaurant. We were lucky enough to host 20 food bloggers at the dinner (thank you all for attending!)

Our friends in Sydney might dispute it, but we think the enthusiastic response (and sheer number of photos taken!) at last night’s meetup proved that Melbourne is the foodie capital of Australia. :)

We had predinner drinks at the elegant RU-CO bar, and then had a tour of the open kitchen in the Collins Kitchen restaurant.

The open kitchen layout in Collins Kitchen

The open kitchen layout in Collins Kitchen

Collins Kitchen

Collins Kitchen

The Executive Chef of Collins Kitchen (Jason) was kind enough to give us his own tour of the kitchen, and came out to our table to chat about the food and tell us a little about his own background (another South Australian foodie! yay!).

The Chefs tour of Collins Kitchen

The Chef's tour of Collins Kitchen

Once we were seated for dinner, there were two tables of ravenous food bloggers ready to eat!

Table 2 - More hungry bloggers!

Table 2 - More hungry bloggers!

Dinner consisted of course, after course, after course of delicious food, including sushi and sashimi plate, bruscetta and other antipasto dishes, amazing fish & Tbone steak grilled to perfection, Chinese style roast duck, chicken and pork with fried rice, and a selection of desserts including fruit sorbets, chocolate fondant and banana millefeuille.

We’re not expert food photographers like most of the people who were sitting around the table last night, so we will let them post the photos of the meal.

Reviews of the event

We’ll link to the posts as we see them – please leave a comment if you’ve got a post about the dinner you’d like us to link to!

Essjay Eats – “I’ve seen a bit of the “food station” action in Singapore 5 star hotels, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in Australia. I’m keen to return for breakfast /brunch to see the dimsum station in action, and to check out their omelettes.”

The Gourmet Challenge – “The scallops were so good, they looked like fat little pocket of joy, slightly grilled surface with a soft and yielding inside. I would have gladly had a full plate of them.”

Iron Chef Shellie – “I’m sure the kitchen staff were expecting us, but I’m not sure they were expecting 20 people with cameras snapping away like the Queen was in town!”

Food Rehab -”It felt like we were in Willi Wonka Land, only instead of candy, we were surrounded by hanging prosciutto, freshly made sashimi, cheese and what seemed like an endless mount of seafood!”

Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming) - “There was a moment of silence when this 800 grams of grain fed, dry aged for 30 days porterhouse steak was placed into of us. I felt like I was back in the Flintstone era.”

I Eat Therefore I Am – “The Patisserie Station smelt so good that I was inhaling all the smells and actually didn’t even take a photo. Such is my love for pastry.”

Half-Eaten – “Everyone got rather excited when the fresh wasabi from Tasmania was spotted. Apparently it’ll only set you back $180 a kilo!”

Mel: Hot or Not (Part 1 & Part 2) – “When your kitchen is open to the public, all your ingredients have to be presented in a visually appealing way. I think I might start styling my vegetables in a bamboo steamer and artfully placing mortar and pestles in my kitchen too.”

Thank you!

Big thanks to the Grand Hyatt for feeding us such a lovely meal, and to all the food bloggers who attended. :)

Next time?

We’re happy to say that our first foodie meetup went so well that we’re definitely planning on making this a regular event. And don’t worry Sydney, we’re already thinking about an event to do for the foodies over there too. :)