Editor's top picks for Brisbane Times Good Food Month

Queensland's most cracking food festival is back, folks. Brisbane Times Good Food Month presented by Citi is returning July 1-31 and this year's program is its greatest to date.

I'm not just saying that as editor of the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide either. Visit brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com and you'll see it's a program chock-a-block full of events engineered for people who like eating food (that is, everyone). Matt Moran, Luke Nguyen, and George Calombaris will be heating up the hotplates for proceedings, the Night Noodle Market is back and there's a ton of other events and dinners you can be a part of. Here are my top picks of the bunch. Happy eating, pals.

Gauge X Ides

Ask a Brisbane food fan where the most exciting place to eat is in town at the moment and there's a bloody good chance they'll say Gauge. They'll say it with a firm nod and a hunger in their eyes and that's because chefs Cormac Bradfield and Phil Marchant are serving high-voltage dishes that give a very large middle finger to the concept of 'cafe food' while still keeping deliciousness the top priority. (If you haven't tried Gauge's blood taco with bone marrow, mushroom and native thyme, stop reading this and edify yourself immediately).

Anyhow, the Gauge boys from Brisbane are teaming up with the Ides blokes from Melbourne for two nights and this is very exciting news. Former Attica sous chef and Ides main man, Peter Gunn, known for his risky, dynamic, multi-layered cooking will be on the pans at Gauge with Ides sous chef Zach Furst for a handful of eight-course dinners with super limited seat numbers. Expect top-notch wine matches of wild, natural, unfiltered grape juice and tickets to sell out ferociously quick.

WHERE Gauge, 77 Grey Street, South Brisbane WHEN July 25 and 26 COST $195 BOOKINGS eat@gaugebrisbane.com.au

David Thompson Nahm Pop-Up presented by Cathay Pacific

Hey ho, let's go. Australia's prodigal son of Thai cuisine is headed for Longtime and there's a good chance you have never experienced an explosion of flavour like David Thompson's cooking before. Unless you're lucky enough to have eaten at Nahm in Bangkok, in which case I apologise and you completely understand why Thompson's flagship venue sits at number 22 on the World's Best Restaurants list.

Longtime is a shorter pilgrimage for pad see ew than Bangkok and any fan of Thai food that snap, crackles and pops with freshness and fire needs to make this a must do on their khao calendar.

WHERE Longtime, 610 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley WHEN July 19 and 20 COST $200 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com

Momofuku Seiobo at GOMA

I had lunch at Momofuku Seiobo a couple of months ago and for the life of me I can't recall ever having as much fun in a restaurant, ever. Barbados-born Paul Carmichael is now on Seiobo's pass and rocking dishes threaded with Dave Chang's umami-drenched Momofuku DNA while still telling tales of Barbados and using native Australian ingredients. Plus, the Pavement and Beach Boys soundtrack is a cracker.

Carmichael and his crew will be joining Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016 Citi Chef of the Year, Josue Lopez, in the GOMA kitchen to serve six courses with matched booze and if the idea of this doesn't get you champing at the chompers, then I will think of you in my daily prayers to the gods of fried chicken and caviar.

WHERE GOMA, Stanley Place, South Brisbane WHEN July 13 COST $200 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com

Mark Best at Esquire

When Mark Best announced he would be closing his acclaimed Marque restaurant at the end of June, the hospitality world shed a tear. Best's influence on contemporary cooking in Australia is massive thanks to his harnessing of young talent and a penchant not for pushing the envelope, but scrunching it into a ball and pegging it at your head.

But, hey. Chin up, tiger. It's not like the bloke's dead. He's just doing other things. Things like this five-course dinner at Esquire where the chef and former electrician will be showcasing recipes from his new (and really quite terrific) cookbook Best Kitchen Basics. Head along and experience food from a legend who, as Myffy Rigby writes in the introduction to said new cookbook 'isn't just a taste-maker, he makes other people taste.'

WHERE Esquire, 145 Eagle Street, Brisbane WHEN July 14 COST $160 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com