A very long lunch

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is in full swing and the riverbank outside the Crown complex was the perfect setting for this year?s World's Longest Lunch yesterday

For three hours we sat under the shade of the trees, wining and dining and enjoying a balmy afternoon by the river.

Corporates and clients, ladies who lunch, tourists who were in town at the right time and locals looking for some late summer fun filled the long line of tables that stretched for nearly half a kilometre along Crown Riverside.

While more than 1200 diners settled down to nibble on the appetisers - bread, baby bocconcini, tomatoes, cheese-stuffed peppers, artichoke hearts, olives ? wait staff dispensed local wines, fruit beverages, mineral water and beer. Then with well-orchestrated precision they set out the entrees. The antipasto plate was an artful arrangement of prosciutto, salami, perfect baked roma tomatoes, char-grilled vegetables, asparagus, marsala melons and shaved parmesan.

This certainly set the sunny tone for the meal.

The main course was grilled beef tenderloin with a fresh green Tuscan herb crust, served on succulent field mushroom. Almond broccolini and a delicious cannelloni bean salad accompanied.

The lunch guest next to me took the vegetarian options which look equally appetising.

Dessert was zuppa Inglese with dots of red Tuscan Alkermes liqueur, candied fruit, glazed cherries and an Amaretto biscuit topping the sponge cake.

As we sat in the dappled sunlight enjoying the fare, photographers snapped the action for posterity (and occasionally found themselves being snapped) and musicians strolled along the riverbank, taking up their position to serenade a few tables then moving along.

An occasional light puff of breeze off the river kept the temperature perfect and while some diners couldn?t resist the pull of the Blackberry initially, technology was eventually pocketed and the serious business of relaxing kicked in. The Longest Lunch stretched into a long afternoon?